A Sea Of Red

This season has big a big disappointment with how we finished in the league, but we have the talent and ability to salvage it with a good run in the tournament.

Preseason Rankings.....nobody expected RU to be as good as they were, everything else about how it played out, except for Shortwood bottoming out completely....

1 - UNC Asheville (23)
278
2 - Winthrop (3)
244
3 - Liberty (1)
241
4 - Campbell (2)
187
5 - Gardner-Webb
167
6 - High Point
146
7 - Radford
141
8 - Charleston Southern
98
9 - Longwood
57
10 - Presbyterian College
36

From the conference website a minute ago. They are waiting for RPI report in morning before officially making RU 2 and WU 3, I can't see RU dropping below WU after today. So...


First Round – Tuesday, Feb. 27 – Big South Network/Roku
Game 1: #10 Longwood at #7 High Point, TBD
Game 2: #9 Presbyterian at #8 Charleston Southern, TBD

Quarterfinals – Thursday, March 1 – ESPN3
Game 3: #2 (Radford/Winthrop) vs. #7/10 winner, 1:00pm
Game 4: #3 (Radford/Winthrop) vs. #6 Gardner-Webb, 3:00pm
Game 5: #1 UNC Asheville vs. #8/9 winner, 7:00pm
Game 6: #4 Campbell vs. #5 Liberty, 9:00pm

Semifinals - Friday, March 2 – ESPN3
Game 7: Semifinals – Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 winner, 6:00pm
Game 8: Semifinals – Game 5 winner vs. Game 6 winner, 8:00pm

Championship - Sunday, March 4 – ESPN
Game 9: Championship – Game 7 winner vs. Game 8 winner, 1:00pm

If we go 0 and 3 against campbell and lose the first game in the tourney the first 3 years of mckay....that would be a huge dissappointment is all im going to say.

Losing to longwood and getting swept by campbell is just total garbage. Getting swept by radford isnt good either but atleast they have an nba type player and they were a solid team. Longwood had 6 wins all year...6.

Chris Clemmons at times reminds me of a certain Reggie Williams from VMI, both have been top scorers in all of college basketball. Both have given LU fits during their careers as well as other Big South teams. Both have had dominant performances in the tourney. The thing that separates the two is that Reggie could play all 5 positions on the floor for VMI. That versatility plus other reasons is why Reggie played in the NBA for 7 years.

Losing is never fun, but man watching Reggie was a pleasure as well as watching Chris too. The Big South has been blessed by both of these dudes and their talent.

We need a player of that caliber.

As a whole this team has under achieved in 2018. I am hopeful that the effort we saw today carries us through the tournament and into some very focused offseason workouts and weight room sessions. We are still young and the future is very bright!

ballcoach15 wrote:We need a player of that caliber.

Ballcoach, Seth Curry won't be walking through that door again, but Darius McGhee will next year.

Cider Jim wrote:

ballcoach15 wrote:We need a player of that caliber.

Ballcoach, Seth Curry won't be walking through that door again, but Darius McGhee will next year.

Cider Jim wrote:

ballcoach15 wrote:We need a player of that caliber.

Ballcoach, Seth Curry won't be walking through that door again, but Darius McGhee will next year.

Darius is inevitably going to be compared with Cleamens because they are the same size and have similar athleticism. It's unfortunate IMHO because it will put expectations on him which may or may not be fair. He seems to be a really level headed young man who should be able to deal with it. I think Darius may be a better pure shooter and possibly defender as well (not one of Cleamons strong points.) Whether he will be able to get to the rim and finish pretty much at will against D1 competition like Chris remains to be seen.

olldflame wrote:

Cider Jim wrote:

ballcoach15 wrote:We need a player of that caliber.

Ballcoach, Seth Curry won't be walking through that door again, but Darius McGhee will next year.

Darius is inevitably going to be compared with Cleamens because they are the same size and have similar athleticism. It's unfortunate IMHO because it will put expectations on him which may or may not be fair. He seems to be a really level headed young man who should be able to deal with it. I think Darius may be a better pure shooter and possibly defender as well (not one of Cleamons strong points.) Whether he will be able to get to the rim and finish pretty much at will against D1 competition like Chris remains to be seen.

I heard the Nate Robinson comparisons from the people in AAU. While the McGhee hype train is going to be rolling in people are telling me to watch out for Blake Preston. He's a more offensively skilled Scottie. Newton, Scottie, Preston, Williams in the paint is going to be really exciting. Offense and Defense. Plus added Point guards in Mcghee and Price. Don't be shocked to see Ezra leave for more playing time leaving a scholarship open for a potential grad transfer.

Clemons first step is nasty. Dominant player. What has helped them this year is Burk has stepped up and played well, just outside of the top ten in the conference in scoring. One fact, they don't rebound well, crash the boards. That game at your place was just an aberration, heck, Averett or any other D-3 would beat you shooting 70% from 3.

I'm a big fans of Elijah Cuffee. I know he's only a freshman, but with his height advantage (he's 6'4"), I wonder how well he could defend against Clemons? Against Campbell, do you think we will go with the 3-2 zone or stick with the pack line?

The problem is that Clemons and Burks don't hesitate to shoot from 25" +. They were shooting over Cuffee, Kemrite and McDowell even with a hand in their face. They will not shoot 23-33 this game, at least I hope.

Cider Jim wrote:I'm a big fans of Elijah Cuffee. I know he's only a freshman, but with his height advantage (he's 6'4"), I wonder how well he could defend against Clemons? Against Campbell, do you think we will go with the 3-2 zone or stick with the pack line?

Both. Switch often and try to keep them out of any sort of rhythm.