FIU vs. Murray State LIVE BLOG

It's the final game of the 2K Sports Coaches vs. Cancer tournament that FIU is hosting.

And the final home game for FIU until Dec. 31 when South Alabama visits the Bank for a 12 noon game on New Years' Eve. That's 28 days on the road for your Panthers, if you're scoring at home.

Tonight, against the Racers, FIU faces probably the best team in this tournament. If the Panthers are not ready for this one, then it could get out of hand early. Follow along and let's see what happens.

Comments

[Concerned B-Ball Fan]

This is far worse than MC or TT's first year. At least they were competitive in games. This basketball team sucks. IT better get his head out of his a** along with his players.

Pete this hiring is looking more and more like media hype for IT and FIU then it does about building the program. I was not expecting us to be this bad.

Were you?

[FIU]

Hang In there. The payoff is next year where we have some players coming here that would never have come to FIU if we had any other coach.

[Joel]

We WERE going to be this bad. IT did the best he could to get some good players down here in a VERY short period of time. Next year is when we start bringing in studs...

I blame it all on Freddy Asprilla...

[FIURage]

Concerned B-Ball Fan

MC 1 win season was better that IT first year so far ?

[FIU Fanatic]

I'm not concerned about wins and losses at this point. I expected another (hint...10 straight losing seasons at FIU) long season under .500. However, I will like to see how this team develops come Sun Belt season...not that I'm expecting a lot from them, but just the overall attitude of the team.

But actually, the result of the game notwithstanding, I thought this team battled harder the second half against the (hands down) best team in the tournament, than in any of the three games we played this past weekend. And that was with the worst outing of the season of one of our best player, Marvin Roberts.

[Bryan R.]

Seriously? People are panicking. We lost part of our team who didn't want to play for IT, including our star center. IT came in too late to effectively recruit for this season. He's lost two of his forwards to injury. He's a new coach, new system, with mostly new players. Any of you who expected FIU to be competitive this season were smoking crack. Next season will be the real start for IT.

[JulesFIU07]

I have to echo the sentiments of everyone who thinks that expecting a great team this season was completely unrealistic. Isiah came in late in the game, could barely recruit, and has just over half the number of alloted scholarship athletes a team is allowed. These guys have only played seven games together, not nearly enough time to build cohesion, we lack height, and lost our two tallest players to injury.

People need to chill out and realize that we actually have some very good players, including three that have scored over 20 points in a game, and several that have consistently scored in the high teens. We will have more depth next year, and a little more height, but the truth is this team will require one more year of recruiting to really get things going.

[JJ FIU]

PANTERA NATION, I really like your idea! Even just using FIU PANTERA sounds cool and different. Kind of like how Miami Heat doesn't use a plural form. But regardless, FIU PANTERAS sounds great too!

Hopefully AD Pete Garcia reads this blog lol

[Joel]

"Pantera"?? Really? Come on, guys...

[Gooch7]

Hey I was just looking at the schedule for next years Football Season, and it seems we can easily have a 6-6 season, and possibly a 5-7 season. I think its important to play 1 or 2 Big time programs, but how about playing teams that ARE NOT ranked in the Top 30 every year.

LOSES:
Rutgers
Texas A&M
Pitt
Troy
Middle Tennessee

MAYBE:
Arkansas State
Louisiana Monroe
Louisiana Lafayette
Maryland

WINS:
FAU
UNT
WKU

Early Prediction: 6-6 (no bowl!)
I hope Im wrong and we see a miracle season at 7-5 (bowl game)...

[LonePanther]

"Pantera"?? Really? Come on, guys...

Posted by: Joel | November 24, 2009 at 07:44 PM

Agreed

[Gooch7]

Hey we have been Golden Panthers for over 20 years.. Why change now?? That's like saying Blue Devils is to long for Duke so after 120 years of that we are going to change it to Devils..

NO!!!!

[FIURage]

Yea panteras ... ummm ... yea maybe if this were central america... but ... Football ... american sport ... lets keep it Gringo. Panthers

[JJ FIU]

Gooch7, Before Golden Panthers we were the Sunblazers for 20 plus years. I think we can all agree now that it was a necessary change. And it't different from saying Duke Blue Devils, because Duke Devils sounds stupid and doesn't have the same rhythm, plus Duke is one word unlike Florida International which is already long enough! I agree with Pantera that we have to distinguish ourselves from the Florida Panthers and the Pittsburgh Panthers because like he said the school is dropping the Golden anyway.

FIURage, Many teams use latin sounding names and does that make them any less American? For example there is a team called Lobos and Vanderbilt is the Commodores, which sounds latin to me. Actually even in professional sports this has been used. Remember in the WNBA? The team was called Miami Sol, which was a cool name. Sol means Sun in spanish for all you nonbilinguals. I really think it makes sense using Panteras in Miami where most people come from Latin America and also speak spanish. Does a city called Boca Raton make it less American because it means mouth of a rat? Obviously not. I guess some people can't think outside the box, adapt, or even brace a necessary change.

[JulesFIU07]

JJ what are you getting on about? We don't need a name change, we just need to start winning. As for Vanderbilt it isn't actually a Spanish name they are using, though the root of the word is Latin, it is a naval rank quite common in the English speaking world and used because the major benefactor of the university was one Cornelius Vanderbilt who was nicknamed the Commodore.