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RIP Buster


Famed Spiders quarterback Buster O'Brien dies

Spiders Collective-Season Preview-Oct 4

What is not exactly…so if 1500 ppl wanted to pay & attend u would have said no & still used the practice facility? The more paid tix would have exponentially justified higher expenses. I was just saying there isn’t the attendance demand for RC right now. If there was we would surely have used it to raise a lot more funds. If u r disputing that statement I’d love to hear why. I get why using Queally practice facility u can only put so many in there but that works well based on expected demand.

It’s a nice, intimate event that is a good idea and hopefully grows too.
For the size of our school, I expected very good attendance and a terrific event.

'24-'25 Spiders Friends and Family

Disclaimer: I realize not everyone on the forum likes following former Spiders, but some of us still find it interesting to keep up with the rest of their college careers.

Former Spiders:
  • Marcus Randolph – Now a senior at St. Peter's, Marcus started 19 of 32 games last season, averaging 6.5 points per game. He’s likely to maintain a starting role this year.
  • Isaiah Wilson – Senior at Winthrop. After starting the first two games last year, Isaiah suffered a season-ending injury. His profile still lists him as a senior, suggesting no medical redshirt was applied for. Wishing him a full recovery.
  • Aiden Noyes – Redshirt junior at Belmont, returning to the Robins Center on 12/14. Expect him to receive a different reception compared to last year's transfer return.
  • Jason Nelson – Redshirt junior at Youngstown State. He won’t be returning to the Robins Center this year. Personally, I hope Jason finds his stride and makes a significant impact during his final two seasons.
  • Trevor Smith – Now a sophomore at Hampton. With the move to a lower division, hopefully, Trevor secures a starting role.
  • Malcolm Dread – Redshirt junior at Mt. Saint Mary’s. Last season, he only appeared in 7 games, averaging less than 1 point per game.
  • Andre Weir – The 6'9", 270 lb senior is now at Kennesaw State after several years at FGCU, where injuries sidelined him for most of last season.
  • Dji Bailey - Given he is a UR graduate, I assume we'll continue to use his dedicated thread for ongoing updates as we did last year for TB.
Family Connections:
  • Jarin Stevenson - Sophomore at Bama. Assume he may start this year but we'll see.
  • Curtis Blair III - Redshirt freshman at Liberty.
  • BB Washington – A freshman at FGCU and brother of George Washington III. He’ll be playing at the Robins Center on 12/28.
  • Nikolas Gustavson – Brother Gus, a redshirt sophomore at D2 UT-Tyler. He was previously at North Alabama (D1, Atlantic South) but didn’t seem to play there.
Suspect I missed a couple folks and will edit the above based on comments.

Mens 2024 - 2025 Polls/Rankings/Awards

not sure what goes into Torvik ... but why is ours so low?

Because Tanner won’t play a minute.
Roche will average 10 points a game in 26 minutes a game while injured.
And Glu will average .7 points a game in 2.8 minutes a game, while not getting a single rebound or assist this season.

Actually, I don’t know but maybe we can compare it to KenPom, in hopefully 2 weeks. He released preseason 10/15 last year.

Mens 2024 - 2025 Polls/Rankings/Awards

not sure what goes into Torvik ... but why is ours so low?

Lot of numbers. Just like the rest. Kenpom kpi sos the secret Net. Tho a preseason predictive one has to be hardest. Regardless Torvik is now formally a metric the ncaa looks at. Let’s see what kenpom does w theirs. Could def be better but I doubt significant.

I still feel like the program & lot of fanbase prefer low expectations. I don’t get it. I like it much better when I have high expectations of my teams going in. Plus it’s the only time Mooney has ever made the NCAAs.

Do you approve of the move to the Patriot League?

I went back and watched the May interview of John OConner by the NDSU play by play guy. He confirmed everything in this post. He also noted that the NIL pool of money for Richmond was finite and the school chose to emphasize basketball.

JOC also said that he thought the CAA will probably dissolve in the near future and that UR wanted to get ahead of that.

I still think there is a lot of institutional snobbery towards Hampton and NC A&T and Campbell. Some of that snobbery may be rooted in latent racism against HBCSUs. There is no room for snobbery unless you can beat these schools on the field.

From a fan's perspective, why now? Why make the sudden move out of the CAA now? It would have been better for the school to wait and see whether the other schools will be able to improve their football programs. But, the new president wanted to "change things".

Oh and by the way, the "watered down" CAA schedule helped UR make the playoffs last year and it may help us make the playoffs again this year.
I would agree with the idea that UR was trying to get ahead of this CAA issue (which may or may not exist) and therefore decided to move conferences ahead of everyone else IF, we moved to a comparable 1AA football conference, or moved with a group of other teams - say UR, Villanova, and W&M all decided to leave at same time.

But as it stands now - we are the only team leaving the CAA, to a massive drop off in conference with the Patriot league - assuming the Patriot league doesn't expand their football conference. I mean, the Patriot league only has 7 teams today, did we really think spots would be taken up if we waited 6 months or till the end of this season and see what everyone else does.

I mean - looking at the top 25 FCS rankings right now, you have about 7 CAA teams listed in rankings or receiving votes. So its hard for me to imagine the CAA just plummets to the bottom or even below the Patriot league in terms of league strength right away. Maybe its a slow fall, with a team or two leaving here and there. But given its 1AA football, and given the condition as it stands today is fine - I don't get the rush to make the move out of CAA at this time. Might have been better to wait and see at the end of this season or next?

Football to Patriot League. Should basketball and rest of sports be concerned?

Sounds like Gonzaga to Pac-12 is finally going to happen. They apparently also talked to St. Mary's and Grand Canyon but seem to be turning attention back to football growth. Reports a few days ago indicated the Pac-12 was looking at Toledo and Northern Illinois for football, but there were some denials and things seem to have quieted down on that front. They may also make another run at the AAC schools that rejected their first try.

UTEP is leaving CUSA for the MWC. Texas State out of the Sun Belt may be next, but the Pac-12 is also sniffing around them.

The crazy game of musical chairs continues.
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Mens 2024 - 2025 Polls/Rankings/Awards

also ... scroll down a little to see the votes on this A10 talk ranking.
I don't know who votes but it's interesting that there's little consensus on a few teams including UR. we're picked as high as 4th and as low as 13th.

Do you approve of the move to the Patriot League?

Some thoughts on various posts on page 3 of this thread (don't want to use the quote function, my post would be way too long).

* "We don't want to associate with Hampton and NCA&T." Wait, I thought we were a "woke" school. Wouldn't a "woke" school be very happy with an association with an HBCU?

* We were competitive with JMU on the field back in the day, yes. But college football has changed since 2015. JMU is a huge (compared to us) public school that has become an FBS school on the backs of its students, who pay an astronomical amount in student athletic fees, about half of their budget. It has lower academic standards. It can easily get walk-ons. It will eventually pay millions in NIL. Their administrators have a different idea of where they want their football team to be. They will never be an P4 program. The Sun Belt is as high as they will ever get.

* Jim Miller and Chuck Boone would not have been able to stop JMU, ODU and Delaware from transitioning to FBS. They had no power over those other team's administrators. The CAA was always an uneasy balance between huge public schools, with varying academic standards, and us and Villanova. It was a shotgun wedding from the start. The PL, OTOH, has no academic/enrollment outliers.
I went back and watched the May interview of John OConner by the NDSU play by play guy. He confirmed everything in this post. He also noted that the NIL pool of money for Richmond was finite and the school chose to emphasize basketball.

JOC also said that he thought the CAA will probably dissolve in the near future and that UR wanted to get ahead of that.

I still think there is a lot of institutional snobbery towards Hampton and NC A&T and Campbell. Some of that snobbery may be rooted in latent racism against HBCSUs. There is no room for snobbery unless you can beat these schools on the field.

From a fan's perspective, why now? Why make the sudden move out of the CAA now? It would have been better for the school to wait and see whether the other schools will be able to improve their football programs. But, the new president wanted to "change things".

Oh and by the way, the "watered down" CAA schedule helped UR make the playoffs last year and it may help us make the playoffs again this year.

Mens 2024 - 2025 Polls/Rankings/Awards

As of October 1st, our friends over at A10 Talk, who I believe still don't have a UR correspondent & voting member, released their preseason A10 rankings.

8th seems fairly reasonable as a starting spot -- hope we will rise quickly like we did last year.

not sure what goes into Torvik ... but why is ours so low?

Mens 2024 - 2025 Polls/Rankings/Awards

With the stellar OOC schedule, I don’t think there will be much to base the team strength on until the Auburn game.

At this point, I would think somewhere in the 6-8 range is the expected preseason ranking. Lots of unknowns with this team compared to others that are ranked ahead of them.

Looking forward to seeing if the staff can keep the positive momentum going from
last year and hope the Spiders can avoid the end of season swoon. Definitely have a harder job this year with a larger rebuild effort, but it seems that they have done better on the talent acquisition side. Once again the question comes down to team chemistry and identity.

Go Spiders!

Mens 2024 - 2025 Polls/Rankings/Awards

We're now in October and our friends over at A10 Talk, who I believe still don't have a UR correspondent & voting member, released their preseason A10 rankings today.

8th seems fairly reasonable as a starting spot -- hope we will rise quickly like we did last year.

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Spiders Collective-Season Preview-Oct 4

not exactly. many options were discussed, including RC. The expense to hold the game at RC would have been significantly higher. This is more than just a "Red/Blue" game. Seats will be set up on the spare court. We think it will be a good event-between the short practice, intra-squad game and the post-game, it will be fun for spider fans and raise some funds for the NIL.

For those in Richmond who are tired of discussing our schedule and want to see the Spiders actually play on the court (albeit against one another), please go to www.spidersnil.com to buy your tickets.

What is not exactly…so if 1500 ppl wanted to pay & attend u would have said no & still used the practice facility? The more paid tix would have exponentially justified higher expenses. I was just saying there isn’t the attendance demand for RC right now. If there was we would surely have used it to raise a lot more funds. If u r disputing that statement I’d love to hear why. I get why using Queally practice facility u can only put so many in there but that works well based on expected demand.

It’s a nice, intimate event that is a good idea and hopefully grows too.
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