La Salle Game Thread
- Thread starter spiderstudent17
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Right. And what the hell else are they going to gameplan for? Grace? Oddo?
And Oddo getting in the game instead of Sal. WTF was that about?
I think they were putting in their best three point shooters.
Why Sal didn’t get a minute at any point earlier is a sad state of affairs.
Why Sal didn’t get a minute at any point earlier is a sad state of affairs.
Thanks to MidMajorMatt for pointing out this link: https://richmondspiders.com/watch/?Archive=2637&type=Archive
"Let's cut it down to the essence of what's going on this season. This is a team that I'm sure feels a lot of pressure playing at home, game after game, because they haven't had the same kind of support at home. And quite honestly they haven't played to earn it this year in a lot of ways. So, when you're playing at home, and it's not been a terrific atmosphere, and you don't have a lot of fans that are necessarily feeling like they're on your side - because there has been a lot of criticism of this team - I would imagine a team would play tighter down the stretch in a tight game at home."
Thanks for the link. I did not catch the postgame until the 3:48 mark after the game, so now that I have listened to more of the report I do agree that Matt Smith made some very good points during the postgame wrapup. However the way he presented his case at the 3:48 mark is at the very least a poor choice of words. What does this mean "haven't had the same kind of support at home". Is he trying to say that the environment at an away game is BETTER than at home? Didn't we see the same type of issue closing out St. Louis on Wednesday? Then the part that I reacted to when I was in the car "when you're playing at home, and it's not been a terrific atmosphere" - this is a misstatement. Mooney in his postgame pointed to good fan support especially during the last two games. The level of fan enthusiasm has been about as good as it gets at the RC based on the last 8 years I have been attending games. I realize that it is not selling out, but it is "close" to capacity.
The problem is that the team has a confidence problem that is amplified at home. It has nothing to do with the fans in attendance at the games, but that is what he seemed to infer. Even if it is "this board", there are at best 100 people talking on this board and 6000+ at the games if you look at the reported attendance, so something isn't adding up.
Long story short, right idea, wrong words.
The problem is that the team has a confidence problem that is amplified at home. It has nothing to do with the fans in attendance at the games, but that is what he seemed to infer. Even if it is "this board", there are at best 100 people talking on this board and 6000+ at the games if you look at the reported attendance, so something isn't adding up.
Long story short, right idea, wrong words.
Matt is just providing the proven business axiom that
"When you stink at what you do and you provide lousy customer service, the solution is to CRITICIZE THE CUSTOMER"
No, no, no, no no no no no no no no no. 6 guys is not enough, and they will get tired, and execution will suffer at the end of the games. Not coincidentally, we suck in the last 5 minutes of every game.
Also, Noah Yates is not the answer. Sal may not be the answer, but we should at least find out.
No one will mistake me as a Matt Smith fanboy. I think he has deliberately stuck his finger in the eyes of the fanbase on a number of occasions.
However, I feel this statement is kind of on point. Of course, you can read into it and it might have been said a bit better. But to me, it speaks volume about the culture around our program. A number of us spoke about the culture around University of Richmond basketball being toxic and this quote I think exemplifies what we meant.
Fans don't like the direction of the program, the product on the floor, the constant losing to bad teams, the fading away pattern we have late in the second half and when you see those things over and over again, this is what happens.
I know the players are probably the ones that feel this the most and that is what Matt if reflecting but make no mistake they are not the ones that we feel are at the root of the problem. We all know who that is.
Agreed, watching the telecast, Bob Black said at about the 5 minute mark, that Gilyard's "legs" looked tired. Of course, they did he hasn't had a moment rest. Bob and Greg also commented that the team was doing a lot of standing around in the second half on offense. Yes, because they were tired.
Our "Big 3" (I hate that term for the record) is asked to do everything because the rest of our roster just can't. So, of course, they are going to be less fresh in comparison to other teams who have quality depth and more A-10 level players.
Also, I second the opinion that "Noah Yates is not the answer". JJ is not the answer either. I'd like to see if Sal could be a potential answer though.
yes, they will get tired if they play 40 minutes and don't get rest. My point is even with six guys you can still give guys plenty of rest. Even Villanova, Duke, and Virginia, teams that you might think would have a lot of depth, have all played six guys at some point the last few years. The key is substituting properly, using a timeout if necessary, and working in some rest around media timeouts. No one should get tired playing 34 minutes a game, which can easily be accomplished with six guys. I am not saying 6 guys is what you want to have, or that it is ideal. I am only saying it is doable with the proper substitutions.
I take issue with the statement that fans "are not on your side." Absurd. Talk about #fiction
OK, a compromise. How about this: it sounds like we both agree that Chris Mooney has not shown the ability to do this properly, so it does not appear to be doable for us. Or at least in a manner that leads to victories.
The problem is he comes across as "The direction of the program, the product on the floor, the constant losing to bad teams, the fading away pattern we have late in the second half, this is what happens...when fans don't like the program." Whether that is what he meant is a different topic, but that is what people are reacting to.
The problem with this theory is that CM doesn't do the proper substitutions. He has not been strong at his substitutions patterns for awhile now.
Air balls are often a sign of tired legs, you're not shooting any more you're throwing the ball at the basket. 6 guys or 10 guys, the season is going no where so play the young guys, help get them ready for next year.
Gilyard is playing 40 minutes nearly every night. Tough to give a guy rest, when you literally never take him out of the game. Cayo is also averaging 38 plus minutes over the last 5.
It's not tough to get guys some rest. You can sub them out around a media time out and so they might only miss a couple minutes of game time but actually get more rest than that.
Bob was saying on the call against LaSalle that Cayo's legs looked tired, that the team was just standing around, LaSalle was making a run, he said at least twice, that now might be a good time to call a time out. Did Mooney call one? Of course not.
Even really simple decisions like seeing your players are tired, or seeing you squad disorganized and calling a time out, Mooney is incapable of doing. You almost have to question is he just mailing it in now.
It's not tough to get guys some rest. You can sub them out around a media time out and so they might only miss a couple minutes of game time but actually get more rest than that.
Bob was saying on the call against LaSalle that Cayo's legs looked tired, that the team was just standing around, LaSalle was making a run, he said at least twice, that now might be a good time to call a time out. Did Mooney call one? Of course not.
Even really simple decisions like seeing your players are tired, or seeing you squad disorganized and calling a time out, Mooney is incapable of doing. You almost have to question is he just mailing it in now.
Along with the reasons outlined already of why we lose down the stretch with the "Mooney drought & collapse", CM's stubbornness of not playing the 2-3 zone at least 50% of the game is a head scratcher. Only time I felt Explorers were off balance, didn't drive, AND our front court guys were actually in position near the basket to box out and rebound. If nothing else, do everything completely opposite last 10 min and maybe they'd have a chance to win one in RC.
Midlo, I think you are on to something here. Mooney used to take the air out of the ball with the lead late in games, which always seems to take the team out of the rhythm that they used to get the lead in the first place. We don't do that as much now, but still have the same result.
I think our guys are tired and worn down the last 5 minutes from not getting rest and not have a solid bench and no matter what we do, it isn't going to matter because we just are not very good to begin with.
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