Mercer @ Furman Jan. 3rd

[CharlieFU]

Bob “The Whiner” Hoffman in fine form. Talks to refs NON STOP.

GURLEY got a T for saying something to Mercer bench. Did same thing in USC Upstate game. But don’t think he got a T.

Mounce only 4 points but 10 boards. Rafferty with a double double.

Currently trying to blow a huge lead.

[DungeonRealm]

Nice win to get some momentum back

[purplehorse]

I thought Mercer looked terrible. Usually I am a pretty good judge about the quality of a team so maybe I am missing something. They certainly could not shoot the 3 and did not have a real “big man” unlike LSU and ETSU.

I think we will have to play better Saturday than we did tonight to beat the Citadel.

[Paul C]

Mercer plays “ugly” so it’s easy to underestimate them. That being said this was the least impressive Mercer team I’ve seen in years.

And yes, to beat Cit we’ll have to cut down on some of the sloppy offensive play and improve our ball security.

Didn’t feel like we played very well but still won be 13 after having a 19 point 2nd H lead and never trailing.

[furman88]

Ragged low energy game. Mercer is a bad team shoulda beat theses guys by 30. Will have to step up our game to be competive in conference play. Mercer was collasping 2 or 3 guys on Rafferty inside. We shoulda been able to make them pay for that. Just never got in a flow on offense. We miss some threes and it coulda been trouble.

On the positive side, good hands on defense and was a conference win. Now put a beatdown on the Citadel 3 pt attack.

[apaladin]

I thought Mercer looked terrible. Usually I am a pretty good judge about the quality of a team so maybe I am missing something. They certainly could not shoot the 3 and did not have a real “big man” unlike LSU and ETSU.

I think we will have to play better Saturday than we did tonight to beat the Citadel.

Agree about Mercer. They kept begging us to blow them out. We came close couple of times but never could. We started the second half with a 9 point lead and it took Mercer 4 minutes to score but when they did it was still a 9 point lead. With a 19 point lead we sort of fell apart for about 3 mins and let them back in the game when it should have been over and they cut it to 6. Thought we played hard, we just need to get a few more shots to fall. Good to get the win. Will need to play much better against Citadel on Saturday. In their game against WC they shot 34 % from 3 and WC shot 67% for the game and 58% from 3. Every starter for WC scored at least 14. We all know Citadel will shoot much better Saturday.

[The Jackal]

I love that Furman has made it to the stage in our program where we can win by 13 at home to move to 13-2 and the fans are concerned that we didn't look very good.

6 straight against Mercer is pretty impressive.

[Paul C]

Just a reminder. This Mercer team lost to NC St by 4 and lost to Fla by 8.

Beating them by 13 is ok.

[tya1]

Mercer was able to slow the game to the pace they wanted much of the time and we helped them by missing too many open threes but I thought we played a good defensive game and covered their three point shooters very well. They barely hit 21% of their three point shots - well under their season average.

Our shooting was on line with our averages but turnovers were disappointing, especially when they went to their trapping press after they went down 19. We should have attacked it better. All in all a solid win.

Mercer is a bad team shoulda beat theses guys by 30. Will have to step up our game to be competive in conference play. Mercer was collasping 2 or 3 guys on Rafferty inside. We shoulda been able to make them pay for that. Just never got in a flow on offense. We miss some threes and it coulda been trouble.

Hard to beat a team by 30 when they are trying to slow it down as much as Mercer does. Pomeroy, Sagarin, Massey and other ratings have Mercer as a middle of the pack team in D1. A 13 point win is a solid margin for this matchup. Most of the predictions I saw before the game were in the 6-10 point margin range. Second biggest margin of defeat by Mercer this year. I'm not greedy.

[purplehorse]

Surprised Jaylen did not play at all tonight.

[apaladin]

Surprised Jaylen did not play at all tonight.

Looks like CBR has settled into his 8 man rotation which he likes. JW and others will just have to wait for the opportunity.

[CharlieFU]

Jonathan Jean in the house last night.

Both Daniel Fowler and Geoff Beans’ parents were there.

[fufanatic]

I do not want to be too critical when the team is 13-2 and just won a big conference game at home by double figures, but at some point missing free throws will come back to haunt us in a big game. It's still early, but the Paladins sit 8th of 10 teams in free throw percentage. And it's not just one guy like last year missing a majority of the FTs. Hopefully they can keep improving in that area. On the bright side, the team is in the top half of the league in 15 of the 21 major categories listed on the SoCon website, including leading the league in blocks and steals per game and placing second in assists per game. Only other real concern from a stats perspective is 3-pt FG pct defense. Sit 8th of 10. However, we are 5th in fewest 3-pointers allowed and 6th in 3-point attempts allowed, so the percentage is skewed a little bit. Of course all that will change after The Citadel game.

Rafferty should be a strong contender for SoCon Player of the Year ... 6th in scoring, tied for 2nd in rebounds, 1st in FG%, 3rd in assists, 3rd in steals, 3rd in blocked shots, tied for 2nd in minutes played. Pretty stunning stuff.

Overall, very happy with where we are at. Gotta keep holding serve at home, win the games we are favored in on the road and hopefully pick off a game on the road between Wofford, UNCG and Samford (who is quietly looking pretty solid).

[CharlieFU]

I think I heard Coach Richey say that Rafferty and his class (Andrew Brown) would end up winning more games in their tenure than any other class in our history.

Impressive. (yes, we play more games now than in distant past, but this class will have won 19 games, 23 games, 23 games and then...this year?)

[furpep]

And ugly and chippy game. 2nd time I have seen these officials and I am not overly impressed. Looked like they tried to take out Alex Hunter. #0 for Mercer hit him with a knee in the groin and then about 2 minutes later they took him out on a drive to the basket that was exactly in front of me and which was a way harder foul than needed to be done.
Thought Matt looked stiff and unable to get into the flow of the game until the 2nd half. Good for Noah giving it right back to their coach - who easily could have gotten a T a few times . I like Clay but he doesn't show up a lot some nights. Started hot on defense and then there were a issues all night. We need to work on the press since we looked awful and were lucky there were no more turnovers.
Thought Bothwell deserved more playing time and do not understand why Slawson is not in rotation. Plus when teams bring in their big centers it is Jalen time. They were really drawing fouls and put our starters at a disadvantage - Jalen has 5 fouls to give and can easily push back. We are 13-2 and still need to work on things.
But who among us that we would be 13-2 at this point. So a W is a good thing but we need to get back on track.