Wofford Terriers come to Peoria November 22

Bradley's next game after the North Dakota game is on Tuesday, November 22 against the Wofford Terriers, as our first game in the 2011 Chicago Invitational Challenge.
Likely most people in Central Illinois hear little about Wofford and so I knew little myself - except for a few players from the midwest the past couple years, and the game we played against them in 2008.

They are "Wofford College" not "Wofford University"...and they are from Spartanburg, South Carolina...and they became D-I, moving up from D-II in 1995-1996. Prior to 1988-1989 they were NAIA.
One of their most notable alumni is Jarry Richardson - owner of the NFL Carolina Panthers....which may explain why the Panthers use the campus of Wofford College for their preseason training site, just as the Bears use Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, IL - giving the campus and the community a whole lot of needed exposure and revenue as die hard fans will always head to preseason camps.
They are coming off back-to-back 20-win seasons...and will come into Peoria after facing Wisconsin three nights earlier, and at Georgia 11 nights earlier.

In 2008-2009 Bradley beat Wofford 56-54 in a game in Peoria that was part of the Las Vegas Invitational.
http://athletics.wofford.edu/documents/2009/11/22/WOF-BRAD_game_box.pdf?id=1313

It is a private college with ties to the United Methodist Church. Tuition is $40,580, enrollment is 1,495.

Wofford is not pronounced "woe-ford", but is instead officially to be pronounced "wah-ford".

They have actually been a good team the past couple years...
Their final RPI last year was 109 (SOS 171).
They were RPI 69 in 2009-2010.
They were arguably the best team in the Southern Conference although College of Charleston had a better RPI.

They tied for their conference at 14-4 and finished 21-13 overall last year and won going away the year before. They didn't beat a whole lot of top opponents in 2010-2011, but their best win was over George Mason.

However -- they lost to graduation their three best players Noah Dahlman (20.1 ppg), Cameron Rundles (13.9 ppg), and Jamar Diggs (12.6 ppg) - and no returnee averaged more than 6.2 ppg.
(Rundles and Dahlman BTW were both from Minnesota and were both on Bradley's recruiting radar screen.)
....who carried them to a first round loss to BYU in the NCAA Tourney last spring.
They also lose other key players Tim Johnson and Terry Martin.
One more loss, Nathan Parker, a good sophomore backup posty player from Knoxville, TN, suddenly and unexpectedly left the team - he didn't play a lot but hit well over 50% of all his shots, including his 3-pt attempts.
Parker landed at NAIA University of Pikeville (formerly Pikeville College) so he could play right away.

Here's what to possibly expect...
Wofford has been a good team of late and is well coached. But the loss of their three best senior starters will obviously drop them down a notch.
Their one remaining starter is 6-ft guard Brad Loesing, who averaged 6.2 ppg and was their assist leader. Drew Crowell will be their best returning frontcourt player at 6-9, but he has little experience.
They have a couple decent incoming freshman guards (Karl Cochran, Lucas Brown) but they will be thin in the frontcourt. Overall they have SEVEN new incoming freshmen and unlike most mid-majors, they have absolutely NO juco players.

In our last meeting with Wofford, Taylor Brown had a big game with 16 pts and 8 rebounds, and I predict he'll have another fine game with the shallow frontcourt Wofford has.

If interested - here's the link to the Wofford message board -- called Terrierfans.com..
http://www.terrierfans.com/index.php

It is actually a pretty good and well run message board and a decent amount of traffic and activity for a small school.
The basketball forum however has been very slow since July....

One last thing - an incoming freshman at Wofford makes the All-Name Team,
Indiana Faithfull. This kid should have been a Hoosier for sure!
http://athletics.wofford.edu/roster.aspx?rp_id=2630&path=mbball

Faithfull has some skills but he has never played any significant competition.
http://orangeexpress.wordpress.com/elsewhere/2011-2/indiana-faithfull/