2018-2019 Starting Lineup

[fan2011]

Makes a lot of sense. Khwan might be talented, but he is not a good shooter, and his only position is PG, which does not fit for our team because we have one better. Buck is a great athlete and has some talent, but is not a great shooter or ball handler, which is likely a big reason why BCS schools and probably numerous mid majors showed no interest in him.

These guys are good to have on your team as 15 minute role players, but they have too many holes in their games to be on the floor for much longer than that. With their size, you have to be able to consistently make outside shots and draw the defense out. They did just the opposite, teams played off of them, clogged the lane, and dared them to shoot. That is never a recipe for success.

The reason buck didn’t get looks from better schools has more to do with the way he left the program than his basketball ability. He was 13th and 16th in the A10 in 3fg% his freshmen and sophomore years, it is pretty crazy to claim shooting was a weakness of his. It wasn’t his greatest strength, but he certainly wasn’t a weakness either.

 

[VT4700]

Wasn’t Buck the Virginia HS 5A player of the year his junior year? I recognize there’s a sizeable difference between high school and college but don’t think that he had a lot of holes in his game. He’s an acceptable outside shooter and ballhandler but not as good as Jake or Nick respectively. But he was a better defender and rebounder than either, so he was perhaps utilitarian.

I think he should be a glue guy in our system but instead was forced into a primary role and playing often as a very undersized PF. That’s not a recipe for success but if he comes back this year as SG he does a lot of things well enough that I’d still want him on the team.

I agree Buck, at 6'4 with a shaky outside shot and below average ball handling skills, but a good athlete is a better suited glue guy. He did not play PF. Not even close. PF does not even exist anymore. He played outside the paint as much as Jacob and Nick. The game has changed and basketball years ago went away from having teams made up of a PG, SG, SF, PF, and C. The old school PF days had a big and tall guy who lived inside, and had moves around the basket. No one does that for a whole game anymore, and Buck rarely did it at all. Not even "centers", which pretty much do not exist as well. Look no farther than Grant, who plays outside as much as he does inside. Most teams only have guards and forwards listed, with nearly all of them being able to shoot a little from outside.

 

[VT4700]

The reason buck didn’t get looks from better schools has more to do with the way he left the program than his basketball ability. He was 13th and 16th in the A10 in 3fg% his freshmen and sophomore years, it is pretty crazy to claim shooting was a weakness of his. It wasn’t his greatest strength, but he certainly wasn’t a weakness either.

No way was the way he left the program a reason for where he landed. Plenty of teams have taken transfers with a lot more baggage than Buck had. Bottom line is his game does not translate to a BCS or top mid major program. And, yes, shooting was a weakness. He always had open look after open look and was only able to shoot his set shot because teams played off of him. Any good shooter would be well above 40% from 3 if they always had open looks, and Buck could not even get to 33% last year.

 

[VT4700]

The reason buck didn’t get looks from better schools has more to do with the way he left the program than his basketball ability. He was 13th and 16th in the A10 in 3fg% his freshmen and sophomore years, it is pretty crazy to claim shooting was a weakness of his. It wasn’t his greatest strength, but he certainly wasn’t a weakness either.

He was not 13th and 16th in 3 point %. Not even close. He was 31st his freshman year and 36th last year.

 

[spiderman]

The reason buck didn’t get looks from better schools has more to do with the way he left the program than his basketball ability. He was 13th and 16th in the A10 in 3fg% his freshmen and sophomore years, it is pretty crazy to claim shooting was a weakness of his. It wasn’t his greatest strength, but he certainly wasn’t a weakness either.

he's a good shooter who shot horribly from 3 in the OOC games last year.

 

[spiderman]

He was not 13th and 16th in 3 point %. Not even close. He was 31st his freshman year and 36th last year.

2011 is looking at his conference stats. he shot 39.1% from 3 in-conference. but he was 17-62 OOC.

 

[urmite]

2011 is looking at his conference stats. he shot 39.1% from 3 in-conference. but he was 17-62 OOC.

Didn't Grant do the reverse? 32.6% OOC 20.6% A-10?
And Jacob 41.5% OOC 36.0% A-10...

 

[MrTbone]

He did not play PF. Not even close.

If he wasn’t playing forward, I don’t know who was. Was he sitting in the paint? No. But he definitely played quite a lot of “forward” at both ends of the court. Ignoring the semantics of PF vs F vs F/G, he wasn’t playing a role well suited to him.

 

[whampas]

Buck is gonna light us up when he comes home to VCU as a grad transfer in 2 years.

It won't be Richmond that he's lighting up.

 

[VT4700]

If he wasn’t playing forward, I don’t know who was. Was he sitting in the paint? No. But he definitely played quite a lot of “forward” at both ends of the court. Ignoring the semantics of PF vs F vs F/G, he wasn’t playing a role well suited to him.

But, that's the issue, and why he ended up 3,000 miles away at a non major that went 12-18 last year. Should he play guard? When he can't handle the ball well, or shoot well from outside? He does not really have a role that suits him, other than a come off the bench, provide energy type of guy.

 

[urmite]

You guys and gal (Philly Spider) have no clue.

Will we have a clue 96 hours from now?

 

[97spiderfan]

But, that's the issue, and why he ended up 3,000 miles away at a non major that went 12-18 last year. Should he play guard? When he can't handle the ball well, or shoot well from outside? He does not really have a role that suits him, other than a come off the bench, provide energy type of guy.

Buck could have played BCS ball at any number of schools. He was A-10 rookie of the year for the love of god. Shot 34% from 3, averaged 11 and 6 as a freshman and sophomore in the A-10. Really good defender, excellent rebounder for a guard, athleticism was off the charts. Yeah, no BCS schools would have wanted that.

I don't know why he went to Cal-Bakerfield, maybe he and his family thought he needed to play at a lower stress environment and get his act together. Maybe he likes Cali. I'm sure the fact that he got dismissed from the program didn't help matters. And if he didn't have a role that suits him than why was your boy, Mooney, playing him 30 plus minutes a game? Why did we market our program around him last year?

Pretty clear why you have a bias against Buck. If he was still here, you would be out cheerleading about how great of a "Big Four" we have coming back.

 

[MrTbone]

But, that's the issue, and why he ended up 3,000 miles away at a non major that went 12-18 last year. Should he play guard? When he can't handle the ball well, or shoot well from outside? He does not really have a role that suits him, other than a come off the bench, provide energy type of guy.

I think he can play a SG/Swing role and be effective. He doesn’t have to be the primary ballhandler or shooter but plays excellent D and rebounds very well for his size. Also passes well. I expect he’ll do fine. Hopefully one of our new guys does those things as well or better. TBD.

 

[spider fan]

Curious as to how this thread became the "All about Buck" thread? I can predict with certainty that he will not be in our 2018-2019 starting lineup.

 

[SpiderDaMan]

I see a number if posts discussing how we will be better (or not), but what i think they seem to be missing is that NS, GG and JG will all be better this year than last. This is not about addition by subtraction or an other BS like that it about maturation. I think their improvement alone more than offsets what we lose.

I'm all about positive, but losing a Buck is awful hard to replace when the lineup was looking pretty good for a top 4 finish.

 

[SpiderDaMan]

Curious as to how this thread became the "All about Buck" thread? I can predict with certainty that he will not be in our 2018-2019 starting lineup.

Unfortunately, no matter what the bummer circumstances are a player of his caliber can't be replaced. I was looking forward to watching him make big noise in the A10.

 

[urfan1]

Unfortunately, no matter what the bummer circumstances are a player of his caliber can't be replaced. I was looking forward to watching him make big noise in the A10.

Most Spider fans were also

 

[SpiderK]

Unfortunately, no matter what the bummer circumstances are a player of his caliber can't be replaced. I was looking forward to watching him make big noise in the A10.

I was too.

 

[LongTimeSpiderFan]

Unfortunately, no matter what the bummer circumstances are a player of his caliber can't be replaced. I was looking forward to watching him make big noise in the A10.

He'd have been the fourth offensive option (at best) on his own team. Ya, some of his attributes will certainly be missed, but theres a huge gap from where he would have been to making "big noise" in the A10

 

[CarolinaSpider]

I think missing Kwan and Buck from a defensive standpoint will hurt. Also though
neither one was the greatest outside shooter, they both could drive and attack the
rim better than anyone else on the team. When you have to guard driving to the
basket, then that does open up outside shot for others.

Personally I thought Kwan improved his game last year, where Buck just seemed
to drop off some from his frosh year. Bucks intensity just did not show up every game.

 

[spiderman]

RTD repeated that our starting lineup is Gilyard, JJ, Nick, Nathan and Grant.
top expected contributing newcomers are Woj, Noah, Sal and Andre.
Tomas is still out with a small fracture in his ankle.
no beer Saturday. still pending approval.

 

[urmite]

I think missing Kwan and Buck from a defensive standpoint will hurt. Also though
neither one was the greatest outside shooter, they both could drive and attack the
rim better than anyone else on the team. When you have to guard driving to the
basket, then that does open up outside shot for others.

Personally I thought Kwan improved his game last year, where Buck just seemed
to drop off some from his frosh year. Bucks intensity just did not show up every game.

Yes, defense, rebounding, and drawing fouls is what needs to be replaced.
I think Andre may be a top candidate for drawing fouls on drives. If euro game translates to D1.

 

[MountainSpider]

RTD repeated that our starting lineup is Gilyard, JJ, Nick, Nathan and Grant.
top expected contributing newcomers are Woj, Noah, Sal and Andre.
Tomas is still out with a small fracture in his ankle.
no beer Saturday. still pending approval.

It makes it a lot harder to get excited about this season when the A10's worst bench now comprises 40% of our starting lineup. Hope they step it up quickly or the newcomers take their jobs. Otherwise predictions like #210 will become a reality.

 

[spiderman]

not sure what you expect from a bench when we had 5 starters playing over 30 mpg and taking over 85% of the team's shots last season.

I think Nathan and Julius will be fine in their roles but won't play 30 mpg like Buck and Khwan did. Woj probably gets most of the non Julius minutes at the 2. Andre subs for Jacob and maybe a little extra time at the 2. Noah spells Nick while Sal splits time with Nathan at the 4, and Nathan spells Grant.

 

[97spiderfan]

not sure what you expect from a bench when we had 5 starters playing over 30 mpg and taking over 85% of the team's shots last season.

I think Nathan and Julius will be fine in their roles but won't play 30 mpg like Buck and Khwan did. Woj probably gets most of the non Julius minutes at the 2. Andre subs for Jacob and maybe a little extra time at the 2. Noah spells Nick while Sal splits time with Nathan at the 4, and Nathan spells Grant.

We had 5 starters play over 30 minutes and take 85% of our shots last year BECAUSE our bench was terrible. We had an above average starting 5 last year, but probably had the worst bench in the league.

 

[spiderman]

maybe. I just don't think our best 5 were 30 mpg guys because we feared playing the bench. we thought those 5 were really good and wanted them out there that much.

but as good as they looked on paper, they won 12 games. the starting 5 wasn't good together.

 

[nathanw19]

RTD repeated that our starting lineup is Gilyard, JJ, Nick, Nathan and Grant.
top expected contributing newcomers are Woj, Noah, Sal and Andre.
Tomas is still out with a small fracture in his ankle.
no beer Saturday. still pending approval.

I expect JJ to be coming off the bench by February (hopefully earlier) OR be a starter in name only, where either Woj or Sal has more minutes than JJ.

If not, I’m not very optimistic for the season. I like JJ, but as a role player.

 

[97spiderfan]

maybe. I just don't think our best 5 were 30 mpg guys because we feared playing the bench. we thought those 5 were really good and wanted them out there that much.

but as good as they looked on paper, they won 12 games. the starting 5 wasn't good together.

Did you watch our bench play last year?. JJ our top bench player went through a 10 game stretch at the end of the year when he played nearly 170 minutes and scored a grand total of 18 points. 8 of those games he didn't score a single point. This is the same player who is now our starting 2 guard, replacing Khwan, who stunk so bad, he is now playing at Louisville.

The rest of the bench included Cayo who averaged a whopping 2 points per game and a senior walk-on. That was our bench. I'm not even mentioning players like JMA, who even Bob Black, said was a disaster earlier this year or Friendshuh, who Mooney didn't even both to play during his senior game. If Mooney wasn't afraid of playing his bench players, well he must had some mighty tasty vodka in his little sippy cup on the sidelines.

So, OK, maybe our starting 5 wasn't good together last year as evidenced by the win total. But our starting 5 had literally zero help. Mooney couldn't tinker with his line-ups options because the bench talent was so poor and the drop off so steep. We had to play our starters against fresher players because they were logging so many minutes. And now that bench talent is in our starting line up.

 

[97spiderfan]

I expect JJ to be coming off the bench by February (hopefully earlier) OR be a starter in name only, where either Woj or Sal has more minutes than JJ.

If not, I’m not very optimistic for the season. I like JJ, but as a role player.

Me to, he is a great role player. A 10 minute a game guy who comes in gives you energy, hustle, maybe the occasional bucket. JJ does not have 1 starting caliber A-10 talent in his arsenal though.

 

[MountainSpider]

we thought those 5 were really good and wanted them out there that much.

That may have been true for four of our starters, but nobody wants a 6' player shooting .275 from 3 and a below average handle playing 30+ minutes at SG.

 

[spiderman]

That may have been true for four of our starters, but nobody wants a 6' player shooting .275 from 3 and a below average handle playing 30+ minutes at SG.

come on, Khwan was a good player. his handle was fine.

 

[VT4700]

I am fine with Nate starting, and think he will play well this year. I like the looks of his game, no matter what his minutes and numbers showed last year. His minutes picked up in A-10 play and that experience will help going into this year. Let's not forget that Justin Harper averaged 8 minutes and 3 points a game his freshman year.

I am also fine with JJ starting and I think people are worrying too much about us if that is the case because it is not like he will be playing 30 minutes a game and we need him to score big for us. If JJ, Wojcik, Noah, Sal and Andre all get decent minutes and all help us out, who cares who is starting?

People should not be so worried about our 4th and 5th starters. Very few teams have more than 3 double digit scorers. We don't need Nate, JJ or any of the new guys to average double figures for us, but we will need production from them, and I think we will get it. I am confident they will all fit better with our big 3 than the guys who left.

 

[VT4700]

come on, Khwan was a good player. his handle was fine.

Good player, yes. Great athlete, yes. And, yes, he could handle the ball, but teams played off of him and dared him to shoot for a reason.

 

[MrTbone]

People should not be so worried about our 4th and 5th starters. Very few teams have more than 3 double digit scorers. We don't need Nate, JJ or any of the new guys to average double figures for us, but we will need production from them, and I think we will get it. I am confident they will all fit better with our big 3 than the guys who left.

You do need the 4th and 5th guys for defense though, I think it's reasonable to be somewhat worried. At least we get a size increase with Nathan and JJ replacing Khwan and DMB.

 

[MountainSpider]

come on, Khwan was a good player. his handle was fine.

If you want to quibble about his handle, sure, but for the bigger picture of your claim....

Lay off the sauce spiderman! We went 12-20 and you think our starting five was too good to sub for and don't have an issue with the performance of our bench either. You must be Mooney's biggest detractor then, because how else do you explain our record last year?

I think there is room for optimism this year but a lot of that hope is rooted in Sal being on the all rookie team, not sitting on the bench. It is fine if he starts the year there, but he needs to move up quickly.

 

[spiderman]

lol. guess I don't explain myself well.

I wish we had guys on our roster last year so good as to move all 5 of our starters to the bench! we didn't. those were our best 5. and if you're saying Khwan sucks and shouldn't have been a starter, I disagree.

I don't believe we lost 20 games because any of our starting 5 were not starting quality players. or because they were overworked. and I don't think we lost 20 because our bench didn't score enough, or didn't play enough. and I don't think it was scheme or coaching. I think we lost 20 because our starting 5 wasn't good enough. not individually, but as a unit. the total wasn't greater than the sum of the parts. and it needs to be.

I don't think our new starting forward (Nathan/Sal) and our new guard (JJ/Woj/Andre/Noah) need to be better basketball players than Buck and Khwan for us to be a better team. I think the pieces need to fit better. we don't need 5 equal scoring options on the floor. we need a better team composition. I think we might have it.

now excuse me. it's 5 o'clock somewhere. back to the sauce.

 

[3genspider]

Don't be surprised to see Wojcik start at 2 and avg 10+ pts. He is lights out from 3.

 

[urfan1]

now excuse me. it's 5 o'clock somewhere. back to the sauce.

LOL

 

[SpiderK]

not sure what you expect from a bench when we had 5 starters playing over 30 mpg and taking over 85% of the team's shots last season.

I think Nathan and Julius will be fine in their roles but won't play 30 mpg like Buck and Khwan did. Woj probably gets most of the non Julius minutes at the 2. Andre subs for Jacob and maybe a little extra time at the 2. Noah spells Nick while Sal splits time with Nathan at the 4, and Nathan spells Grant.

Watch and see if JJ misses his first shot in each game does Mooney give him the quick hook. He is a streaky shooter at best and fouls a lot.

 

[spiderman]

JJ's starting for now. we all want production from the 2 so I hope either he plays great given this opportunity or someone plays better. Woj is a shooter and has a college ready build. even if he isn't starting, he could be a guy that gets starters minutes quickly if he's playing well.