Longwood-Players Version

[kneepadmckinney]

The Mooney aspect is covered well in the other thread. So as for the players yesterday:

• Grant Golden is absolutely atrocious on defense. He stands there and watches people drive into the lane and practically gives them a two handed hip boost to help them have an open shot at the rim. When coupled with our complete inability to stay in front of a guy on the perimeter, it doesn't work and it's not going to start working. He's awful on that end of the floor.
• Nick Sherod continues to come up small in big moments. Makes a basket, comes off of the time out and bricks the free throw, then bricks a wide open 3 after Cayo got the rebound. Instead of 48-39 or 50-39, we stay stuck on 47 and it stayed there. He missed numerous open baskets when we needed him to score. He's just so soft.
• Gilyard stopped looking for his shot, and he can't do that. He has to be like Pipkins at UMass and just realize that we don't need 5 assists from him, we need 20 shots.
• Wojcik can play -- only real bright spot from my perspective
• Cayo was decent--I'd be fine with him putting his head down and attacking the basket more often
• Julius is totally un-impactful. He impacts the game not at all.
• Grace is not ready, but he needs to keep getting a few minutes here and there to hopefully be at least passable by February.
• Yates was pointless, figuratively and literally.
• Gustavson got no chance to impact the game. I don't need to see Keith Oddo. I need to see Andre in that spot.
• Free Sal.

 

[Not-A-Homer]

The Mooney aspect is covered well in the other thread. So as for the players yesterday:

• Grant Golden is absolutely atrocious on defense. He stands there and watches people drive into the lane and practically gives them a two handed hip boost to help them have an open shot at the rim. When coupled with our complete inability to stay in front of a guy on the perimeter, it doesn't work and it's not going to start working. He's awful on that end of the floor.
• Nick Sherod continues to come up small in big moments. Makes a basket, comes off of the time out and bricks the free throw, then bricks a wide open 3 after Cayo got the rebound. Instead of 48-39 or 50-39, we stay stuck on 47 and it stayed there. He missed numerous open baskets when we needed him to score. He's just so soft.
• Gilyard stopped looking for his shot, and he can't do that. He has to be like Pipkins at UMass and just realize that we don't need 5 assists from him, we need 20 shots.
• Wojcik can play -- only real bright spot from my perspective
• Cayo was decent--I'd be fine with him putting his head down and attacking the basket more often
• Julius is totally un-impactful. He impacts the game not at all.
• Grace is not ready, but he needs to keep getting a few minutes here and there to hopefully be at least passable by February.
• Yates was pointless, figuratively and literally.
• Gustavson got no chance to impact the game. I don't need to see Keith Oddo. I need to see Andre in that spot.
• Free Sal.

Spot on accurate.

I don't think Sal is ready to help much now, BUT, like Grace, need to develop him for future.

 

[MrTbone]

My observations:

1. Nick can’t wait for the first 15 minutes of clock time to evaporate before he starts scoring.
2. Grant was out on the perimeter while Nathan was on the block. Huh?
3. Happy with what Nathan did when he had the ball.
4. Free throw shooting habits die hard
5. Longwood has sticky palms

 

[ur2K]

If longwood didn’t have like 10 walks/carries for turnovers, the score would have been a lot worse.

 

[97spiderfan]

Was at the game last night. We got beat by a Longwood team that won less than 10 games last year, picked 10th in the Big South, and playing with just as many new players as us and a new head coach.

It was plainly apparent, that Longwood had better athletes and players than we did. Longwood had at least 10 completely unforced traveling calls go against them, otherwise they would have beaten is even worse. Let that sink in for a moment. Longwood, a bottom dwellar Big South team, who has played D-1 ball less than Mooney has been our coach, had better players than we did.

 

[urfan1]

Not convinced they had "better" players than we did. Clearly they played with more intensity, were better organized than us. Seemed more focused on task. there were times I felt we were simply going through the motions.

 

[97spiderfan]

Also anyone listen to the pregame interviews with the players. There was literally no talk from them of winning and competing for an NCAA championship this year (gee, I wonder who sets that tone). It was all about "learning from last year" and not getting off to an embarrassing start like last year. Even with that amazingly low bar they set for themselves, we came out, first night, and had by far the most embarrassing loss possibly in program history.

If you are not embarrassed for our program by now, I don't know what to say anymore. I would be more outraged and embarrassed myself, but last night was entirely predictable for anyone who follows this program. It is just plain resignation at this point, that we are all going to suffer through this season, Mooney will get fired in March, and then whomever our new coach will be, has a long rebuild in front of them. Sad, that no one in our leadership had the foresight to see this train barreling down the tracks.

 

[97spiderfan]

Not convinced they had "better" players than we did. Clearly they played with more intensity, were better organized than us. Seemed more focused on task. there were times I felt we were simply going through the motions.

I am. We are a small, slow, unathletic team. The only hope when you have such a team is that you shoot lights out and look at what we did from 3 and even more importantly from the 3 point line. Same as last year.

All of the new players not named Jake, did not even have the appearance of D-1 talent. Everyone talked about Andres and Mooney is playing a damn walk-on over him.

 

[spider23]

Need a lead

I am. We are a small, slow, unathletic team. The only hope when you have such a team is that you shoot lights out and look at what we did from 3 and even more importantly from the 3 point line. Same as last year.

All of the new players not named Jake, did not even have the appearance of D-1 talent. Everyone talked about Andres and Mooney is playing a damn walk-on over him.

Yes, I really was watching as objectively as possible, because I have no hope for this year. We looked physically over matched and slow. I flipped over to other games on and was like WOW.

 

[SpiderRick]

I saw 5 minutes of intensity. The last 2 minutes of the first half and the first 3 minutes of the second half. Other than that it looked like the Delaware game last year.

 

[Spider2020]

Really disappointing that Woj and Cayo were probably our 2nd and 3rd best players last night. The Big 3 narrative is overhyped

 

[nathanw19]

Really disappointing that Woj and Cayo were probably our 2nd and 3rd best players last night. The Big 3 narrative is overhyped

I agree. Last night our big three were Cayo, gilyard, and Woj. Grant and Sherod have step up their games and be the leaders we think they are.

 

[coachfezz]

when I see Oddo substitution instead of Andre I was thinking that at this time Coach has lost GAME FOCUS of this time and situation and was thinking more about a new player with one minute play and trunover instead of GAME FOCUS. Just what I was thinking then and was feeling this is a bad sign for game managing. Just my opinion for 1 cent worth

 

[SpiderGuy]

I saw 5 minutes of intensity. The last 2 minutes of the first half and the first 3 minutes of the second half. Other than that it looked like the Delaware game last year.

The good news is the margin of loss this year was less than vs. Delaware even though we scheduled a weaker opponent. By next year if we schedule a D2 school for an opener there is a chance we may bring the margin of loss down even lower, or with a few breaks maybe we can win.

Now, with possibilities of a new coach next year...well...

 

[MrTbone]

when I see Oddo substitution instead of Andre I was thinking that at this time Coach has lost GAME FOCUS of this time and situation and was thinking more about a new player with one minute play and trunover instead of GAME FOCUS. Just what I was thinking then and was feeling this is a bad sign for game managing. Just my opinion for 1 cent worth

It’s incredible to me that we are in a situation where our best option when our PG needs a blow is to sub in a walk on. That is not a knock on Keith, it’s just flabbergasting that we don’t have a scholarship player who has more to offer.

 

[SpiderDaMan]

Uugh. Not a good sign for the A10. Not good at all. Shame. I don't know how this team gets much better. Hoping it was just a bad night.

 

[SpiderGuy]

It’s incredible to me that we are in a situation where our best option when our PG needs a blow is to sub in a walk on. That is not a knock on Keith, it’s just flabbergasting that we don’t have a scholarship player who has more to offer.

Moon Man sees something we don't.

 

[MrTbone]

Moon Man sees something we don't.

I don’t think that’s it, Keith is fine for a walk on. What’s distressing is that we don’t seem to have a backup PG on the roster. We have some combo guards, but they don’t seem to have beaten out Keith.

 

[ur2K]

Odo came in when we were down 2 with around 23 seconds left and we had to press to try and steal the ball - guess the walk-on is a better defender then the other scholarship athletes

 

[fatherspider]

Also anyone listen to the pregame interviews with the players. There was literally no talk from them of winning and competing for an NCAA championship this year (gee, I wonder who sets that tone). It was all about "learning from last year" and not getting off to an embarrassing start like last year. Even with that amazingly low bar they set for themselves, we came out, first night, and had by far the most embarrassing loss possibly in program history.

If you are not embarrassed for our program by now, I don't know what to say anymore. I would be more outraged and embarrassed myself, but last night was entirely predictable for anyone who follows this program. It is just plain resignation at this point, that we are all going to suffer through this season, Mooney will get fired in March, and then whomever our new coach will be, has a long rebuild in front of them. Sad, that no one in our leadership had the foresight to see this train barreling down the tracks.

Became a follower of Spider sports in 2013 when my daughter committed to UR. I cant believe CM is still this program’s coach. Shows the admin care little about success since the seats keep filling up even though we suck. Many here haVe called for mooney’s firing for years to great astonishment and anger and look where we are now. Sadly, this program is on the verge of conplete irrelevance and that is hard to come back from.

 

[Not-A-Homer]

Odo came in when we were down 2 with around 23 seconds left and we had to press to try and steal the ball - guess the walk-on is a better defender then the other scholarship athletes

No

 

[SpiderDaMan]

Moon Man sees something we don't.

What could that possibly be? Apparently he doesn't or he's just working on sneaking up on good opponents. Whatever it is I'm not getting it.

 

[Not-A-Homer]

when I see Oddo substitution instead of Andre I was thinking that at this time Coach has lost GAME FOCUS of this time and situation and was thinking more about a new player with one minute play and trunover instead of GAME FOCUS. Just what I was thinking then and was feeling this is a bad sign for game managing. Just my opinion for 1 cent worth

You are right! Said it the first time I watched him coach a game - Mooney is the worst, or close to the worst game management coach that I have ever seen.

Deion Taylor, Trey Davis, et al. "aye yai yai" , sadly it doesn't end there.

Wainwrong wasn't leaps and bounds better either.

 

[Spider2020]

Became a follower of Spider sports in 2013 when my daughter committed to UR. I cant believe CM is still this program’s coach. Shows the admin care little about success since the seats keep filling up even though we suck. Many here haVe called for mooney’s firing for years to great astonishment and anger and look where we are now. Sadly, this program is on the verge of conplete irrelevance and that is hard to come back from.

Half the seats were empty last night. Maybe they’ll finally be forced into action.

 

[fatherspider]

Half the seats were empty last night. Maybe they’ll finally be forced into action.

Lets hope but they will probably just give more tickets away to the boyscounts to give the appearance everything is dandy.

 

[SpiderDaMan]

<===== Me watching last night's game.

 

[urmite]

What could that possibly be? Apparently he doesn't or he's just working on sneaking up on good opponents. Whatever it is I'm not getting it.

Oddo is a senior walk on. All our other back up options at PG are freshmen that haven’t learned to read Mooney’s mind yet.

Oddo came in again in last few seconds in case we were going to intentionally foul.

 

[SpiderDaMan]

Oddo is a senior walk on. All our other back up options at PG are freshmen that haven’t learned to read Mooney’s mind yet.

Oddo came in again in last few seconds in case we were going to intentionally foul.

Sorry, maybe I was confused about who I was commenting on. My comment was directed by that Mooney guy who has shown beyond any reasonable doubt to be a nothing burger. It's irritating to watch a program as respected as yours get ruined. Notwithstanding the fact that I'm a VCU fan, I see our arch-rival being taken down the toilet. I want the old VCU UR games that meant something and a better A10 with us both on top of it.

 

[urmite]

Sorry, maybe I was confused about who I was commenting on. My comment was directed by that Mooney guy who has shown beyond any reasonable doubt to be a nothing burger. It's irritating to watch a program as respected as yours get ruined. Notwithstanding the fact that I'm a VCU fan, I see our arch-rival being taken down the toilet. I want the old VCU UR games that meant something and a better A10 with us both on top of it.

The post you quoted seemed to say Mooney sees more in the walk on then we do, and that is why he was 2nd string PG.

Don’t know if he was serious, or if you thought he was talking about the overall program.

 

[SpiderDaMan]

The post you quoted seemed to say Mooney sees more in the walk on then we do, and that is why he was 2nd string PG.

Don’t know if he was serious, or if you thought he was talking about the overall program.

Sorry. I misread and quoted the wrong post. What I had to say after I stand by.

 

[PASpider]

How is Sherod still not good? He’s got the build, the range, and the hype coming out of HS, but he’s so inconsistent even in his third year that he would be riding the bench for most teams

 

[coachfezz]

OOB play worked I like this for promise this season

 

[spiderman]

OOB play worked I like this for promise this season

yes, it was a nice flashback. in-bounder was patient. big man screened twice then slid. unfortunately was stripped and didn't finish.

 

[nathanw19]

yes, it was a nice flashback. in-bounder was patient. big man screened twice then slid. unfortunately was stripped and didn't finish.

I believe I was screaming “you’re only as tall as where you hold the ball” at Grant... Keep the ball high big fella!

 

[gospidersgo]

I was at the game Friday but haven't had chance until now to really put a few of my thoughts together:

Cayo - I liked seeing him take it to the hoop in the first half. With most interior attention on Grant this should be an option most games going forward. He's not going to overpower anyone but you can see he has some of that "slasher" in his game and I think we should utilize that. He largely disappeared as the game went along though.

Big 3 - Agree with most on here that they can't have a game like Friday if there's any hope for even an average season. Grant seemed gassed and out of shape. Nick was mostly invisible. I would say Gilyard played best out of the 3 but did not play well overall. Mooney or no Mooney going forward, I want these guys here next year but I want to see some fight and passion.

Wojcik - Great instincts, smart and fun to watch. If we can keep the 2 Jakes together and healthy the next 3 years we should be among the top steals per game on the country.

Most coaching issues have been brought up 1000 times already, but I will jusy say it's so disappointing to see the same problems rear their ugly head over and over again ("forgetting" players on the bench, saving 3 time outs until the game is lost, etc.). But especially in game one of a make or break season against what really should be a greatly overwhelmed opponent. There is no excuse for not being prepared to win that game. Players and coaches both shouldhbe embarrassed by that showing and not allow it to happen again.

 

[urmite]