Best defensive half in history of School?

[UR80sfan]

The 15 point 1st half against Dayton might be the best defensive effort by the Spiders during a half in the history of the program when you consider it was against a 16th ranked team. There possibly might have been other halfs with less points before the shot clock was added or against much less talented teams. Not only are our 5 starters outstanding defenders, but also our subs. Tyne is glued to the player he is guarding, Harris is quick and strong and Roche might be playing better on D than A.

 

[spiderman]

Roche is sometimes criticized here for defense but I think his positioning and effort are excellent. he's not as quick as someone like Dji, but he's very solid defensively.

 

[mr.spider]

The 15 points in a half might be the best against that level of competition. As mentioned in the Dayton thread I think, we held Temple to 9 at the half once (scoreless for 11 minutes). I thought we were about to beat that record on ourselves after 6 minutes of scoreless ball against Dayton. 😉

 

[mr.spider]

How many points did vcu get at the half the year we last made the Sweet 16? I want to say 14 or 19. We were up by 25 or so at the half.

 

[urmite]

Richmond 72-60 VCU (Dec 11, 2010) Final Score - ESPN

Game summary of the Richmond Spiders vs. VCU Rams NCAAM game, final score 72-60, from December 11, 2010 on ESPN.

www.espn.com

 

[mr.spider]

Ahh, 17. I was in the right range.

 

[Long Time Spider Fan]

Roche is sometimes criticized here for defense but I think his positioning and effort are excellent. he's not as quick as someone like Dji, but he's very solid defensively.

I agree with you Sman. He doesn't appear to have the quickness of the other guards/forwards who start or come off the bench and play substantial minutes, and he does get beat off the dribble some, but overall I think his defense is very solid. And its obvious he is trying his absolute best to play defense. He also seems to be consistently in the action around the ball and comes up with a lot of loose balls.

 

[spider23]

Not to derail the defensive discussion - because I do love some defensive discussion. I thought Roche made a really nice play when he cut to the basket at the end of the shot clock and Neal found him for the tough basket underneath. He battled to get to the spot, made a touch catch and finish in traffic. Super play. He seems to be slowly finding his groove this season. Some of his shots will make me cringe, but he is not scared out there and not afraid to make a play or take a big shot.

 

[Eight Legger]

Agree, 23. I would like to see Roche do more of that. I honestly thought that was not an intended play (looked like maybe he was just cutting to the other wing and Quinn happened to pass him the ball almost unexpectedly), but it worked very nicely.