Mens: Belmont @ RC - Sat 12/14 6pm ESPN+
- Thread starter Section9.RowD
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If they don't give a shit in practice it falls on the coach. Sounds to me like they have quit on him.
The absolute worst defensive team I have seen in years. All Scott and Bob talked about
post game was improved offense. Still too much standing around, but defensive coverage
decisions are awful. We might be better off trying zone.
post game was improved offense. Still too much standing around, but defensive coverage
decisions are awful. We might be better off trying zone.
8legs1dream
Graduate Assistant
How much longer can 4700Excuses go on this season without addressing the elephant in the room, seriously it is comical to me at this point.
& JOC instead of asking Moon about Walz’s who cares & lackadaisical practice attitude & the issue is effort not X&0s, asks Mooney about X and 0s! About D adjustment switching all ball screens 1-5. Ignored the big issue. Just a perfect microcosm of the media protection Mooney gets. Nothing even remotely difficult. Walz says THAT & u only ask about the D?
The other question was about Moon relationship with Brian Earl at W&M bc u know JOC 100% has a story about it to write in a few days. The Princeton connection and Princeton concepts 2 things we’ve never ever heard before.
I think Mooney speaks first, then the players, but your point is still valid because no one asked Walz any follow-ups about the bombs he had just dropped, either.
Quit on Mooney? If you listen to this former players they would never quit on Mooney. They were always quick to defend him no matter the criticism. What is going on?
There isn’t any Harry Truman effect in the basketball program. The buck doesn’t stop here. Sad when a player has to address a real issue and no follow up by coach. Skating along season to season.
Team chemistry is one of my favorite topics and I said last year that the team chemistry was the thing that most surprised me simply because there were so many “non-program” guys in the mix. Now Walz has given us insight into this year’s team and there is no doubt that the pieces aren’t meshing as well.
He also said another key phrase which is there is a “what’s in it for me” vibe. I have definitely seen that on the court from multiple players. Lots of selfish play out on the floor. Then there is the lack of “want to” on D as others have noted and worried about from the start of the season.
Looks like the coaches have their work cut out for them.
I hate to say it, but I raised this concern after the portal. We lost guys that could play well on offensive side of the ball AND defensive side. Mooney decided to try to show he is the smartest man in the room and bring in NO D best shooting team ever. Of course most of theses guys have not shown the ability to shoot great vs high level competition yet.
That was my always my impression too but definitely not the case last night. Think they edit the videos to show Mooney first but perhaps it’s not really the case or it varies.
Because JOC clearly references something Walz said in his interview to Mooney. Go & listen to it. Posted on website. It just wasn’t the question you’d expect unless u r a coach at U of R.
Easy to do. I did 8 years ago.
Recruiting- Not his fault
Roster construction- Not his fault
OOC scheduling- Not his fault
Practice laziness- Not his fault
Game preparation- Not his fault.
Game management- Not his fault.
Roster construction- Not his fault
OOC scheduling- Not his fault
Practice laziness- Not his fault
Game preparation- Not his fault.
Game management- Not his fault.
Quote from Moon in today’s RTD - “Their shots were contested, but not really tightly contested”.
Nice way of covering for giving up 93 points. Moon threading a needle with that statement. Anyone at game or watching on tv saw oodles of wide open Belmont shots. As I previously mentioned, number 3 lit us up for 28 and had wide open looks most of night.
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Wow..just listened to the walz interview...good for him to call out the lack of effort/focus!!
One thing I noticed in the Bonnies - Providence game, if a player had a defensive breakdown, Schmidt and English were absolutely beside themselves, took it personal, or the one Providence assistant did if English was on something else.
Pierre's name jogged my memory around the time he hit his third triple (which really wasn't that far into the game)...we were one of ~80 schools to reach out to him in 2023 when he was transferring up from D-II. Landed at Memphis and didn't do much in a season there, so now he's at Belmont.
richmond.forums.rivals.com
Transfer Portal
Johnny O'Neil is headed to Santa Clara. Has anyone come to visit us yet?
richmond.forums.rivals.com
Good on Walz to call the program out. Coach is pretty much just an empty 3/4 zip up on the podium for the last 20 years.
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8legs1dream
Graduate Assistant
So I’ll ask again: where are we as a program as the last NCAA appearance fades further away? What is the plan? Just keep on trucking through seasons until the next Gilyard/Golden/Cayo/Burton all show up and become upperclassmen?
This year has the feeling of Wainwright’s 3rd season on the court.
This year has the feeling of Wainwright’s 3rd season on the court.
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We went 11 seasons in between last time. So buckle up for another 8 years. Maybe in a few years a drone attack will bail out a bubble bound moon.
I've seen the drones hovering over Millhiser.
while you guys are giving Walz a ton of credif for "taking responsibility", it does nothing for me after the fact and in the media.
not saying this is on Walz but if we're not focused in practice then SOMEONE needs to address it right then and there internally. should be the coach! but it could also be Walz or our "best leader ever" DeLo. someone's got to throw a f'n chair across the gym floor and let the guys know that isn't acceptable.
now to the moral victories category ... unlike what Walz said I actually thought this game was by far our best this season (not saying much) and while defensive execution wasn't perfect I thought the effort was good. Belmont is one of the best teams we face this OOC. we were never getting an at-large, but at least we're trending in the right direction heading into conference play.
not saying this is on Walz but if we're not focused in practice then SOMEONE needs to address it right then and there internally. should be the coach! but it could also be Walz or our "best leader ever" DeLo. someone's got to throw a f'n chair across the gym floor and let the guys know that isn't acceptable.
now to the moral victories category ... unlike what Walz said I actually thought this game was by far our best this season (not saying much) and while defensive execution wasn't perfect I thought the effort was good. Belmont is one of the best teams we face this OOC. we were never getting an at-large, but at least we're trending in the right direction heading into conference play.
Was at the game, just getting around to posting some observations.
1. Our defense is atrocious. I don't know how we seemingly always leave a guy wide open at the 3 point line nearly every possession but we do. We are overhelping on the weakside and boom all a team needs to do is to sling a pass to the other side and you got a wide open 3 or the player can drive to hole. Weakside defender running full sprint at his wide open defender is not defense.
2. As Walz said our effort and pride in playing basketball is very low. Pierre was shit talking us the entire game and no one stepped up to say anything back, they just took it. In fact, at times, we appeared to be infighting within each other at the time outs.
3. Thought Dusan brought some energy in the 2nd half. Both him and AP have their limitations but Dusan to me is a better basketball player at this point.
4. Tyne plays out of control, not what you want from your PG.
5. Our other 2 young guys that play, Soulis and Tanner, look completely over their heads. Tanner is out there for 8 minutes and literally did NOTHING all game. He looks scared.
I really didn't see any positives from this. Yeah, we made some shots, but we literally are playing some of the worst defense, I have ever seen from a Mooney coached team.
The only positive was the Walz postgame comments. Kudos to him what is painfully obvious to all of us. "Other teams are laughing at us". and players are not giving 100%, that is quite the indictment on our program, it is also the unequivocal truth.
1. Our defense is atrocious. I don't know how we seemingly always leave a guy wide open at the 3 point line nearly every possession but we do. We are overhelping on the weakside and boom all a team needs to do is to sling a pass to the other side and you got a wide open 3 or the player can drive to hole. Weakside defender running full sprint at his wide open defender is not defense.
2. As Walz said our effort and pride in playing basketball is very low. Pierre was shit talking us the entire game and no one stepped up to say anything back, they just took it. In fact, at times, we appeared to be infighting within each other at the time outs.
3. Thought Dusan brought some energy in the 2nd half. Both him and AP have their limitations but Dusan to me is a better basketball player at this point.
4. Tyne plays out of control, not what you want from your PG.
5. Our other 2 young guys that play, Soulis and Tanner, look completely over their heads. Tanner is out there for 8 minutes and literally did NOTHING all game. He looks scared.
I really didn't see any positives from this. Yeah, we made some shots, but we literally are playing some of the worst defense, I have ever seen from a Mooney coached team.
The only positive was the Walz postgame comments. Kudos to him what is painfully obvious to all of us. "Other teams are laughing at us". and players are not giving 100%, that is quite the indictment on our program, it is also the unequivocal truth.
Looks like Sman and 97 were watching different games 
. Though in fairness, Sman was comparing this game to our other games - so maybe it was just a very very low bar.
And sman, you are making some of the same points I made in a post somewhere on here: The coach needs to be making these adjustment and addressing this BS attitude in practice. Despite Mooney touting Dlo as greatest leader of all time, these are college kids and obviously he is not having the impact on them (of course I doubt he can threaten to cancel anyone's NIL) that a coach might. I am not saying Mooney has be a jerk, but in practice he does sometimes. Especially with a group like this if they won't give effort.
Your statement mirrors what I think is the internal thinking on the staff and totally unacceptable or even considered at a St. Mary's or a Dayton. That is the core rot of the program we have been talking about. And I do think it is perfectly fine for you to have this attitude and just try to take it as it comes, b/c you (and I, and this board) have no influence to change anything.
But it is disheartening that the triumvirate doesn't care.
. Though in fairness, Sman was comparing this game to our other games - so maybe it was just a very very low bar.And sman, you are making some of the same points I made in a post somewhere on here: The coach needs to be making these adjustment and addressing this BS attitude in practice. Despite Mooney touting Dlo as greatest leader of all time, these are college kids and obviously he is not having the impact on them (of course I doubt he can threaten to cancel anyone's NIL) that a coach might. I am not saying Mooney has be a jerk, but in practice he does sometimes. Especially with a group like this if they won't give effort.
Not sure what is meant by this, but if we could just beat all the mediocre teams we all expected to beat in OOC, and win or play Auburn close - we may have had a path with the strength of Dayton, VCU etc this year.
Your statement mirrors what I think is the internal thinking on the staff and totally unacceptable or even considered at a St. Mary's or a Dayton. That is the core rot of the program we have been talking about. And I do think it is perfectly fine for you to have this attitude and just try to take it as it comes, b/c you (and I, and this board) have no influence to change anything.
But it is disheartening that the triumvirate doesn't care.
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8legs1dream
Graduate Assistant
There were several occasions Saturday night where I saw one of our guys physically grab the jersey of a teammate and shove him in the direction of where he should be on defense, kind of gave me little Dutch Boy in the Dam vibes to go along with the Flying Dutchman ha. Not only are we lacking the players hard-wired to fight defensively, we aren't even putting what we have in the best position fundamentally to be just average on defense if people are just so consistently out of position.
Bonus take from the game: I think a lot of us, definitely myself included, thought that one of the transfers was going to be the star of this team and really carry some weight but it was D-Lo that kept this game from being a blowout in the first half when Belmont was about to run us out of the gym and this was by no means the first game that has been the case. He is being asked to do SO much.
Bonus take from the game: I think a lot of us, definitely myself included, thought that one of the transfers was going to be the star of this team and really carry some weight but it was D-Lo that kept this game from being a blowout in the first half when Belmont was about to run us out of the gym and this was by no means the first game that has been the case. He is being asked to do SO much.
Good to hear Walz talking accountability at the press conference. I just hope he's shouldering some of the blame himself and not trying to put this on others. He's been invisible in several games so far this year.
On a related note: for those who were at the game, I didn't see any discussion about this sequence but I'm curious if others saw it the same. There was a fast break in the second half that led to a dunk by Belmont. It looked like from my angle that Walz was out ahead of the guy who dunked, but he pulled up, didn't contest and gave up the dunk unopposed. I believe we called a timeout immediately after that, and on the way to the bench it looked like Roche was screaming at Walz, presumably about his defensive effort.
Sad to be having these conversations...
On a related note: for those who were at the game, I didn't see any discussion about this sequence but I'm curious if others saw it the same. There was a fast break in the second half that led to a dunk by Belmont. It looked like from my angle that Walz was out ahead of the guy who dunked, but he pulled up, didn't contest and gave up the dunk unopposed. I believe we called a timeout immediately after that, and on the way to the bench it looked like Roche was screaming at Walz, presumably about his defensive effort.
Sad to be having these conversations...
Yes, I saw that sequence and completely agree with your perspective. Walz pulled up from my view on the break away dunk and just let him have it. That was weak sauce, at a minimum you foul that guy and make him go to the line and earn it. Didn't see Roche screaming at him though, but I was certainly from the stands. It was a really soft play, by the one player in our line-up that is decidedly not a soft player.
I do feel bad for Walz, Mooney has him playing as a nearly 7 foot center, out at the 3 point line with his back to the basket most of the time on offense. Yeah, yeah, I know that where our offense likes to play our centers, but Walz is a different cat than Beagle, Golden, TJ and playing him out there, just allows the defense to sag off of him because what is he really going to do out there to hurt you.
Beagle is very soft for a big man and rarely goes towards the rim and instead spins like a whirlybird
and does a fade away hook or push shot. I agree that Mike needs more low post presence. Let one of the forwards play up top where they also attack the lane. Dusan and AP attack the lane well, but don’t do it enough. Tyne does get ahead of himself at times but also does have the speed 1v1 to create shots. Now let’s learn that defense can create offense.
and does a fade away hook or push shot. I agree that Mike needs more low post presence. Let one of the forwards play up top where they also attack the lane. Dusan and AP attack the lane well, but don’t do it enough. Tyne does get ahead of himself at times but also does have the speed 1v1 to create shots. Now let’s learn that defense can create offense.
Should be an interesting game vs bill and Mary. Feel like their could be some tempers flaring in practice this week, and could result in some fire and a ten point win. OR could go the other way and total implosion and a loss by 23 or more.
