The Fallout

[apaladin]

The fallout after the abysmal performance tonight is much more than just one loss.
1. Our lofty national ranking has taken a huge hit. Right now, down 24 spots in the last week.
2. The very small chance to get an NCAA at large bid is now completely gone.
3. The chance of an NIT at large is now becoming real iffy if not gone.
4. Chances of winning the regular season and auto NIT bid is very minute.
5. We had a lot of local peeps thinking and saying FU is the best team in the state. Now gone and laughable.
6. A big hit to what was seemingly a growing fan base. No telling how many potential fans tonight cost us.
7. There could be no more damaging loss than to WC.
8. The national perception that FU is good took a damaging blow.
The rest of the season? It all depends on how the team reacts. If they make a total about face things could of course go better but here IMHO is my best guess:
My guess is we could finish from 3rd to 6th and at least avoid the play-in game;
Probable wins: Home: Sammy, VMI, Mercer, Citadel
Probable losses: at WCU, at ETSU, at UNCG, home: Wofford
Could go either way: at Citadel, at Sammy, Home: UTC
If the above is in the ballpark we would finish somewhere between 12-6 to 10-8 which would avoid the play-in game, which is what we need to shoot for now. Overall we would finish 23-9 to 21-11. Worst case would be 19-12. What's your prediction?

[Jasper]

You had me with the first sentence.

[DungeonRealm]

The fallout after the abysmal performance tonight is much more than just one loss.
1. Our lofty national ranking has taken a huge hit. Right now, down 24 spots in the last week.
2. The very small chance to get an NCAA at large bid is now completely gone.
3. The chance of an NIT at large is now becoming real iffy if not gone.
4. Chances of winning the regular season and auto NIT bid is very minute.
5. We had a lot of local peeps thinking and saying FU is the best team in the state. Now gone and laughable.
6. A big hit to what was seemingly a growing fan base. No telling how many potential fans tonight cost us.
7. There could be no more damaging loss than to WC.
8. The national perception that FU is good took a damaging blow.
The rest of the season? It all depends on how the team reacts. If they make a total about face things could of course go better but here IMHO is my best guess:
My guess is we could finish from 3rd to 6th and at least avoid the play-in game;
Probable wins: Home: Sammy, VMI, Mercer, Citadel
Probable losses: at WCU, at ETSU, at UNCG, home: Wofford
Could go either way: at Citadel, at Sammy, Home: UTC
If the above is in the ballpark we would finish somewhere between 12-6 to 10-8 which would avoid the play-in game, which is what we need to shoot for now. Overall we would finish 23-9 to 21-11. Worst case would be 19-12. What's your prediction?

I feel your pain man I really do, but screw all that

All that matters is the next game, this team needs to come out and show they are not SOFT, come out with our hair on fire next game! Show the dang fight and mental toughness needed to win this league, its in there I know it is, we just got to fire ourselves up from within and unleash it!! I mean truly unleash the hell out of it! Now is not the time to wimp out, now is the time to get nasty out there!

[FurmAlum]

Whoa apaladin. That's a little overly pessimistic. Yes, we had a bad game, but i don't think its time to throw in the towel. As far as the fan base goes, if someone doesn't want to be a fan cause we lose 1 game, then to heck with 'em.

I think the guys will bounce back.

[apaladin]

Maybe a little overreaction, lol. IThen again most of what I posted is true. I'm just so sick and tired of being Wofford's whipping boy I could chew nails. we have won only 9 times in the last 30 games. We started 3 big men tonight to their one and got dominated inside. I told my daughter that JL would have a bad game because of the spotlight but I wasn't expecting it to be that bad. They were very beatable tonight. We acted like we were over matched. They tried their best to get us back in the game and we responded by playing just as bad as they were. so disappointing. I do think FU needs to send a letter of apology to the SoCon office and to the other members for stinking it up and making the league look bad in its only espn game of the year.

[Roundball]

I am normally the one to always find the positive, but last night was an eye opener for me. I hate losing to Wofford. Hate it. Looking back, the trend has not been good for a few games. I think the other coaches have figured out how to defend us. It's going to be rough going with a rotation of just 7 players. We are not physical enough to compete with these some of these bigger and faster SoCon teams. Wofford was much quicker at every postion. Plus, besides Bothwell, do we have anyone that can hit a shot with 10 feet of the basket? Unless it's a 3 pointer or a dunk, we seem to struggle with our shots. Unless we turn the trend around, I see us finishing 6-5 for the rest of the season. I hope I am wrong. I will be there at every home game to find out.

[Fuonetime]

Unbelievable loss to Wofford. I thought that with the loss of WC’s top players (Magee, Jackson, Aluma); loss of their legendary coach with a new and first time HC (McAuley) and loss of their top recruit ( Cattoor) that the Paladins would easily prevail. No such luck. The last 3 games have revealed our inability to handle the press, contain a post player and anemic offense. With 4 returning starters this is a veteran team that should be playing much better. Instead we look tentative, methodical and predictable. Additionally the loss to WC on ESPN is a low to our prestige and demoralizes our fan base. It seems to me our coaches have got to do some serious tweaking of our offense, defense and player minutes. The only positive is BR’s resume took a hit and his chances of staying at FU increase. I’d much rather win and take our chances on his staying. We have some serious problems to fix and I hope we get it done and done quickly. Go Paladins!

[fufanatic]

If we can go 2-2 in games at Western, at ETSU, at UNCG and home vs Wofford I think we have a real shot at 24-7. But that’s just me. This team is better than they played last night. I am seriously concerned about the bench though. I know it’s been done before, but winning a tourney with only 7 guys seems daunting.

[soconjohn]

The loss is not good, however, talent isn't the issue...Defense is. That's all...If Furman shows up like they have the potential to--they'll be okay--...11 games left in conference play and people jumping off the deep end a half-game out of first...Unreal.

[tim]

In case anybody wants to see Storm Murphy abusing two Furman defenders like they are standing still, its being replayed over ESPN now

[MidlandsPaladin]

We ain’t gonna win too many games 55-50. I’m more concerned about our recent poor shooting. We shot 2-14 from behind the arc in the first half against Wofford after shooting 1-11 to open the second half against Chattanooga. If the threes aren’t falling we don’t appear to have a second option. I had flashbacks to the JJ era last night watching our offensive philosophy of dribble around the perimeter to drain the shot clock, then throw it up and pray.

[Jasper]

The loss is not good, however, talent isn't the issue...Defense is. That's all...If Furman shows up like they have the potential to--they'll be okay--...11 games left in conference play and people jumping off the deep end a half-game out of first...Unreal.

Defense is certainly not the issue when you score 52 points in a game.

[apaladin]

We ain’t gonna win too many games 55-50. I’m more concerned about our recent poor shooting. We shot 2-14 from behind the arc in the first half against Wofford after shooting 1-11 to open the second half against Chattanooga. If the threes aren’t falling we don’t appear to have a second option. I had flashbacks to the JJ era last night watching our offensive philosophy of dribble around the perimeter to drain the shot clock, then throw it up and pray.

Good point we become very disjointed when we don't get up a quick shot. We are not good when we start standing around passing the ball around. Did we have any fast break points last noght?

[apaladin]

We ain’t gonna win too many games 55-50. I’m more concerned about our recent poor shooting. We shot 2-14 from behind the arc in the first half against Wofford after shooting 1-11 to open the second half against Chattanooga. If the threes aren’t falling we don’t appear to have a second option. I had flashbacks to the JJ era last night watching our offensive philosophy of dribble around the perimeter to drain the shot clock, then throw it up and pray.

Good point we become very disjointed when we don't get up a shot in the first 10-15 sseconds. We are not good when we start standing around passing the ball around. Did we have any fast break points last noght?

[soconjohn]

Defense creates offense...Here are some numbers...Western's Dotson and Wofford's Goodwin were 15-of-17 for 33 points in consecutive halves vs Furman...You're not going to shoot well every night, but you'd better danged defend...Here's another...Furman has forced 33 turnovers for 33 points in the last three games...Opponents have forced 38 for 41 points over the past three games...Furman is not getting it done defensively.