Admittedly, I despise Bill Simmons. But I digress.Monday wrote: ↑Thu Feb 08, 2024 5:51 amBill Simmons refers to great teams having 'alpha dogs,' those guys who have the intensity and leadership to drag a team to a win. Past Richey teams have all had an alpha dog (Rafferty, Lyons, etc), none of whom, incidentally, were recruited when Richey was in command. Pegues can hit the game winner, but where is he the rest of the game? Foster is putting up the stats ,but, to paraphrase CBR, even bad teams have 20pt scorers.
If we had an alpha dog, a player that will hold others accountable and get in peoples' faces, then we are easily over .500. Heck, we're contenders.
When we look back on this team no one player will really stand out. That is the biggest problem and it's not an in-season fix.
Are they all red hot as you say or are they un-guarded. I watched the Langly kid pour 3 pointers in on us the other day simply because we had no one near him to challenge the shots. Is that a lack of effort by the players or just a poor defensive scheme by the coaches? We double team the ball a lot without any dramatic results and a good passing team knows to take advantage of that by hitting the open man.tim wrote: ↑Thu Feb 08, 2024 8:00 amThe coach has said things over the year, at one point he said the team didn't trust the offense. He says sometimes they don't play connected. There seems to be a focus on not taking the close in elbow shots because they are low percentage and we can't get suckered into those. Seems to me Mercer made a living on short pull ups last night. It's Furman that can't hit the easy ones. He says we aren't guarding. Agreed. I don't see a lack of effort, I see a deer in the headlight look or expression against teams that seem to be red hot every night.
Paladin91 wrote: ↑Wed Feb 07, 2024 11:12 pmI’m not suggesting anyone else, with the exception of staff. Improving our defense should be the #1 priority. We sometimes have difficulty playing man. Perhaps we need to change up the D some, or at least apply more half court pressure similar to Samford. Another quality big man will have to wait until next year, assuming we can get one in the portal. However, sometimes I think CBR believes we can get far without an inside presence. So I wonder if that is really that important to him. Time will tell.
I certainly agree that the defense is a big problem but I see recent recruiting as a much larger problem - whether that be thru the portal or usual HS venues. We've had a couple of 6'10" guys go thru here without making any impact. Pegues is a good player but is inconsistent. We have no idea if the freshmen can play a lick. I dont know if the revered Slawson and Bothwell were Richey recruits even. They came to FU in 2018 which means they were recruited in 2017 and Nikko was coach then. Doesn't really matter. What does is that we have had some very good players go thru Furman over the last decade. Just not enough of them on one team until last year's extra year players gave us the quality and depth needed to succeed. The role players from last year are now being asked to step up and they simply cant on a consistent basis. We expected more from them than they are capable of giving. Perhaps the same is true of the staff.
See my post 5 back.fu77fan wrote: ↑Thu Feb 08, 2024 7:28 pmThere is a lot of negativity about the game, which I believe is well deserved. I agree with CBR…. an unacceptable and uninspiring effort.
For the life of me I cannot understand how other teams get uncontested layups, time and time and time again . Case in point- the last shot of the first half. Surely,we can put out more effort!!!!!
Jasper, It is hard for us FU fans to admit but I think you are correct. We had 2 players last year like we have not had in maybe forever and may never see again. We were fooled last year because those 2 players made everyone else look good. I am just glad we had that one special year after so so many years. I really think us FU fans deserved last year. I tthink we were way too optimistic that last last year would be the new norm and CBR would just keep it going since we had 7 of the top 9 coming back. Then we heard all the hype how great practice was going and how good we were going to be. Then a 20+ point win over Belmont and expectations soared higher. The MB tournament should have been a sign. The fact is this is a team that is much better at home than on the road. Good teams can play anywhere. I agree that unless things change the future does not look bright.Jasper wrote: ↑Wed Feb 07, 2024 9:48 pmLooks to me like a reality check is in order for all Furman hoops fans. We are simply not a good team. We are mired in the middle of the SoCon and trending lower. The fact is that are players are not regressing from last year at all. They were made better by the presence of Slawson and Bothwell who were outstanding players in their extra college year. Teams focused on them and made some of the others look better than they are. Not their fault. They are what they are. We have not recruited very well in the last few years and that is showing. The coach is not a miracle worker who is building a strong program to compete for the league championship and beyond. Last year was great fun but it was unfortunately an outlier. The future is not looking promising at this moment either. College basketball is changing dramatically right now and we need to figure it out if dreams of relevance are to be pursued. I ‘d stop watching what Dabo is doing and pay attention to what Clay Hendrix is doing. His combination of bringing in several transfers/grad students in key positions plus recruiting college level ready freshmen has made Furman a legitimate national presence in the last two years with a bright future as well. Right now our football program appears light years ahead of basketball.
