Wofford vs. Furman (March 7th SoCon Quarterfinals 6pm)

[furpep]

Still have not won that big game. Worried about this game when I saw we played the winner of Wofford/Citadel. Lousy way to close out a nice season.

[Affirm]

This is honestly why it's going to be so hard to keep coaches like BR and others around the league for very long. Sure, making 5X your salary is probably more than enough to make you consider leaving, but winning 25 games in a year and not sniffing the NCAA tourney unless you win your conference tourney has got to be absolutely infuriating and disheartening and a big reason why many coaches make the move.

Are there possible solutions?
•$200,000 bonus to BR when he wins SoCon Tourney, increased by 10% whenever the same coach does it again any subsequent year?
•25% of the above for regular season championship; and also same amount added if SoCon Tourney runner-up?
•$100,000 bonus for each 1st round win in NCAA tourney, additional bonuses increased by $100,000 over previous tourney win bonus for each subsequent win in NCAA tourney, $500,000 if make Sweet Sixteen. If make Elite Eight, just say thank you, farewell, goodbye.
•75% of the above bullet if in NIT? Except making NIT final game gives a $500,000 bonus and winning NIT gives additional $600,000 bonus if he’s still our coach on August 1.
... If we had that plan, and if he were to win the SoCon Tourney this Monday and subsequently win 3 NCAA games, his bonuses for the year would total $1 million I think, perhaps a maximum of half that total for NIT wins.
Of course, along with those bonuses, I believe we’d also need to at least immediately double his salary - which we probably should do even if he wins “only” 2 games this weekend.

Obviously, all those bonus and raise thoughts can be put on hold, including those that referenced NIT.

[fufanatic]

Two offensive rebounds. Two.

[Paladin91]

Two offensive rebounds. Two.

Very sad stat. I didn't like the move to have Mounce come off the bench. He provides offense and is probably our best rebounder. Why not have Slawson as the 6th man? Mounce is too good not to start.

[BucDoctor]

Didn't get to see your game but officiating was questionable (did I say questionable, well maybe horrid is more descriptive) all day.

Saw Mercer shoot an uncontested airball that went out of bounds untouched. Referee called out of bounds on WCU, possession Mercer.

From an ETSU perspective the officiating took a nose dive last week. 42 fouls called in the ETSU/WCU game and no one was fouling intentionally to try to gain possession.

Strange to see worse officiating in a tournament, but that is the reality this year.

Yes, refs were bad, but that's part of the game. If you can't adjust to the tight calls, then you've already lost. We didn't lose because of the refs, we lost because we were a timid team in the first half. We had no desire to win the game and shoot with confidence. The only person who came to play for the Paladins today was Bothwell on offense.

I wasn't insinuating that Furman lost because of officiating, I indicated I didn't see the game. My point was that the officiating has changed, has become inconsistent in the last week or so and all teams seem to be having difficulty adjusting.

[purplehorse]

Still have not won that big game. Worried about this game when I saw we played the winner of Wofford/Citadel. Lousy way to close out a nice season.

Yep agreed. We never had that killer game. Best games I think were ETSU and UNCG. I still think ETSU and UNCG were slightly better this year. Maybe we will get a second chance in the NIT. Hate it for Lyons.

[hawg]

Woffy outplayed us and deserved to win. The officials were bad, but I have come to expect massive randomness when Billy Dunlap struts onto the court. Whoever the SoCon sends, we have to overcome that aspect. I cannot remember saying the refs cost us the game but one time, earlier this year, in a ladies game. I'm not adding this game to that very short list. What we needed most of all was to play better.

[apaladin]

We could have easily had a double digit lead at halftime if we could have made a few shots but we were tight as a drum. Then we pick the worst possible time to stop playing defense and give up the most points in a half all year in the second half. We had a very good year and Woffy didn’t but again they get the last laugh. I would rather be in their shoes than ours tonight as they have at least one more game to play and we don’t. Just don’t understand why we start shaking in our boots when we see WC. 40 years is a long long time. Again another year without FU being in the media frenzy that is the NCAA tourney. Disappointing and disheartening.

[FurmAlum]

We played like we were scared we might lose.
They played like they were there to win.

We tried to force it on offense with too much one on one, instead of working the ball, and trusting teammates. In other words we played like a bunch of freshmen for a lot of the night.
They played like a team that has been to the tournament before. They have 4 players that went to the second round of the NCAA last year and it showed.

They didn't play that great on offense for a lot of the game, but they hit their shots, especially at crunch time.
We played good on defense most of the game but we were over aggressive and committed some idiotic fouls. They moved their feet instead of reaching with their hands and played better defense than we did.

They had better shots and hit enough to win.

I don't think we can blame that loss on the Refs, but some of those touch fouls in the first 4 minutes of the second half were questionable. But I'm looking thru purple glasses. If there is a non-Furman fan on this board that has an impartial view, I would like to hear it. Did we get hosed by the Refs?

[fufanatic]

The refs did not cost us that game. Poor offense all game and second half defense did. We wouldn’t beat Wofford by 20 if we played them 100 times.

[purplehorse]

Two offensive rebounds. Two.

And 6 assists (with 5 by Hunter).

Just did not play well enough to win. Despite the smaller deficit in the first half, I think that is where we lost it.

If we had played good D in second half we would have won.

I remember after Wofford beat us in football our second chance (Austin Peay) went from bad to worse. Will be interesting to see what happens with similar scenario in bb.

[gofurman]

Woffy outplayed us and deserved to win. The officials were bad, but I have come to expect massive randomness when Billy Dunlap struts onto the court. Whoever the SoCon sends, we have to overcome that aspect. I cannot remember saying the refs cost us the game but one time, earlier this year, in a ladies game. I'm not adding this game to that very short list. What we needed most of all was to play better.

Hawg, great post. We need to start winning games that count. Tough to be in a one bid conference but theme the breaks - good teams find ways to win in March. Great year for us! Hope to watch us in NIT but damn I want us on the bracket NCAA as it gets you so much great PR !

[gofurman]

Why anyone on this board wanted to play Wofford is beyond me. I’ve had a bad feeling about this game for 2 weeks. No clue how we are going to turn it around. An utter disaster so far.

THIS. +1

[apaladin]

3 of the 4 worst first halves of the year came against WC. 18, 26, and 20. Has to be mental.

[Roundball]

Woffy outplayed us and deserved to win. The officials were bad, but I have come to expect massive randomness when Billy Dunlap struts onto the court. Whoever the SoCon sends, we have to overcome that aspect. I cannot remember saying the refs cost us the game but one time, earlier this year, in a ladies game. I'm not adding this game to that very short list. What we needed most of all was to play better.

Hawg, check out this bad call.