KE Spider said:

Is this the same guy who had the lowest shooting percentage among starters, but took the most shots by far? Is this the guy that frequently took ill advised shots relative to game situation and shot clock? Is this the guy that took it upon himself to jack up ridiculously difficult shots at critical times rather than looking for an open teammate? Is this the guy who took a future NBA player to play second fiddle to his game?

Francis will forever be an esteemed Spider, but the adulation relative to the stats is suspect. Thin line between fearless and foolish, ask Custer.

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97spiderfan said:

I'm of the opinion that every good team needs an alpha. King was that for us last year. Blake Francis was an alpha. Gilly was an alpha during our A-10 tourney/NCAA run, he was not most of that year which is why we didn't live up to the hype most of the year. The alpha is the guy who wants the ball in their hands when we need a bucket or play needs to be made or at the end of the game.

Hunt to me is the most likely to be our alpha this year. He has the leadership ability to do so, but not sure if he will be the guy we entrust to make that critical bucket and or play.

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VT4700 said:

I think we will be more balanced, but agree you want to have that go to guy. You want him to be versatile, someone like Blake Francis, who could make the 3, drive to the basket, handle the ball, be quick with the ball, draw some contact to get fouled at times, finish at the basket, and create his own shot, including making a pull up mid range jumper if everything else is taken away. This has Hunt written all over it. He might not average 17 a game like Blake did, but I could see him as our leading scorer at 12-14 and the go to guy.

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Anachnid said:

Just spent four days walking around central Philly, the historic district and the art museums wearing a Spider hat and I got skunked!

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VT4700 said:

2 seasons ago, we had 8 OOC games announced by early June, and 12 OOC games announced before the start of August after adding Clemson as our 12th in late July.

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Anachnid said:

Just spent four days walking around central Philly, the historic district and the art museums wearing a Spider hat and I got skunked!

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RichmondNative said:

Definitely some passion out there on this topic. I will be very happy to see a full OOC slate so the prognosticators can weigh in on record and associated topics.

I think the hope of an at-large is fool’s gold for the following reasons in no particular order:
1) A10 is no longer a guaranteed multi-bid league. Two teams seems to be the ceiling and other A10 teams have more appeal than UR. The days of the giant killers are way in the rear view.
2) Mooney’s history - others have detailed this. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks
3) Power conferences have changed how they schedule and the NCAA has shifted the deck to favor P5 schools inclusion in the dance. A historical good enough record will likely not be good enough.
4) Player movement- NIL and the portal has changed team construction and now uncertainty rules in terms of the team strength. Another poster mentioned this and I agree (sorry not digging through thread to find, but kudos to the person).

I do want the staff to build the best schedule possible, but saying that it should be built to maximize the possibility of an at-large bid is simply folly, but it does fill up the time while waiting for something concrete to discuss (the bells, sirens and lights are getting very irritating /s).

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