GOALS ARE VERY CLEAR NOW

[apaladin]

Out of conference season has been less than we hoped for to say the least. The loss of Garrison and Hunter is becoming magnified every game as I feared. We have 6 wins, none of which we can write home about. 2 bad losses. 4 ooc games left, one sure win, one sure loss and 2 tossups. Best case scenario is 9-4. That leaves us with 2 options if postseason is to be achieved.
1. Win the SoCon regular season for an NIT bid.
2. Win the SoCon tourney for an NCAA bid.
All other options(at large bids) are now off the table. Probably was the case before the season started but expectations and unwarranted high rankings provided some hope. After 9 games, 4-3 against D1 I do not think we can now be considered the favorites. Samford is prolly the favorite with WC and Chattanooga both of whom seem to be improving as contenders along with FU, You can never count out UNCG.

[fu77fan]

I never bought into the hoopla that we were going to only have 1 or two losses this season and dominate. At the moment, we could literally lose to anyone on a given night. Likewise , we could win all of the remaining games on our schedule. I think what we are really missing is quality 3 point shooting. We need a Jordan Lyons …… someone shooting 3’s expecting them to go in , not hoping that they will go in .

Can we win the regular season ? Certainly. But certainly it is not a given.
Can we win the So Con tournament? Certainly, but again not a given .

We certainly will need to improve in order to win the regular season and/or the tournament.

Go Dins

[apaladin]

Good point about the 3 point shooting. Regardless who is shooting the 3 it looks like they are hoping it goes in not expecting it to. Our 3 point guards need to really pick it up. Currently they are the 3 worst shooters on the team,

[purplehorse123]

As seems to frequently be the case, on a given night we can beat anybody or lose to anybody. CBR in pre-game interview tonight talked about how “scary good” we could be. He is the expert-it is hard for me to see.

Well so far according to him our D has been terrible. Based on my observation our 3 point shooters are largely inconsistent (swish followed by a brick or even an air-ball). You knock down 3’s one night and the next night make no 3-point shots. Just very inconsistent.

And as is often the case we have no dominant inside game at all. I miss Rafferty. Sure at times we get inside shots but very few real easy baskets inside. Our offense just doesn’t appear real smooth.

And so far no go-to guy except Bothwell who has made mistakes but has had a solid year with improved 3-point shooting.

The potential is there but the question is will it ever become fulfilled? It is time for the team to become CONSISTENTLY BETTER!

I wish Lawrence would play a little more.

[purplehorse123]

This part of the season is all about getting ready for conference play.

I would like to beat the Wolfpack however.

[Furmanoid]

I never bought into the hoopla that we were going to only have 1 or two losses this season and dominate. At the moment, we could literally lose to anyone on a given night. Likewise , we could win all of the remaining games on our schedule. I think what we are really missing is quality 3 point shooting. We need a Jordan Lyons …… someone shooting 3’s expecting them to go in , not hoping that they will go in .

Can we win the regular season ? Certainly. But certainly it is not a given.
Can we win the So Con tournament? Certainly, but again not a given .

We certainly will need to improve in order to win the regular season and/or the tournament.

Go Dins

OK, I was the 1 or two loss guy. A few weeks before that I was one of those who wondered if losing Hunter and Garrison was going to really hurt us. But I was scolded and reminded that we’d be just fine because we had so many proven, top notch 3 point shooters waiting to play more. OK so looking at the schedule, and then switching to the majority opinion about graduations not hurting us, I figured with any luck at all we could keep it to 1 or 2 losses because the SoCon isn’t all that hot and seems like it’s getting worse. If this team is better than last year, there shouldn’t be any conference losses. I thought a team better than last year’s team would at least split the NC State and Penn State games. Nobody else on the schedule looked all that good. So that’s my defense.

Those graduations do seem to be hurting us. Have no fear. Soon we’ll be playing Citadel, WCU, VMI, etc and we’ll be marveling over our improvement.

[FU Hoopla]

I said before the season I will be happy with anything 20 or more wins as long as one of those wins is on March 6th, Ill stand by that


Gotta start grinding on the defensive end if that's going to happen!

[FU Hoopla]

One silver lining, SoCon basketball is down, presents a better opportunity for us

[tim]

Problems at woffy, McCauley is prolly out mid season, Glover is hurt at Sammy, socon regular season still doable. If something is working in the future though like full court pressure should stay in it

[FU Hoopla]

Wonder how long Wofftard will take to make decision on Jay McAuley, doubt they will leave it to simmer for long

[apaladin]

I said before the season I will be happy with anything 20 or more wins as long as one of those wins is on March 6th, Ill stand by that


Gotta start grinding on the defensive end if that's going to happen!

You know what has been going thru my mind ever since March of last year. It is 42 years and counting and I could see years down the road those that are still living saying “it’s been x years since Furman has been in the tourney, but we were one second away back in ‘22”. I can really see that miracle shot haunting FU fans for years to come.

[FU Hoopla]

I said before the season I will be happy with anything 20 or more wins as long as one of those wins is on March 6th, Ill stand by that


Gotta start grinding on the defensive end if that's going to happen!

You know what has been going thru my mind ever since March of last year. It is 42 years and counting and I could see years down the road those that are still living saying “it’s been x years since Furman has been in the tourney, but we were one second away back in ‘22”. I can really see that miracle shot haunting FU fans for years to come.

No man, we are freaking doing it this season, no exceptions

[Davemeister]

There is no connection between the High Point game and the Tourney. Our goals are no different now they they were at the beginning of the season. Go 'Dins!

[Furmanoid]

There is no connection between the High Point game and the Tourney. Our goals are no different now they they were at the beginning of the season. Go 'Dins!

That particular loss isn't a big deal by itself, but had we lost only 1 or two in the OOC season, we would have had a shot at an at large. That chance is slipping away. So its all about the tourney now. If I were coach, I would probably consider the Popovich approach: giving stars lots of rest so that nobody's hurt and everybody is fresh in March. If we have to work too hard to win the regular season, it probably isn't worth it.

[apaladin]

One silver lining, SoCon basketball is down, presents a better opportunity for us

To counter that so far FU has not been as advertised. Sammy, UTC, UNCG and even WC could win the regular season. It will not be easy by any stretch of the imagination,