The Unofficial Furman Football Page

We have potential. On a given day we can beat anyone in the Southern Conference. On a given day we can lose to anyone in the Southern Conference.

At UNC, Duke etc. players are usually consistent every night. At FU players often score 20 plus points one night and zero the next.

We are getting our brains beat out on the boards. We need to recruit a big man or two.

We need to shoot better and play better defense.

We are obviously going to live or die by the 3 this season.

Need to win all our home games.

Kudos to Rafferty.

We basically have one player you can count on every night, Matt Rafferty.

apaladin wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 29, 2018 6:13 pm

We basically have one player you can count on every night, Matt Rafferty.

Bingo! You are exactly right!

Glad Rafferty finally took two 3’s and made one of them. Last year he hit quite a few 3’s from the top of the key but this year is pretty much just driving to the hoop.

Lots of basketball to play but right now it looks like WC is the best in the league. They beat ETSU almost as bad as ETSU beat us. They also beat WCU by 20 today at Western when we beat them by 2 in double OT at home. FWIW this is how I would rate the SoCon today:
1. Wofford
2. ETSU
3. UNCG
4. Samford
5. Furman
6. Citadel
7. Mercer
8. VMI
9. WCU

The inconsistentcy is largely by younger players. Mounce and Gurley in particular. That’s not too surprising really.

By the way, we don’t win Etsu game even if we shoot well.

Rebounds were not the problem. Numbers skewed because we missed so many shots. Better to look at rebound percentage

Ex off reb% =off rebound / ( off rebounds+ opponent def rebounds)

FU offensive rebound % 22 while ETSU 25%

FU defensive rebound % 75% While ETSU 77%

Basically even.

Losing at ETSU is not the end of the world.
The key for us as well as most teams in the conference is to win at home !!

I think the whole team is in a little funk. This same team took a good Nova team to OT and WON! Keep the faith. No other socon team has a marquee win and it sucks because it would have really helped our case for a 2 bid league. Too bad Wofford couldn’t take advantage of their schedule and actually win a big one this season.

Speaking of WC, their fan forum thread is hilarious. There is a guy “woffordgrad94” and “young terrier” who are extremely sensitive to what Furman fans say. It’s like they talk about us more than themselves. They really do act like our annoying little brother.

Socon will be difficult but I see us winning at home often and maybe grabbing a few Ws in the big away games. Good thing we are only 1 game back.

The concern is not losing but not being competitive.

CharlieFU wrote:The inconsistentcy is largely by younger players. Mounce and Gurley in particular. That’s not too surprising really.

By the way, we don’t win Etsu game even if we shoot well.

Lyons (junior) and even Brown (senior) have been somewhat inconsistent. We are largely going to live or die based on our 3 point shooting. We are not going to outrebound many folks.

This team is a “on a given night team”. Had more consistency last year with Beans, JD3, Sibley and Fowler as a whole.

Still optimistic!

IMHO Gurley should be starting. He was really starting to play well when he went to the bench. Brown is a senior and is more capable of coming off the bench and being productive than Gurley. With Gurley we start 6'8, 6'8 and 6'7 across the front.

apaladin wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 29, 2018 10:36 pm

IMHO Gurley should be starting. He was really starting to play well when he went to the bench. Brown is a senior and is more capable of coming off the bench and being productive than Gurley. With Gurley we start 6'8, 6'8 and 6'7 across the front.

Yeah, those little benching issues tend to disrupt chemistry.

BTW Gardner-Webb beat Wake Forest today so they now have 2 ACC wins. Probably the worst 2 ACC teams so kudos to the schedule maker at GWU.

Yes, 100% Gurley should still be starting

purplehorse wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 29, 2018 5:54 pm

We have potential. On a given day we can beat anyone in the Southern Conference. On a given day we can lose to anyone in the Southern Conference.

At UNC, Duke etc. players are usually consistent every night. At FU players often score 20 plus points one night and zero the next.

We are getting our brains beat out on the boards. We need to recruit a big man or two.

We need to shoot better and play better defense.

We are obviously going to live or die by the 3 this season.

Need to win all our home games.

Kudos to Rafferty.

I've been saying for some time now that we need to pick up a solid big man transfer. Gurley needs to be starting. Rafferty shows up every night. Beyond that, we're not getting a lot of consistency - we are a streaky shooting team - either hot or not. Lyons needs to up his game.