(12-9) Samford @ (16-4) Furman Jan. 26th

[Monday]

Moving on...

[apaladin]

Moving on...

Yep, hopefully we can win enough in the second half to finish at least 4 or 5th. Doesn't matter which one. Anything less than 5th will not only be a disappointment but make the tournament a huge mountain to climb. Sammy seems to really be playing well now and I think they could finish 4th or 5th and give us 3 tough games in a row anyway so it probably doesn't matter. Anything less than 6th of course means 4 games instead of 3.

[CharlieFU]

Drowning my sorrows at Waffle House. Alone. My wife made me drop her off at home. I’m not very good company anyway.

Let’s hope the Tre Clark as back up point guard experiment is back on the shelf.

Can you believe we get 3 more years to watch Noah Gurley? Wow. Clay had a quiet but good night.

Hurt by foul trouble with Hunter and Clark. Not sure what to say about the last 4 minutes. Ouch. But I know this: it doesn’t mean we are not a good team. And doesn’t mean we can’t still have a very good finish. A real challenge though. We finish first half of SoCon at 5-4. We need to win 6 of 9 in this next round, to finish 11-7.

I love Furman basketball. The last 5 years we have gone from expecting to lose to expecting to win. That is huge. Hoping we can take that next step up.

Finally, someone said one or two are getting minutes when they shouldn’t. How would you change the line up? What players ought to be playing more and who plays less? Just curious.

Now leave me alone while I finish my hash browns.

Tre Clark is in for defense. Shot has improved but still needs to keep working on shooting including free throws. When he dribbles, including going to the basket, he seems like he is an accident waiting to happen. Hopefully he will improve. Gurley and Lyons are also at times sloppy with the ball-their dribbling.

Clark is vastly improved and has been important part of our success. Just not sure ball handling is his strength especially when defended so aggressively.

[apaladin]

I really feel for JL. He had a nightmare finish to the game I would not wish on a WC player. Well maybe. Tre Clark needs to play his way out of his slump. Clempson may have topped the FU choke today. They were up 6 points with 26 seconds left against NC State and got outscored 8-0 to end the game with NC State winning 69-67. The same player from CU(a good shooter) missed 4 free throws in a row the last 26 seconds. NC State won on a 30 foot buzzer beater. Meanwhile the trains of WC, UNCG and ETSU just keep on rollin'. All had easy wins today.

FWIW-our last basket came with 4:20 left(MR). Only 2 MR Ft's the last 4:20.

Thought another key factor in the first half was Hunter having to sit the last 7 minutes. Very unusual for him to get in foul trouble. Thought MR did a great job keeping their 7 footer in foul trouble and on the bench.

[Affirm]

Clemson was playing the #21 team, at that team’s arena. Clemson is having a worse-than-expected year.
Clemson has lost 9 of last 14, including 6 losses in a row,
I will not be surprised if they let Brownell go.by 6 weeks from now and look for a new coach. But I won’t be surpried if he wins a few games and he stays.
Yeah, they choked, but Furman has nothing over Clemson today in that regard.

[fufanatic]

I’ve praised Lyons endlessly this year. The 54-point night was magical. He’s had clutch moments and has a lot of guts. Glad he plays for us. But I wonder if he’s trying too hard and putting too much pressure on himself? Made a ton of mistakes over last month or so. Stepping out of bounds, bad passes, dribbling off foot multiple times. And shooting percentage is really rough. Too many 3-for-10 type of nights recently. When he’s on, he is unbelievable. Just need him to be on more down the stretch.

[fu77fan]

We clearly snatched defeat from the jaws of victory today.
Lots of mistakes. A tough loss for sure.
Hoping we will put it behind us, benefit and learn from the self inflicted pain, and finish strong.

Go Furman

[apaladin]

I guess we will have to wait and see how the team responds to this needless loss. Many times you have seen teams let a tough loss beat them twice or even more. A recent one is when FSU had Duke beat and let it get away. The next game they lost to Boston College. Hopefully this team will respond positively. We will find out Thursday.

[MNORM]

Wake up call.

Beat the Bellhops!

[Fuonetime]

First off, congratulations to Coach Padgett and the Mocs on their victory. Coming off their OT loss to WC with a losing Socon record, starting 5 Sophs against a 4 loss FU team you would think they would be a a close if not easy victory. Not so. We never looked really good until we took the big lead with a few minutes left and then the bottom fell out. Turnovers, missed shots and missed assignments doomed us. Coach BR has some serious concerns in working on execution, confidence and the right player combos. For FU it’s all about the conference tourney and the conference is so tough it’s anybody’s guess what happens. MR is our MVP and most consistent player.

[Jasper]

This was truly a brutal loss - a total collapse over the last 4 mins. + by both players and coaching staff. Missed the last 7 shots from the field - were outscored 14-2 in the final minutes and the 2 came from free throws on a "make up" flagrant foul called by a horrible officiating crew. We witnessed a nightmare of defensive lapses, failure to get the ball over the 10 second line, poor shot selection, missed layups & foul shots, awful turnovers, etc. that culminated in stepping out of bounds with only seconds left on the clock with a 1 point lead that gave Samford the chance for the winning shot. Scott Padgett & Josh Sharkey stole a game they should have lost.
I hope this debacle does not turn out to define what heretofore has been a fun season that also brought some name recognition following a couple of early season wins over last year's "big name" teams. The enthusiasm and larger crowds have been great. The players and coaches need to do some regrouping in order to finish the regular season strong and get ready for the all important tournament. The overall talent level of this team is much better than what was displayed last night but IMO should have some utilization changes in order to make some real noise in Asheville.

[fufanatic]

To make everyone feel slightly better, go find the highlights from the Old Dominion - UTSA game yesterday. ODU was up 17 with four minutes to go on the road, and lost...the highlights are pretty stunning.

Also the refs in our game should be barred from reffing a rec league game. Embarrassing to the SoCon.

[apaladin]

I know the refs were not great but its hard to complain about them when we were up 10 and to quote CBR "kept shooting ourselves in the foot,"

[soconjohn]

Furman will be okay...Granted, those kinds of losses are never easy, but better now than in Asheville...Furman has to grow into being a champion...That's not all bad when looking at the broader picture...No one wants to lose games like this, but in some ways, losses like this can be a blessing in disguise...You also have to give some credit for Samford for making the plays and shots when Furman faltered...Sometimes basketball rewards effort, and Furman was out-efforted in the last 4:21 yesterday.

[soconjohn]

And let's please not blame Jordan Lyons...Kid gives his all, and if it wasn't for his defense on Sharkey, Furman couldn't have come back.