#1 Furman vs. #4 WCU (March 5th 4pm SoCon Semifinals)

[furpop16]

Highly emotional finish. Now we gotta settle down. I know I'm completely spent. The good news is Coach Johnson says the staff "never had a doubt."

[saltyshaker]

for it to be a choke it needs to be a loss.this team does not quit.

[Sad Din]

Highly emotional finish. Now we gotta settle down. I know I'm completely spent. The good news is Coach Johnson says the staff "never had a doubt."

SD's stomach feels like its been in a hurricane at sea!

[El Guapo]

That was a gutsy win. Should it have been close? No, but this is basketball. Anything can and does happen. The teams of championship caliber are the ones who can take a series of bad breaks and self inflicted wounds and still prevail. Mike Bothwell is the epitome of being the heart and soul of a team. Congratulations to him and his ability to Will us to victory. I cannot wait for tomorrow night. Go Paladins!

[FU3]

Pfeeeeew….Some really good D at the very end of regulation and OT saved us. They didn’t quit and hung together just long enough to get the win. Whatever happens tomorrow I think this is a great group of young men who have been outstanding representatives of FU.

[apaladin]

Let’s just all be thankful we are playing tomorrow when we could easily be done. Still the game should never have been close. It looked like we started resting up for tomorrow night at about the 10 minute mark. Whew!

[furpop16]

Basically played 4 on 5 today. No need to name the one no show.

Despite his goose-egg the coaches on post-game really chatted-up Foster. His defensive efforts were key to stopping the bleeding.

[gofurman]

Anyone that says we now have the easier path is only looking at the number of the bid beside each time, but at least this guy us covering the tournament, and that is appreciated. Playing WCU is certainly not on the easy path. There is no easier path to the SoCon Championship. The tournament is wide open for any of the four teams to win.

When the best team left is 18-14, that’s about as easy a final 4 as you can ever hope for. Relax. This is finally the year.

This did NOT age well. Never. Ever think it’s time to relax

NEVER. NEVER. EVER. Good grief.

[Jasper]

Basically played 4 on 5 today. No need to name the one no show.

Despite his goose-egg the coaches on post-game really chatted-up Foster. His defensive efforts were key to stopping the bleeding.

Except for the fact that one of the reasons we were bleeding is that he and the bench went 0 for the game from the field. That is not acceptable.

[Paladin91]

We can all be critical of the team and coach but they played their butts off to the end. Foster really stepped up on D with Slawson out.
So one of the issues I had today is when we were up by 20, I think Russell Jones had 4 fouls and Claude had 3 or 4 fouls, and we didn’t waste the clock and go inside to get these guys to foul out. Instead, we took early 3s with tons of time on the clock. Just not great clock management. We were e shooting like 20 l% from 3 in second half.

[The Jackal]

Good on the boys. They worked their butts off to get the win tonight.

We expect WCU wasn't going to go down without a fight, and they delivered. No one really expected this to be a blowout, so the early margin was surprising. In the end, we got the game we thought we might.

[FurmAlum]

That was a gutsy win and it took me about 30 minutes to calm down after the game.

It just seemed like there was a lid on the basket in the second half and no shots would go in until Both hit that big 3. Our shot selection was very poor especially the last 12 minutes. But credit WCU. They played some lockdown D in the second half and we just couldn't get any decent shots.

I have been watching basketball since the mid 1960's and it always amazes me how fast things can change. The "favored" team often shoots poorly and championship teams find a way to win anyway.

Coach R needs to get those guys to relax and shoot the ball with reckless abandon. And I don't mean taking ill advised shots. We used to call it "losing yourself in the game". But I've never been able to figure it out either.

This team has a lot of experience and a lot of heart. I like our chances tomorrow night.

[Davemeister]

There's a lot that could be said about today's game - good & bad - but the only thing that matters is that we are playing for the SoCon Tournament Championship tomorrow night.

Go Dins!!!!!!!

[furpop16]

That was a gutsy win and it took me about 30 minutes to calm down after the game.

It’s been nearly 2 hours since your post - and 2 glasses of Pinot Noir for me - and I’m still rattled. Go ‘Dins !!

[apaladin]

We can all be critical of the team and coach but they played their butts off to the end. Foster really stepped up on D with Slawson out.
So one of the issues I had today is when we were up by 20, I think Russell Jones had 4 fouls and Claude had 3 or 4 fouls, and we didn’t waste the clock and go inside to get these guys to foul out. Instead, we took early 3s with tons of time on the clock. Just not great clock management. We were e shooting like 20 l% from 3 in second half.

Actually we shot ZERO percent from 3 in the second half(0-11) and then 1-4 in OT, 1-15. Missed 16 free throws, which has to be a season high, shot 39% for the game and 22% from 3. Only had 4 players make baskets and still survived. I don’t know how but we did.