Know Your Opponent: Wofford

By Bobby Hundley

Wofford (WoffordTerriers.com)
Location: Spartanburg, S.C.
Rankings: No. 139 KenPom, NR AP
Record: 6-4
Carolina Series History (Last Meeting): Carolina leads 4-1 (Carolina 78, Wofford 67, Nov. 6, 2018, Spartanburg)

The 2019-20 season marks a new day for Wofford men's basketball, with first-time head coach Jay McAuley taking over after 17-year veteran Mike Young departed for Virginia Tech in the offseason. McAuley is no stranger to hoops in the region, however, with four years as a player at Georgia before coaching stops at Wofford, Gardner-Webb and Furman.

McAuley spent the last two seasons as the associate head coach under Young, and his first team at the helm is composed in the same mold as his mentor. The Terriers play a very deliberate pace and shoot a ton of 3s. In fact, this year's Wofford team takes a higher percentage of its shots from behind the arc than any under Young, despite the loss of the most prolific outside shooter in NCAA history in Fletcher Magee.

Junior Storm Murphy has taken over Magee's role as the deadly volume shooter. In nine games (he missed the win over North Greenville with a leg injury), Murphy has made almost 56 percent of his 3s and is perfect from the foul line in averaging a team-best 14.4 points per game. Trevor Stumpe is no slouch from deep either (39 percent from 3 for his career), and he is healthy again after a lost 2018-19 season.

Senior Nathan Hoover joins Murphy as a returning starter from the best Wofford team in program history that won 30 games last year and didn't lose for three months before falling by six to Kentucky in the second round of the NCAA tournament. Hoover has been uncharacteristically shaky from the outside so far, making just 29 percent of his 3s after knocking down better than 40 percent in his first three seasons in Spartanburg.

Wofford has struggled to replace the production of graduated big man Cameron Jackson, but 6-9 junior Chevez Goodwin is the best rebounder on an undersized roster. Goodwin is the only Terrier taller than 6-7, though 6-6 sophomore Messiah Jones has been outstanding on the offensive glass.

One year after pushing into the national spotlight and being plenty good enough to earn an at-large bid (that it didn't need), Wofford will be back in the middle of a battle for the top spot in the Southern Conference. The Terriers were picked to finish fourth in the SoCon, but the league race is wide open. East Tennessee State was the preseason favorite, edging 2018 champion UNCG. Along with ETSU and UNCG, Furman and a resurgent Western Carolina figure to be in the mix for the league's automatic bid. While it may be a one-bid league again in 2020, the Southeast's oldest conference will be as competitive as any in D-I this spring.

Related Videos