Big weekend
- Thread starter I-M-UR
- Start date
What if we played Walz and Quinn together for a bit? Something unexpected, gives us a bigger size advantage.
Like the Quinn/Walz idea. Walz is aggressive and that's what we need inside. Quinn is Quinn and that's good enough for me.
I really worry about quickness with the twin towers. My hunch is it would be disastrous lol.
They both play the same position on offense so we would have to redesign our offense for this to happen. Also on defense, VCU would have multiple options to create mismatches with a smaller quicker guard/forward on Walz/Quinn. Think it would not work well for us.
If I'm going to throw a wrinkle if we need to, I would go back to having Dji operate out of the 5 and go with a small ball line-up.
That being said, we are 13-2 in conference, no need to fix something that isn't broken. This would be a break glass in case of emergency scenario.
Fine. How about Walz, Quinn AND Soulis at the same time?? They can just pass to each other at a height that is impossible for vcu to intercept, and then dunk.
Almost feel like this should be considered the break glass in case of VCU scenario.
With that being said, I like the idea of Dji at the 5. It’s a shame we don’t have Roche too so we can have three threats from range out there with him
After Roche went down didn't Mooney say he anticipated Harris, Tyne, and Walz potentially getting more time? Walz was a little odd because he always subbed in for Quinn. Never played together. So if he was playing more it was at expense of Quinn nothing to do with Roche. But it made me wonder if Walz/Quinn big lineup was at least discussed. I don't think we see it tho.
Same could apply to Tyne. Not sure how Roche's minutes translate for him, since he usually comes in for DLo in the first half (I'm unsure about 2nd half.) I don't think we have run any uber-small lineups where all 3 small guards have been in together, which would be Roche's minutes being taken by him (sliding another small guard to the 3 spot.)
WE did this last year with Quinn and Grace and it wasn't great. I think this is a terrible idea.
KenPom says our 10th most common lineup over the past five games has been Tyne/Hunt/King/Bailey/Bigelow, representing 2.3% of minutes.
I can't remember specifically, but I'm assuming it's just like end of game scenarios where we need max ball handling and the other team is fouling.
Edit: Yeah, glancing at the play-by-plays, this does seem to be case...Tyne coming in for Quinn in the final minute or two of the game a few times.
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I agree. Maybe if we were playing some archaic offense with just bruisers.
But we should acknowledge it worked vs. Iowa in NCAAs. we played Golden and Grace some together late in year, and went big that game at times. it worked. Part of that was Grace being on a heater, also Grant was more athletic than Quinn. Of course maybe it was a lot less time together on court than I remember anyway. SF could give us the #'s.
Goose also was in foul trouble most of the Iowa game. Moon gave Crabtree and Sherod a couple minutes each but then yeah put all his guys playing best on the court in the big lineup. All had been at school forever so all had extensive knowledge of the offense. And Gilyard was as good as a coach on the court.
Well, if King, Hunt, Bigs, Harris and Dji, I feel there are more than 2 three point threats…
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The taller VCU guards gave Hunt and King big problems, yet VCU outscored us in the paint 30-26 where we had a significant size advantage. They used their advantage, we did not capitalize on ours. Use same game plan Saturday likely to get same result.
Remember VCU still has an outside chance of winning the regular season, if they were not motivated enough by the rivalry.
Remember VCU still has an outside chance of winning the regular season, if they were not motivated enough by the rivalry.
KE - very good points, they still have a pathway. They are playing with house money. They already whooped us once, even though I am hoping the crowd will be a boost - I am worried that VCU will be more loose and aggressive. Our guys have "more to lose" , plus I still worry in these big games when things go sideways - whether Mooney will just squeeze his water cup, sweat, and "let them play on". Going to need adjustments before and during the game. The "well that's not what got us here" argument doesn't fly with me. Can't change your strengths, but the great coaches sure as hell adjust game to game and within the game. Need Mooney to show us his A game and players take the challenge.
Speaking of crowd I'm a little concerned how much yellow will be there. Earlier in season 8legs mentioned UR changed the VCU game purchasing process, making tix open to all. I expect there will be more VCU fans than recent years but we'll see hopefully not the case, or we give them a great reason to be quiet.
The last few years were such a great improvement and the RC was still sold out so not sure why the policy was changed.
No doubt that VCU is going to play grind it out ball and I expect to see some pressing as well. UR sure didn’t handle pressure well last night and the game wasn’t particularly close when SLU decided to employ it.
C’mon Moon, give Quinn / Walz a try for a few mins. This is vs VCU, and we stunk at their place. People talk about pressure from VCU, but this year’s pressure is nothing like havoc. We can’t get beat twice in season by VCU. Pull out all the options. Don’t care if we are 13-2 or whatever. This is f’ing VCU. Just do it.
putting 2 non-ball handling big men on the floor together is not the way to handle any pressure, imo. plus one of them has to guard the perimeter and neither have shown they can.
Bigelow had 3 rebounds last time out. we need a big rebounding game from him.
Bigelow had 3 rebounds last time out. we need a big rebounding game from him.
Or at least we need to not lose overall rebounding by 15…
And probably shoot over 17% from three…
King, D-Lo and Dji with Quinn and Walz. vcu won't know which big is the distributor. Line them both up at the FT line or put one there and one down low. They'll be making back-door passes to each other while vcu defenders run into each other trying to figure it out.
Anecdote, but a close friend of mine that's a VCU fan and has been at every one of these games the past decade (minus covid) was unable to get a pair of tickets together through their guy and are sitting it out and they're typically plugged in. I don't think it'll ever be as bad as it was during the Shaka years.
I'm not sitting Bigelow unless he's gassed, and when he is I'm bringing in Harris.
There's two ways to beat Vcu. (1) have a great offensive performance (2) have a great defensive performance. We would all like to see us have both obviously. But I'd hedge my bets to defense. Hopefully our offense will show better than it did down there. Vcu's defense is good but certainly not great. We need to lock down their 3 point game and rebound. Offensively, take to the rack and finish, get them in foul trouble. We've got to play inside out.
One, we score more points than VCU. Second, VCU scores fewer points than UR.
8legs1dream
Team Manager
I thought it was a good policy as well over the past however many years they have been doing it. I think with us surging that certainly helps fill the seats with red when they are open to all, maybe in the future in a season that we are down and they are up the AD would reinstitute the policy.
Bigelow getting like 8 stitches in his lip (on a no call, I might add) certainly effected his playing time last game. I remember Bigelow with a slam in the closing minutes that had a little extra oomph on it. Thinking he might be a little angry/motivated from his most recent experience.
I think they are ready...I know Dji is...showed him the trash they posted on their MB about how they think they have better starting 5 and better bench. Which is funny to me...they're athletic but that's it for me. They are a team that lives by the three and honestly as bad as we played the 1st time it wasn't busted open until the last 3-4 minutes. I know our guys will be ready...a lot on the line and to play for! We haven't panicked all season, lets prepare for some "ram stew" 😂
If you dig deeper, they think Bamisile is the leading candidate for A10 POY…
