The NCAA Basketball season officially opened on Wednesday. Scheduling has been difficult in the COVID-19 era. Numerous college basketball programs have had to postpone or cancel games already. When schools are just looking to get what they can, sometimes extremely lopsided matchups occur.
That being said, Samford basketball should be arrested for what they did to Greenville University (DIII) on Wednesday. Throw the whole team in basketball prison for assault. The Bulldogs won their exhibition match by a score of 174-99. No, that is not a typo. 174 points.
As a team, Samford shot 71-111 (64%) from the field and 20-42 (47.6%) from three. Ten players scored in the double digits. Redshirt senior guard Myron Gordon led the way with 28 points.
Evidently, no defense was played as Division III Greenville scored 99 points of their own. This game essentially amounted to a 40-minute shootaround. Sophomore guard Jarred Johnson led the Panthers with 21 points. Collectively, Greenville shot 30-75 (40%) from the field and 16-46 (34.8%) from beyond the arc.
Samford Basketball Did Greenville So Dirty
My main question here: what was the point? Samford Basketball certainly wasn’t challenged here. They didn’t even bother playing defense. How was this a helpful preseason tune-up for anyone involved? What valuable lesson is Greenville taking home with them after losing by 75 to a Division I program?
At what point does a Samford player look up at the scoreboard and think, maybe we’ve embarrassed this small school from Illinois enough? With a final score like that, no one could have been taking this game too seriously. Then again, they did keep detailed stats, so they cared a little more than if it were just a scrimmage.
There couldn’t have been any tactical benefit for Samford to play this game. If Greenville University (enrollment: 872) is scoring 99 points on you, there’s no chance you contested any shots. It’s just funny that the Bulldogs apparently felt sorry enough for their opponent to not play defense, but they had no problem dropping 174 on their heads. Tough day to be a Greenville Panther, but congratulations to anyone who bet the over.
Samford Basketball looks to continue their historic scoring pace on Sunday against Alabama A&M. After that, we may see some more fireworks when they play an exhibition against DIII Covenant College. At this point, the Bulldogs should just go all the way and forego their entire conference slate for a schedule exclusively comprised of Division III teams.
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