vs. UTC (Jan. 18th)

[apaladin]

Their bigs outplayed our bigs, especially the last 7 minutes of the game. What the heck did Tyrese Hughey do to get in Coach R's doghouse? Is he in Coach R's doghouse? He is a senior who got plenty of playing time the last 3 years and now he is nogood? Bowser and Hien had their hands full and couldn't get a rebound if their life depended on it in the second half and Johnston barely played (knee?). All I'm saying is we could have used another big who can rebound and play defense.

Maybe the matchups were not right for that. I don't know.

Coach really bothered by the poor free throw shooting. Remember we almost blew the ET game because we couldn’t make free throws. Like you said they just dominated the boards in the 2nd half. I have to take some of the blame since I pointed out to a friend attending his first gane that NA had only missed one or two free throws all year and he misses his first 2 and 3 of 4. I should know better.

[purplehorse123]

It seems we have gotten worse. I have never seen so many easy drives to the basket for UTC. On the other hand we struggle to score.

Yes someone’s hands can get better. Hien’s hands are much better this year than before IMHO.

[Affirm]

is the team so bad that they can't make foul shots???looks like another off year for Dins

15-4 as it stands now is not an off year..........

If we would have won it would have been the first time Bob Richey has ever been 16-3..................

SoCon has been a struggle so far yes, hopefully we start playing better soon.....................

Affirm posted on Jan 5 that 22 wins would be a good pre-tournament record for Furman.
Now to get to 22, we have to win 7 of our remaining 12 SoCon regular season games of which there are 6 home & 6 away.

20 wins iffy, 22 wins highly unlikely.

Wow, things have really changed in our outlook since January 4th, only 15 days ago.

[FU Hoopla]

Their bigs outplayed our bigs, especially the last 7 minutes of the game. What the heck did Tyrese Hughey do to get in Coach R's doghouse? Is he in Coach R's doghouse? He is a senior who got plenty of playing time the last 3 years and now he is nogood? Bowser and Hien had their hands full and couldn't get a rebound if their life depended on it in the second half and Johnston barely played (knee?). All I'm saying is we could have used another big who can rebound and play defense.

Maybe the matchups were not right for that. I don't know.

Coach really bothered by the poor free throw shooting. Remember we almost blew the ET game because we couldn’t make free throws. Like you said they just dominated the boards in the 2nd half. I have to take some of the blame since I pointed out that NA had only missed one or two free throws all year and he misses his first 2 and 3 of 4. I should know better.

[tim]

Weird game. We almost got away with no inside game but couldn't hit free throws and broke down defensively several times giving them snowbird layups

[Louis Tully]

Free throw were the difference. UTC 25/28. Furman 17/28

[apaladin]

Wofford's leading scorer Tripp only played 5 minutes and scored 2 points against UTC. I guess he was injured. Any word on how bad?

Chattanooga hit over 48% of their three point shots against Wofford. They thrive on perimeter shooting more than anyone else in the conference. Eight different players made threes for them. They hit sixteen from long range. Eleven of those makes came from three players - their starting guards Huff and Bonham and forward Bash Wieland. The defensive challenge is obvious. We defended the perimeter very well early in the season. I hope we can get that going again.

UTC is fourth in the league in 3 point attempts. They average 29 attemps per game. FU averages 30. They had 33 attempts against WC but they were down 20 at one point. They shot 13% above their average against WC. They shoot 35.7% from three, FU shoots 34.5%. The two teams are very similar.

Its a very different story if looking at conf only stats. UTC is at 46% 3 vs Dins a 29%. If anytthing Dins have a little advantage on the defensive end.

Held them to 4 3-pointers and still lost because we can’t rebound or make free throws. That was a big loss last night with ET beating Sammy. If we had won would be tied for second only a game behind Samford, instead now alone in 6th place.. Pretty sure breaking out those old ugly grey unis had something to do with it.

[FurmAlum]

Watched the postgame presser.

"not enough physicality"
"they were putting their hands on us"
"they got too many offensive rebounds"
"maybe we didn't sub enough and people were fatigued"

Maybe it's Hughey time?

[RaleighDin]

Watched the postgame presser.

"not enough physicality"
"they were putting their hands on us"
"they got too many offensive rebounds"
"maybe we didn't sub enough and people were fatigued"

Maybe it's Hughey time?

It's been Hughey time - this is the 2nd time in the last few games (Greensboro was the other), where afterwards CBR said he probably should have played Hughey. Time to stop just saying that and give him some run, he brings physicality no one else (aside from Molnar) has.

Additionally, I can understand wanting to have a set 9 man rotation, where everyone plays their pre-detemined role, but I honestly thought we looked better earlier in the year when we were playing 10 and subbing more frequently. It might be harder for coaches to manage, but it's got to be harder to put together a defensive gameplan against as well.

[Sad Din]

Ever since CIT, Offensive rebounding has been an issue.

Vanderwall was one of the best for OR. He was playing almost 30 mins a game. Against Chat he played 15 mins

So it looks that the decision to put more shooters on the floor have been to the detriment of rebounding.

IMHO they are needing a guy like Mounce who was big but also scored. Molinar has been doing better with that.

Big puzzle for the guys making the big bucks for sure

[apaladin]

I know Vanderwal struggles shooting but he is a leader, hustles, makes plays in other ways. He needs more than 15 minutes. Just can’t have him and Hien in the close games late. Their free throw shooting is, let’s just say not very good.