Seemed to benefit from not red shirting, getting early playing time, then seemed to tail off at end of season a bit.

Pros
Shot 40% from 3. He is shot ready. Shoots with confidence. Good form and gets shot off quick.
Energy. Bring energy and confidence off the bench. Can come in and make positive impact immediately.
Areas of Improvement
Ball handling. Not terrible, but he seems to have enough athleticism to use his good 3% shooting to fake guys and get to the rim. Many times he drives and can't seem to finish or get all the way to the rim. Improve the handle and I think it adds a ton to his game and ability to earn more minutes.
Foul prone - not a huge issue , may be due to knowing he is playing limited minutes.
Tweener - I know some of us are big proponents of position less basketball - and I am not opposed. But to Sman's point, you need to be able to guard your position at the least. Currently, I think his best role for his skill set is a Wing Forward, but I think he is not quite tall enough to defend and rebound at the forward spot.
Role Next Season - I see more of the same as this season - energy and shooting off the bench.
Best Case - He gets in the lab, finds a bunch of high level runs, improves his handle and ability to score of the dribble and makes himself into a Gonzo like shooting guard.

Frosh Hannah Lydic shot a program-record 65 in her first-ever collegiate round today...not bad!


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https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/ot...elcome-new-men-s-basketball-coach/ar-AA19jNuv

Means we will still have a tough time beating them............

I am going with B+. Really good job in the portal, we needed to strike while the iron was hot, and we did so.

I know there is some difference of opinion/philosophy on here - some don't believe we need athleticism inside - I do happen to like to have some strong athletic guys.

Shooting - we needed to add shooting. Roche is a tremendous pick up in this regard. Unfortunately coming off the injuries last season, Sherod was never quite back to his earlier form. Roche can bring that, and looks like the type that can carry us for stretches. Bigelow - I like this add, good length, shooting numbers were OK this past season. If he is a high 30's shooter from 3 (and has that potential from his pre injury stats) , then this grade goes to an A.

Golden replacement - Quinn looks like a slam dunk, and we had some competition for his services, so well done by Mooney and staff to get him in here - and two years left. Concern: looks slower than Golden. Have a source that thinks he will get killed in pick and roll in the A10. The good thing is he looks a legit 7 feet and not afraid to use that size. Great passer. Overall the positives outweigh concerns with athleticism/defense.

Interior athleticism - When Burton is not in the game, we could struggle defensively again against teams with legit interior players. I think Grace showed a lot of improvement last season. If he can continue that and play good D this concern is less. I see Bigelow as more of a wing/outside player, but has height and length to give us minutes in there. If he proves to be a capable interior defender, will address this concern too. Lastly, I do agree with those that will say the game is changing, this is true. The post up center is becoming extinct in the NBA, and we see a lot of four out type offenses in NCAA too. Still, my preference was to land a Nweke, Bryce Golden type on the interior to shore things up. Two out of the last 3 years we saw our offense run best when we had Grant and Cayo scoring from 5 feet and in. It worked well and opened up shots for the perimeter guys.

Overall, great job by Mooney and staff to identify guys, get them on campus and close the deal. Well done.

For those of you that knew him or worked with him.

Interesting, but horrifying lunch time read


Resurrecting the Yankee Conference

Shouldn’t really surprise anyone. Hope he finds a good landing spot.

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Not sure if anyone noticed, but Peter Thomas took home UR Assistant Coach of the Year award in the SPIDY Awards tonight.

And if your wondering what are the SPIDY awards - I think its just a bunch of awards that UR student-athletes and coaches give to themselves? Does that sound about right? Is it me or does this sound a little bit too much like everyone gets a trophy?

I have no problem having a banquet to recognize teams that had success during the year - which would likely mean a conference title, tourney championship, or post-season bid - but other than that - what are the SPIDY's for? And do other schools have similar programs?

Had heard that Walsh would be retiring, but didn't know details on replacement.

Not familiar with the new guy, but on the younger side out of Niagara, so he's coming from Spider alum Simon Gray's staff. (I know some have advocated for Gray to get looks when we've had AD openings.)

I know there are select dates you can enter and if a coach has been fired or a grad student, there is no restriction.
But I thought it was only allowed one time transfer without sitting out. So how in the world does Bamisille go in
portal 3 times without having to sit out. Also I thought some leagues established a one year sit out if transferring
within. the league. This is a travesty that the NCAA created that has taken the importance of education and
commitment and thrown them out the window.

No word on terms or length beyond "multi-year."

Saw where Richmond was being discussed as Nationals AAA affiliate. Almost seemed likely. But Nationals going with Rochester NY and Flying Squirrels and SF reupped their agreement. Lot of changes with MLB and MiLB teams. Too bad I was hoping Richmond and Nationals would partner up. Makes way too much sense geographically & more. Plus Richmond is really a better AAA fit. Have to think the lack of a new stadium hurt. But the Nationals and Richmond should connect eventually, I didn't get the sense that either Richmond/SF and Rochester/Washington were long term. But who knows would have been better had they figured things out now imo.

Headed to Daytona with Colorado, Florida State, and UNLV. We’ll have Siena as a campus game as part of it.

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Who do you have? The media seems to be all over VCU. Apparently St. Mary's guards turned the ball over like crazy against both BYU and Gonzaga, two teams that do not pressure the ball like VCU at all. St. Mary's does have very good Offensive and Defensive metrics, and slower pace may frustrate VCU. VCU comes in hot running through a weak A10 though. St. Mary's has played much tougher schedule. VCU should be able to bother and disrupt St. Mary's guard. Couple of X factors: As mentioned on other thread, this seems like the classic everyone is on VCU game. What can go wrong? Also, per Fan1's post, if the Ace rumors have some legs, or at least are circulating and the players have heard them, could play into the motivation and pysche of the Rams.

Either way, screw job from the NCAA not pitting these two against an over fluffed p6. I respect the hell out of the grind and will to win of both these mid majors. Probably pulling for St. Mary's in this one. Rhoades is a solid coach, but if he wins a couple and advances - could see him bolting. And I think VCU could grab someone better in that case. Either way, will be pulling for the winner. Love to see team and programs with an attitude, not a LOSER mentality like Queally.

Sports Backers - a great organization - and UR to collaborate on a new running event - a half and a 5K - with the first running set for March 9, 2024 that will begin and end on campus.

https://richmond.com/sports/college...0f4687062.html#tracking-source=home-top-story

Interesting article from the St. Louis paper about the A-10's challenging one-bid season, including comments from McGlade, the SLU AD, and Mooney. Highlights the poor OOC performance, both in terms of record and SOS, as one of the key issues (duh).

Scheduling will be discussed at the conference meetings next month and the article talks a bit about current expectations. McGlade says it's "possible" the A-10 may be able to set up a conference challenge like the MWC one that never got off the ground after COVID disruptions.

By posting a 1-19 record in Quadrant 1 nonconference games and 8-16 mark in Quadrant 2, the A-10 created a difficult path for any team to garner an at-large berth.

That will be a discussion at our May meetings because clearly it’s a challenge,” SLU athletics director Chris May said. “That’s a big concern. We’ll have to look at everything from scheduling to minimum requirements. We’ve been in the league with a lot of bids, but it’s not there right now.” [...]

The league has guidelines for nonconference scheduling but nothing that is mandatory. Last season, league members played 50% of nonconference games against Quadrant 4 opponents. All but four teams suffered at least one Quad 4 loss.

The league’s scheduling policy includes a goal of winning at least 70% of games before the start of A-10 play. This season the cumulative winning percentage in nonconference was .583.
So, there is a scheduling puzzle between incorporating upper echelon opponents — if you can’t get them to play — and building a good record.

“The (NCAA selection) committee looks at what you have control over in scheduling, and you have control in nonconference,” McGlade said. “If you’re going to schedule a team 250 or higher in the NET, you’d better win that game. It not only hurts your team but has a ripple effect for the rest of the league. We look at wanting to schedule teams that are 175 to 200 or better. That’s easier said than done.”

Click to expand...

I haven't done one of these in forever because frankly, I didn't have much good to say about our on court performance, but I enjoy doing them so here goes.

Player observations:

Grace: A lot of love is going to JayNel and Burton for their game last night but our comeback started with Grace taking the ball inside and scoring on SLU interior defense. Thought this was a good half time adjustment by PT after SLU baited us into taking an absurd amount of 3's in the first half.
Nelson: Dude, welcome back. I'm sure he feels like an 800 lb gorilla is off his back. I felt all he needed was to see a couple shots to go through the hoop and that certainly happened last night. Very happy for him. One point of contention, SLU took advantage of Jaynel on defense. He couldn't stay in front of Collins and SLU was very good at getting Jaynel on a mismatch against a bigger player.
Burton: Senior leader, best player on the court, but us on his back in the 2nd half after probably one of his worst halves in the first.
Roche: Hit some big 3's have a really difficult time staying with Jimerson when he was out there though. As great as Jaynel and Roche were on offense, they were both exploited on defense. Dji/Randolph/Goose defintely were a better defensive grouping.
Dji: Well bud, you can shoot the 3 ball Thought Dji played well but again tentative on offense. We saw what Jaynel is capable of the offensive end last night and if he gets his back into this flow, he is going to be back in the starting line up, so again seize the opportunity in front of you. Look to score more.

Peter Thomas: He is 1-0 and that is all that matters. Some things I liked is that he definitely had a different thoughts on rotation and player personnel than Mooney. Saw Jaynel and Roche as a sub pattern and then Dji and Randolph played together a bunch. I kind of liked that. Obviously he made some nice halftime adjustments and he didn't call the classic Mooney momentum killer time out so A+ on that front.

Now the negatives, SLU killed us on the out of bounds play under the basket. We gifted them a good 6 points maybe more on that. I have no earthly idea as to why Jaynel just stood there like a statue, not guarding the inbounds nor guarding the guy who then took into the rack. Whatever, that set is, we need to do some tweaks to it and we should have used a time out to address it. Defense was not great most of the night, we made a couple big stops at the end but Yuri Collins had 17 assists, which I didn't even know was possible to get that many assists and pretty much all of them translated to some pretty easy points.

I think if you told anyone that we would shoot 37 3's, Collins would have 17 assists, Okoro would have 14 boards, and Perkins would score his career high on us, most everyone would have told you that we got run out of the gym. But we got insanely hot from 3 in the second half and played with grit and determination. It is kind of too late to make any wholesale changes, I think PT has try to bottle what he saw in the second half and hope that a bunch of our players catch fire from 3 and play with the passion that was clearly evident on the court and on the bench and see if we can ride this out for the rest of the regular season and Brooklyn. Common sense tell you that is unlikely to happen but I think that is the best avenue at our disposal right now.

Thanks to spiderman for pointing this out in the tracker thread!

6' PG out of Newport News. Summer offers from Wake, South Carolina, with VCU, Georgetown, and Depaul offers back in the spring. Tech, Florida, ODU, SLU all offered way earlier.


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Getting the ole opponent tracker fired up for this year:
11/8/2022

Montana vs Duquesne - 7:00 ESPN+

For all those who celebrate Easter, I hope you have a great day of reflection and celebration with your families.

Hopefully the Spiders can find some extra “baskets” in the portal soon.

OK, now can re-focus on Richmond basketball, what needs to happen this offseason. We are stuck with Mooney, so may as well get on board that we can get some players, can make some changes, and have a good season and make the NCAA's next season.

1) Boyden / Defense - One thing I liked last season is bringing in Boyden, and Mooney ceding some of the defensive reigns over. Thought the team played with more intent and toughness on D, especially at the start of the season, before the wheels fell off. Let's let Boyden instill this more, it needs to be an everyday practice thing and instilled from day 1. Saw too many practice clips in the preseason of Quinn having his way with Walz down low. Walz needs to come in with a mentality that he is going to stop him every time and vice versa. This has been a complaint of mine for years, the overall softness on D, and practice seemingly. I think Boyden took steps toward fixing that, it does not happen over night. Needs to be an all day every day mentality. I think Bigelow can be a big part of this. Dji too if he can stay healthy and get a little stronger.
2) Guard play - Probably some of the most average guard play we have had in a while. We did not have guards that could create or make tough shots, like has been the norm in the past with Gilly, Francis, Gonzo, Brothers, KA, and on and on. And I am not sure what we have next year. PG - Nelson seems to be the only pure pg on the roster currently. Smith - seems like he played off ball a bit in h.s. but I could be wrong on that. Dji - like his length, quickness - but think of him as more of a point forward type. This will be a key decision for Mooney this offseason. Do you bring in an established pg from the portal. Does he think Nelson is that guy, and with a season to shake off the rust will show major improvement. Is Smith ready. Can Dji be an option? Off guard - Again, some solid players in Roche and Randolph. Both have some very valuable skills, quick release, confidence and can make 3s. But neither is a Gonzo or Francis type. So they have to have plays made for them. We absolutely need a guard in the portal, whether a point, off guard, combo whatever that score, and score at three level preferably. AND defend.
3) Forwards. If Burton decides to return we are in good shape here IMO, if Bigs is back too. These guys are both physical and I love Bigs effort on D. I want him playing minutes for his competitive spirit, defense, and rebounding, whether or not his 3 pointer returns. If, I know a big IF, both Burton and Bigs back and improve/get back to their top 3 point shooting seasons, this is an elite forward combo in the A10. I like Dji and Randolph in this rotation too. All that said, in this portal era - I think we do need to bring in an athletic 3 point shooter. O'neil would have been the perfect type. As we know, it is probably asking too much for both Bigs and Burton to be back, and to both shoot it great from 3. We can hope but need to plan that we have another athletic 3 point shooter, and we should be able to find in the portal.
4) Center - I think we are in good shape here. Again, PLEASE have open competition and implore Walz to win the job. Thought Quinn looked very good at times, but has athletic limitations. Need to have both guys fighting for their basketball lives.

I know this does not address the Triumvirate issue, which is the core problem, but this is the path to a good season and and NCAA season next year. We need to hit a home run on two starter level players in the portal, hope Burton comes back, and have at least 2 returners take a substantial jump. Lot to ask, but doable.

How about Furman just taking down UVA? Furman was sure crumbling down the stretch, but UVA just gave it away. Can't say I'm upset about that one.

Best wishes to Mooney. Not expected back this season.

Meeting with team now, public announcement at 2.

Don't think I have seen any game, any sport more influenced by the refs. What a shame!