Proud

[SpiderFan26]

We are a pretty good team. We are not a consistent team. Simple as that.

Can't make the tourney without being consistent. Talented but underachieving overall. Disappointed but proud we battles back at the end.

But don't settle for coming close, just recognize we are good.

 

[SpiderK]

Good in a mediocre conference leaves you at .500 and watching VCU on TV in March.

 

[MolivaManiac]

I'm disappointed too but I'm not sure why some people are surprised. We were a 1.5 point underdog and we lost by 2. We dug a deep hole and almost dug ourselves out.

This is who we are. A team that (mostly) plays very well at home and struggles on the road.

We need to protect home court and find a way to win a couple on the road. All the remaining road games will be there for the taking. Just like tonight, GW, Dayton
...

 

[SpiderK]

Just frustrating Mo.

 

[Spiders42]

Proud? Give me a break. This message board is filled with idiots. Go ahead, keep celebrating a loss at LASALLE!!!

 

[SpiderK]

42. Read the actual post!! Not too many are proud.

 

[97spiderfan]

Two starters, 0 points. Again. Play jj and smitten. They couldn't possibly give us less offense

 

[MolivaManiac]

K, it is frustrating. With that said, Sweep RPI and get to the NIT and I'll be OK.

 

[SpiderK]

97, I don't believe DT & TD even look at the basket anymore. Sure is easy to guard 3 guys with 5.

 

[Spiders42]

I did read the damn post. He is proud we battled back. Celebrating a close loss. Saying we are a good team. Blah blah. 6-24 on the road since 2011. Give me a break.

 

[SpiderK]

Mo. Sounds like a plan.

 

[Spiders42]

Sweep vcu and get to the NIT? And we will be ok. Give me a break. More of celebrating mediocrity.

 

[SpiderK]

42 that is all that's left now. We lost 10 games to the Little Sisters of the Poor. Win the A-10 tourney or NIT is best we can do now.

 

[SpiderFan26]

42, read my other posts. I dislike losing and Mooney more than you do and for longer. I am tired of mediocrity, you don't really think I am proud to lose do you?

Next time I'll literally put the word sarcasim in the post.

It was my attempt at a positive post
This post was edited on 2/5 10:23 PM by SpiderFan26

 

[MolivaManiac]

I'm not celebrating mediocrity. I've been living with it for nearly 4 seasons like everyone else.

Sweeping RPI and going to the NIT would be major progress over the last 3 years.

 

[Eight Legger]

No one can be happy about this. It is true that we have been playing much better basketball as a whole since we lost at Davidson. Unfortunately, we have played mostly the top teams in the league, and then tonight a mid-pack team that came out with a gameplan that completely confused us for an entire half.

You'd think we could have seen that one coming, but we apparently didn't. This game reminded me of every road game we played two years ago, all of which we seemed to lose by about the same margin in the same way.

Our problem is that we allow the opponent to dictate how we play. We are unable to play with the same energy and determination regardless of the opponent. That's why we have close games against good teams, average teams and bad teams.

 

[MidloTrader]

Do agree that our team and staff seem to be okay with letting the game come to us. But for once on the road it would be nice to take the game to them. If we have a lob in the playbook, why not use it with DT who has hops? Why not challenge ZO to take it to the rim and dunk it over someone? I'd be okay with even getting an offensive foul on an early aggressive play, but at least we're sending a message that we're here and we want to win. Playing "not to lose" and looking lost out there is simply hard to watch.

 

[ur2K]

i'm happy that this team is resilient enough to come back from a deficit like that (we've seen it before this year). I'm not happy that Dr. John G threw out a game plan early on that we were totally unprepared for (isolate Kendall and score on him or draw a foul b/c he is small) that allowed them to jump out to a lead that we couldn't catch.

We should've worn our home whites with them going dark grey stripes.

 

[MidloTrader]

We are always proud that our guys fight back, but why are we in this position so often, particularly on the road? Being down 4, 6 or 8 isn't daunting but down 16 with guys in foul trouble can be. Takes a lot of energy just to pull close to even. And their 36 FT attempts to our 14 certainly is a big part of the story. Recognizing how the game is being called and getting our players to take advantage of it quickly is critical when you're only going to get so many O possessions.

 

[Ferrum Spider]

Spiders42 posted on 2/5/2015...
Proud? Give me a break. This message board is filled with idiots. Go ahead, keep celebrating a loss at LASALLE!

You're no better then Matt Smith. Stay classy.

 

[SpiderTrap]

Is this where we would post "At least we got good kids".

 

[Hanca]

26 was clearly sarcastic. Players did not quit but CM, yet again, unable to coach in last 5 minutes to get win. Coaches still unable to adjust in-game to opponent's game plan. As expected, out-coached, out-motivated, and defeated. Be thankful Shaka cannot not coach half court O.

 

[SpiderFan]

I thought Coach did a great job coaching the last 5 minutes and all of the 2nd half. It was the first half of the 1st half where he was out coached and didn't adjust enough.

My question is this as it comes to winning tough games on the road (and the players/coaches quotes reflect that after every loss, with heavy "If" statements)...with no freshman playing any real time, why is this experienced bunch unable to produce a full game on the road outside of VCU every year? I could understand if we had a bunch of newbies going night in and night out every week at the college level in a tough A10, but other than Cline, no new player really plays where that should be an issue. And at least there you can see that the banging Cline is taking every game is starting to wear on him and the scouting report is just to double him and push him around into making a mistake.

 

[SpiderTrap]

We do have an experience bunch, but this experience bunch has never been good on the road or been part of a team that was good on the road - so I think its harder for them to turn it around. Would be easier if we had leftovers from our NCAA team of Anderson, Harper, Geriot - who won some big road games - but that time has passed.

We just can't get over that hump of winning road games.

 

[64Spider]

We do have an experience bunch, but this experience bunch has never been good on the road or been part of a team that was good on the road - so I think its harder for them to turn it around. Would be easier if we had leftovers from our NCAA team of Anderson, Harper, Geriot - who won some big road games - but that time has passed.

We just can't get over that hump of winning road games.

......and the hump is getting bigger!

 

[Spider B]

I dont think all hope is lost yet. I truly believe we have a really good shot of closing the season with only one more loss. All of our tough games are at home. We are hard to beat in the Robins Center and we are playing good basketball. I am with Mo, I didnt expect to beat LaSalle last night. They are a big physical team that typically gives us trouble, plus it is not uncommon for a team who just got a huge win to come out flat the next game out. It would have been a huge win, but it is a top 100 road loss.
I am frustrated with the season in general and our road struggles like everyone else on here. Its even worse because we are so close on the road. We all agree this is not where we want to be, but it is where we are. I am not making excuses for CM or the teams performance, rather I am just pointing out that the schedule sets up perfectly for us to have a great close to the season and, given the soft bubble, I am not ready to completely dismiss our NCAA chances.

 

[Eight Legger]

The frustrating part is that a win last night would NOT have been a huge win. Lasalle is not a great team or even really a good team. If we were a bubble team, do you think a road win at Lasalle would be the one that pushed us over the edge into the tournament? Of course not. Lasalle is an average team that isn't going to the postseason either. This was the start of our easy schedule, and we blew it.

 

[97spiderfan]

LaSalle is LaSalle. We should never be losing to that program. They play in a damn high school gym, have no fan base, and don't invest half of what we do in their program. I will say LaSalle is probably maximizing there basketball dollar though and we are minimizing ours.

 

[I-M-UR]

97 they made it to the sweet 16 in 2013, so never may be a little over the top. We should have won this one.

 

[Not-A-Homer]

Careful Hanca, you are speaking the unwanted truth and that often comes with verbal reprimands in this forum.

It is very true that the schedule is weak for the remainder of the season. The A-10 is much softer than the recent past, so anything is possible in the conference tournament.

But, LaSalle is not very good either, and they completely collapsed for the majority of the second half last night. Spiders still got the loss. Ouch!

 

[HuntsmanSpider]

I'd like to be angry, but since we gave our HC unchecked tenure, it seems kinda foolish to be disappointed.

For a long time I was angry at the lack of competitive fire from the athletics department, from top to bottom. Growing up in SEC land, it was quite the culture shock attending a university where success in athletics didn't really matter to the current student body, and the old alums. The first time I heard my fellow classmates engage in academic smack talk, years ago, I wanted to smack them! What kind of nerdy uncompetitive person cares more about academic reputation than their athletic program? Academic smack talk is for losers, IMO. You make your own way post college.

Unfortunately as time goes on, I've realized I'm the idiot. Nothing will change for a long, long time....so why should I continue to demand an exceptional basketball program? I've grown apathetic....never thought I'd say that 2-3 years ago. The powers at be want the institution to be known more for academics than athletics. We're admitting more kids that have higher SAT scores, but alarmingly low athletic IQ. The cycle is in place and embedded now. The good ole days of UR are long gone. Which hurts.

Back to BBall, I just hope we've got someone in the AD department with a pair of stones, and force Mooney to hire some real assistants next season. But I've got a feeling that department is full of non-athletes, too, aka too nerdy and scared to do their jobs and demand that Mooney make these changes. Oh well, at least we don't recruit "thugs!"





This post was edited on 2/6 11:53 AM by HuntsmanSpider