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| Wofford reserve freshman point guard Storm Murphy |
Wofford has never won an NCAA Tournament game (0-4). The No. 7 seed attained by Wofford is the best seed attained by a Southern Conference team in the NCAA Tournament since 1979 and it is the best seed the SoCon has ever received since the NCAA Tournament moved to 64 teams in 1985.
The Terriers will be looking to end the Jacksonville curse, having lost twice in the River City by a combined seven points in two of their four previous NCAA appearances. Perhaps the third time will be a charm against No. 10 Seton Hall Thursday night.
Season Recap:
The Terriers completed one of the best runs in the Southern Conference history and enter the 2019 NCAA Tournament riding the nation’s longest winning streak, having won a school-record 20-straight games and sporting the program’s first national ranking, at No. 19 in both the Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll, respectively.
The Terriers, to the surprise of many, were the only qualifier from an unusually strong Southern Conference in the 2018-19 season, as Wofford raced through the 11th strongest conference of 32 NCAA Division I basketball conferences, having posted a 29-4 overall record and a perfect 18-0 mark in conference play.
The Terriers became just the third team in the 100-year history of the league to complete the season at 16-0 in or better in league play, and were the first to race through both the league and tournament since the 2007-08 Davidson Wildcats, which was led by Stephen Curry and went all the way to the Elite Eight before bowing out to eventual NCAA national champion Kansas (L, 57-59). Davidson posted a 20-0 record in conference play that particular season. It could be argued it best the best season by any team in the history of the Southern Conference history.
An opening round over Seton Hall would give the Terriers 30 wins over the first time in school history, and would be the first team to reach 30 wins in the SoCon since the 1950-51 N.C. State Wolfpack, and just the third in conference history.
Wofford went out and challenged itself during the non-conference, taking on the likes of No. 8 North Carolina (L, 67-78), at Oklahoma (L, 64-75), at South Carolina (W, 81-61), at No. 2 Kansas (L, 47-72) and at No. 17 Mississippi State (L, 87-98).
In conference play, the Terriers were only challenged on a few occasions, posting an average margin of victory of 16.9 PPG in league games. In mid-January, Wofford needed overtime to get a 107-106 win over Samford, which is a team it trailed for much of the night on its home floor. In early Jan., Mercer came to Wofford with thoughts of an upset on its mind before a late four-point play by three-point marksman Fletcher Magee allowed head coach Mike Young’s Terriers escape with a 78-74 win.
On Jan. 19, Furman, which also earned its first-ever ranking the AP Top 25 earlier this season following wins over Loyola Chicago and Villanova, came to Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium and threw a scare into the Terriers, however, Wofford held on for a thrilling 59-54 win. Of its 18 Southern Conference regular-season contests, the Terriers only had five single-digit margins of victory, with Furman accounting for two of them.
In the final month of the regular-season, the Terriers had only one major scare, and that came on Feb. 7, as the Terriers went on the road and were able to sweat out a 78-76 overtime win over East Tennessee State. It was a win that saw Wofford’s two top guns—senior guard Fletcher Magee and senior forward Cameron Jackson—combine for 52 of the team’s 78 points in getting the win. A late Magee three helped the Terriers take a 75-73 lead with 31 seconds remaining, and after the Terrier defense forced an ETSU miss, Magee closed out the contest at the line, as Wofford was able to steal a two-point win on the road.
The most impressive performances by the Terriers during the regular-season came against preseason favorite and reigning champion UNC Greensboro, as the Terriers took down the league favorites by 29 and 30 points, respectively. The 72-43 win by Wofford at UNCG back in January ended the Spartans’ school-record 17-game homecort winning streak.
In the Southern Conference Tournament, the Terriers posted wins over VMI (W, 99-72), ETSU (W, 81-72) and UNC Greensboro (70-58) to lift their first conference tournament title trophy since 2015.
Coming into the 2018-19 campaign, Wofford was the consensus No. 2 pick in the preseason Southern Conference polls, which were conducted back in mid-October. The Terriers came into the season with all five starters returning from a club that won 21 games and made a CIT appearance last season.
Past NCAA Tournament Results: (0-4)
2010: Wisconsin, L 49-53 (Jacksonville, FL/East Regional)
2011: BYU, L 66-74 (Denver, CO/Southeast Regional)
2014: Michigan, L 40-57 (Milwaukee, WI/Midwest Regional)
2015: Arkansas, L 53-56 (Jacksonville, FL/West Regional)
--The Southern Conference has not won an NCAA Tournament game since 2008, when Davidson made its run to the Elite Eight. The league has had some success in the tournament in years past, however, with Chattanooga going all the way to the Sweet Sixteen back in 1997, while VMI made the Elite Eight in 1976. The SoCon is 31-76 (29.0%) all-time in the NCAA Tournament.
Players to Watch:
If you’ve been paying attention to our website the past three years, you know who Fletcher Magee is (20.5 PPG, 151-of-353 from three-point range/42.8%). He’s quite simply one of the best players in not only mid-major college basketball, but at any level of college basketball. His 151 triples leads all of NCAA Division I college basketball.
Magee won’t be playing too far from his central Florida home of Orlando, where it would be hard to imagine family and friends not making the short two-hour and 15-minute drive to see if the senior sharp-shooter try and make history. With three three-pointers in the opening round vs. Seton Hall, Magee would be the all-time NCAA career leader in three-pointers made, with 505 in his career. He was surpass former Oakland standout and sharp-shooter Travis Bader. Magee has been the Southern Conference Player of the Year each of the past two seasons, and was a consensus pick in 2018-19.
Magee isn’t the only weapon that head coach Mike Young has at his disposal in the Wofford backcourt, however. As a team, Wofford is one of the ball extremely well from the perimeter, highlighted by guards Nathan Hoover (13.3 PPG, 2.5 RPG, 84-of-184 from three-point range/45.7%) and point guard Storm Murphy (8.0 PPG, 1.7 RPG, 47-of-97 from three-point range/48.5%).
Hoover dropped 30 points in a game in a win at South Carolina earlier this season, while Storm Murphy hit two critical game-winning shots in wins over Samford and Furman earlier this season. As a team, the Terriers have been tough to handle from long-range all season, connecting on 42.0% (357-of-851), which ranks second in the NCAA this season.Tray Hollowell (5.7 PPG, 1.7 RPG, 41-of-99 from three-point range/41.4%) and Ryan Larson (3.2 PPG, 1.3 RPG) are solid role players off the bench, with Hollowell being an excellent shooter and Larson being wise beyond his years in maturity handling the basketball at the point.
In the paint, senior First Team All-SoCon Cameron Jackson (14.6 PPG, 7.5 RPG) is one of the top big men in mid-major basketball, and has been a major catalyst for Wofford’s success in this historic season. Add to that Keve Aluma (6.9 PPG, 6.8 RPG) and College of Charleston transfer Chevez Goodwin (4.4 PPG, 4.5 RPG), and all the ingredients are in place for a good run in the NCAA Tournament. Add to that senior center Matthew Pegram (5.1 PPG, 3.8 RPG), and his toughness and ability to step out and hit the occasional outside shot, you have a complete, connected team that all know their respective roles and share the basketball well.
Final Prediction:
With three players shooting well over 40% from three-point range, and a player in Cameron Jackson that shoots nearly 60% (58.1%) from the field, it’s pick your poison with Wofford. It’s why Wofford will have a great chance to win its first-ever NCAA Tournament game against Seton Hall, and with the right shooting night, a potential second round nightmare for the second-seeded Kentucky Wildcats. One of the things that makes Wofford such a difficult out is how well it takes care of the basketball.
A four-point deficit against the Terriers can often seem like a double-digit deficit because if you don’t capitalize on the few mistakes the Terriers do make, their highly efficient offense and their ability to shoot the three, they will make you pay dearly. Enjoy picking your bracket, and note the Terriers will be and should be a trendy upset pick in your bracket given the uncanny strength of the SoCon in 2018-19.
Quotable:
“We went to Portugal this summer, and those practices were invaluable for us,” head coach Mike Young said. “I’ve said many many times, if you’re looking for easy don’t come here [Wofford] . They're challenged academically and they are in class everyday. I love the caliber of recruit I can get here you know...Life’s too short to be surrounded by knuckleheads, he added.”
The summer trip to the Iberian Peninsula, and the type of grueling academic work ethic, and the work ethic that Young demands is the kind of thing that pays off for mid-majors in the off-season, and may well pay off for Wofford in the 2019 NCAA Tournament.
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