Last night was a good night for the Socon in general. Socon went 4-0 last night against division 1 opponents with wins for Samford, UNCG, ETSU and Furman.

Samford really needed big performances this year from its transfers and 1 or two freshmen to go with returnees 6'9" Wyatt Walker and Guard Christen Cunningham. That's exactly what it got against San Diego, with 6'8" Auburn transfer Alex Thompson notching 17 points and 5 rebounds in 29 minutes; 6'5" UMass transfer Denzel-Dyson getting 20 points and 5 rebounds in 24 minutes and Philly Freshman 5'10" Josh Sharkey adding 12 points, 3 assists and 3 steals in 26 minutes.

(11-15-2016 09:07 AM)swvabucsfan Wrote:  

(11-14-2016 10:49 PM)FUATT Wrote:  Furman broke Conference USA favorite UAB's 26 game home winning streak tonight - 84-74.

All 5 starters were in double figures for Furman. Daniel Fowler lead with his best game as a Paladin 23 pts, 8 rebs, 7 assists.

Both teams were red hot shooting in the first half but only Furman kept it going the whole game - 15-24 from the three point line. UAB only scored 1 basket during a 14 minute stretch to start the second half. They were scoring only from the FT line - 25-31 from the line for the game.

Congrats on a nice road win at UAB. It's a great way to erase the bad taste of a loss to Presbyterian.

The Paladins kind of circled the wagons for this one - relying almost entirely on their starting 5 (Acox, Sibley, Fowler, Beans and Davis). Their bench provided only 11 of 84 points, 5 of 31 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 block and 0 steals.

By the way - UAB ranked #74 in SI's preseason poll - well ahead of anyone in the SoCon. http://www.si.com/college-basketball/201...twitter_si

(11-15-2016 10:53 AM)swvabucsfan Wrote:  

(11-15-2016 09:07 AM)swvabucsfan Wrote:  [quote='FUATT' pid='13790272' dateline='1479181743']
Furman broke Conference USA favorite UAB's 26 game home winning streak tonight - 84-74.

All 5 starters were in double figures for Furman. Daniel Fowler lead with his best game as a Paladin 23 pts, 8 rebs, 7 assists.

Both teams were red hot shooting in the first half but only Furman kept it going the whole game - 15-24 from the three point line. UAB only scored 1 basket during a 14 minute stretch to start the second half. They were scoring only from the FT line - 25-31 from the line for the game.

Congrats on a nice road win at UAB. It's a great way to erase the bad taste of a loss to Presbyterian.

UNC-Greensboro thumped Presbyterian last night. strange

(11-15-2016 12:10 PM)RodShaw2 Wrote:  

(11-15-2016 10:53 AM)swvabucsfan Wrote:  

(11-15-2016 09:07 AM)swvabucsfan Wrote:  [quote='FUATT' pid='13790272' dateline='1479181743']
Furman broke Conference USA favorite UAB's 26 game home winning streak tonight - 84-74.

All 5 starters were in double figures for Furman. Daniel Fowler lead with his best game as a Paladin 23 pts, 8 rebs, 7 assists.

Both teams were red hot shooting in the first half but only Furman kept it going the whole game - 15-24 from the three point line. UAB only scored 1 basket during a 14 minute stretch to start the second half. They were scoring only from the FT line - 25-31 from the line for the game.

Congrats on a nice road win at UAB. It's a great way to erase the bad taste of a loss to Presbyterian.

UNC-Greensboro thumped Presbyterian last night. strange

Very strange: Presbyterian is ranked #347 out of #351 D1 schools by Sports Illustrated. UAB is ranked #74. http://www.si.com/college-basketball/201...twitter_si

I caught the last bit of UGA playing Furman last night. Looked to have been a pretty good game, but Georgia pulled ahead and Furman just couldn't answer in the last 5 minutes. I don't know much about Georgia's capabilities this year to know what this means for Furman's chances in the SoCon. But I did notice that anytime Georgia sped up the game, Furman struggled.

(And on a side note, didn't seem to be all that many folks at the game. I know basketball isn't a huge deal at UGA right now, but I was quite surprised at how empty it seemed on TV for a SEC school.)

I caught the last bit of UGA playing Furman last night. Looked to have been a pretty good game, but Georgia pulled ahead and Furman just couldn't answer in the last 5 minutes. I don't know much about Georgia's capabilities this year to know what this means for Furman's chances in the SoCon. But I did notice that anytime Georgia sped up the game, Furman struggled.

(And on a side note, didn't seem to be all that many folks at the game. I know basketball isn't a huge deal at UGA right now, but I was quite surprised at how empty it seemed on TV for a SEC school.)

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Georgia was pre-season #4 pick in the SEC. They were a NCAA bubble team the past couple of years . They were an at-large pick in 2015 and were in the NIT last year. Probably the same situation this year. They have two big stars who were both pre-season all SEC and they combined for 55 last night.

Furman shot the 3 very well last night and Kris Acox was very effective against their bigger guys with 17 points on 7-10 shooting. Devin Sibley got banged up against Presbyterian in the first game and hasn't shot the ball well the last two games and that hurt against Georgia.

Matt Rafferty came back for a few minutes last night although he isn't game shape yet.

Give Furman props for making it a game. I've always been perplexed by Georgia's mens college basketball team. Being in the power five, in a recruiting hotbead, I don't see why they have never been able to land big recruits, included big in-state recruits. They never seem to challenge for a conf title

Catamounts lost at home to an apparently pretty good N.C. Central team on Wed. night.

Samford lost the same night to N.M. St. in Las Cruces, where they almost never lose.

UNCG dropped one at High Point 57-63. After a couple of decent years High Point is ranked 257th in SI and 6th in the Big South in Blue RIbbon (4th in SI).

(11-19-2016 12:19 AM)posterformerlyknownasthedoctor Wrote:  Catamounts lost at home to an apparently pretty good N.C. Central team on Wed. night.

Samford lost the same night to N.M. St. in Las Cruces, where they almost never lose.

After several good years, NC Central is on a bit of a down tick - rated 295th in SI and 6th in the MEAC in Blue Ribbon. Right now a home loss to them doesn't look too good.

It's probably silly to focus too much on early games - results are just too erratic, and a lot of teams just haven't settled in, bouncing between games as fodder for power conference teams and games feeding off DII and DIII opponents. But Wofford leads the nation in 3 point percentage with 52.1% and 25 makes. http://www.ncaa.com/stats/basketball-men...t/team/152

They may have found another Fletcher McGee in Freshman Daniel Hoover who has started out 7-12 for .583. He turned down offers from Wake Forest, Ole Miss and Tulsa to go to Wofford. Wonder if he defends any better than McGee?

Meanwhile ETSU is a 'mere' 13th in the country with 45.5% and 20 makes from 3. To go with their 1st in the nation field goal percentage, their 6th in the nation points per game and their 12th in the nation rebound margin. Again, I'd trade all that for a win over UNCW.

(11-19-2016 07:43 AM)swvabucsfan Wrote:  

(11-19-2016 12:19 AM)posterformerlyknownasthedoctor Wrote:  Catamounts lost at home to an apparently pretty good N.C. Central team on Wed. night.

Samford lost the same night to N.M. St. in Las Cruces, where they almost never lose.

After several good years, NC Central is on a bit of a down tick - rated 295th in SI and 6th in the MEAC in Blue Ribbon. Right now a home loss to them doesn't look too good.

N.C. Central played Ohio St. very close. That's why I said "apparently pretty good", but you're certainly right to say that these early games don't mean much. But they'll mean a lot more IF it comes bubble time, or seeding time - for ETSU or any other team. UNCW possibly being a prime example. IF ETSU gets the SoCon bid, a win over UNCW - along with a win over the Jackrabbits and UT maybe, could change a #14 seed into an 11 or 12 seed - all other things being the same, which of course is impossible to predict. And maybe factoring in a probable loss to Dayton - but now I'm already WAY off the path too far into imaginary scenarios.....

UTC getting absolutely smacked in the mouth today by Arkansas State.

(11-20-2016 01:42 PM)ETSUfan1 Wrote:  UTC getting absolutely smacked in the mouth today by Arkansas State.

Did the Mocs just get beat 73-67??? Casey Jones hasn't played the last 2 games. Injury??
http://www.sidearmstats.com/army/mbball/

http://www.fanragsports.com/news/chattan...ay-sunday/

Apparently there's another ankle injury.

(11-20-2016 02:07 PM)swvabucsfan Wrote:  

(11-20-2016 01:42 PM)ETSUfan1 Wrote:  UTC getting absolutely smacked in the mouth today by Arkansas State.

Did the Mocs just get beat 73-67??? Casey Jones hasn't played the last 2 games. Injury??
http://www.sidearmstats.com/army/mbball/

Arkansas State beat Georgetown in DC

(11-20-2016 03:03 PM)RodShaw2 Wrote:  

(11-20-2016 02:07 PM)swvabucsfan Wrote:  

(11-20-2016 01:42 PM)ETSUfan1 Wrote:  UTC getting absolutely smacked in the mouth today by Arkansas State.

Did the Mocs just get beat 73-67??? Casey Jones hasn't played the last 2 games. Injury??
http://www.sidearmstats.com/army/mbball/

Arkansas State beat Georgetown in DC

But they also struggled against NC Central. Without Casey Jones, they are a different team.