its the apex of the socon conference season when home court advantage is at its greatest. let's see if we can take advantage of the edges the linemakers are giving us. as a backround, there are 5 socon teams competing for 4 tournament bye spots - utc, etsu, furman, Wofford and mercer. utc is in the driver's seat @11-3 in conference, and 3 soft home games remaining against bottom tier teams. of the remaining 4 teams, there'll be one odd man out.
mercer @ furman-3: mercer is in about as bad a situational spot as you can find for tonight's game in Greenville. my previous posts on mercer this week have related the story of the shooting death of a teammate, the funeral and two emotional home games this week with a packed, electric gym, one a blowout revenge matchup with the citadel and the other the heatbreaking overtime loss to league leader utc. tonight is the bears' 7th conference game in 16 days, 4th in 8 days and 2nd road game in 3 days after the tank ran out at Wofford on Thursday night. remember those starter minutes I posted for mercer before that game? well, here's those same players' minutes in Spartanburg: 33, 33, 28, 33, 37. as we pointed out, the bears are still shorthanded with no ringer or lewis, with no bench to speak of (4 bench points vs utc, 7 @ Wofford).
meanwhile, furman is rolling. this is their 5th game in 10 days, but 3rd straight home game, where they've won 9 straight. that roll has prompted the mens' lacrosse and football teams to lead a resurgent student section to lodge behind the visitors' basket at home games to magnify the home court advantage. nice article here:
http://www.greenvilleonline.com/sto...urman-relishes-home-court-advantage/80283616/
furman is 10-4, and pressuring etsu for 2nd place (see below). paladins have a deep bench, and played 13 men vs citadel Thursday night; most time logged by a starter was 27 minutes. furman lost in macon 1/14 69-65, so it appears no situational line adjustment has been made here. if I was posting a socon game of the year (which I'm not) this would be it. bears' tanks have got to be on empty, both emotionally and physically. remember, this is an old school 3 day bus trip road excursion. paladins roll tonight.
utc @ etsu +2-: this the conference rivalry game of the night. these two teams are archrivals and have dominated the socon for the last 47 years. the house will be rockin' in Johnson city tonight, as the bucs, while having played 2 less conference games than utc, are actually tied with them in the loss column. etsu has finished their toughest part of the conference schedule, this is only their second game of the week. just the opposite for the mocs - this is their 7th game in two weeks and third road game in 6 days. they played the overtime game @ mercer on Tuesday, then traveled from macon, ga to Cullowhee in the nc mountains to play @ western Carolina on Thursday. there the fell behind by 16 to the mountaineers at the half, and, after a determined comeback effort in the second half, feel short and lost by 6 to a lower tier socon team . 3 starters logged more than 30 minutes. now they roll on to Johnson city to face their rested conference rivals in a sellout setting on regional tv. etsu +2- is a sweet conference home dog.
Wofford -14 vs citadel: terriers are also in the mix for a conference tourney bye @ 10-4. this is their 5th game in 10 days but their last two have been at home. they have only lost to the conference powers, twice to utc and @ furman and @ Wofford. they've won their last 3 and 5 of their last 6. meanwhile, the bulldogs have rode their uptempo, no defense style about as far as they can, having lost their last 4 and 6 of the last 7. this is their 7th game of the last 16 days, 4th game since last Saturday and 2nd road game of the week. Thursday @ furman they shot 35% from the floor and 31% from the arc. they are fading since their second half collapse Tuesday vs samford. tonight the terriers finish them off.
mercer @ furman-3: mercer is in about as bad a situational spot as you can find for tonight's game in Greenville. my previous posts on mercer this week have related the story of the shooting death of a teammate, the funeral and two emotional home games this week with a packed, electric gym, one a blowout revenge matchup with the citadel and the other the heatbreaking overtime loss to league leader utc. tonight is the bears' 7th conference game in 16 days, 4th in 8 days and 2nd road game in 3 days after the tank ran out at Wofford on Thursday night. remember those starter minutes I posted for mercer before that game? well, here's those same players' minutes in Spartanburg: 33, 33, 28, 33, 37. as we pointed out, the bears are still shorthanded with no ringer or lewis, with no bench to speak of (4 bench points vs utc, 7 @ Wofford).
meanwhile, furman is rolling. this is their 5th game in 10 days, but 3rd straight home game, where they've won 9 straight. that roll has prompted the mens' lacrosse and football teams to lead a resurgent student section to lodge behind the visitors' basket at home games to magnify the home court advantage. nice article here:
http://www.greenvilleonline.com/sto...urman-relishes-home-court-advantage/80283616/
furman is 10-4, and pressuring etsu for 2nd place (see below). paladins have a deep bench, and played 13 men vs citadel Thursday night; most time logged by a starter was 27 minutes. furman lost in macon 1/14 69-65, so it appears no situational line adjustment has been made here. if I was posting a socon game of the year (which I'm not) this would be it. bears' tanks have got to be on empty, both emotionally and physically. remember, this is an old school 3 day bus trip road excursion. paladins roll tonight.
utc @ etsu +2-: this the conference rivalry game of the night. these two teams are archrivals and have dominated the socon for the last 47 years. the house will be rockin' in Johnson city tonight, as the bucs, while having played 2 less conference games than utc, are actually tied with them in the loss column. etsu has finished their toughest part of the conference schedule, this is only their second game of the week. just the opposite for the mocs - this is their 7th game in two weeks and third road game in 6 days. they played the overtime game @ mercer on Tuesday, then traveled from macon, ga to Cullowhee in the nc mountains to play @ western Carolina on Thursday. there the fell behind by 16 to the mountaineers at the half, and, after a determined comeback effort in the second half, feel short and lost by 6 to a lower tier socon team . 3 starters logged more than 30 minutes. now they roll on to Johnson city to face their rested conference rivals in a sellout setting on regional tv. etsu +2- is a sweet conference home dog.
Wofford -14 vs citadel: terriers are also in the mix for a conference tourney bye @ 10-4. this is their 5th game in 10 days but their last two have been at home. they have only lost to the conference powers, twice to utc and @ furman and @ Wofford. they've won their last 3 and 5 of their last 6. meanwhile, the bulldogs have rode their uptempo, no defense style about as far as they can, having lost their last 4 and 6 of the last 7. this is their 7th game of the last 16 days, 4th game since last Saturday and 2nd road game of the week. Thursday @ furman they shot 35% from the floor and 31% from the arc. they are fading since their second half collapse Tuesday vs samford. tonight the terriers finish them off.
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