I don’t think this team will end up being as bad as 2017 & 2018. Those games were really hard to watch.
Mens: Maine @RC - Wed 11/20 7pm ESPN+
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“Didn’t watch the game but…” is precisely what has destroyed sports media over the past 15 years. How can you form an opinion on how the defense looked if you didn’t watch the defense!
Feels good to get our first D1 win of the season, but that win didn't exactly give me the feeling that we've solved any of our early season issues. Baby steps i guess?
8legs1dream
Graduate Assistant
glad to put one in the win column despite how difficult we made it on ourselves nearly every step of the way and really excited to see a Roche game like this after many of us felt like it seemed as if he was starting to fall out of the rotation. D-Lo struggled from the field but was able to salvage that at the line which was good. Let's see if we can build on it and start playing better but unfortunately the next game won't show us anything and we will have to wait until LA Tech
No, we have a bunch of one dimensional players that do one thing well - but currently not even doing that one thing well in games.
One thing I saw with our defense was overhelping on weakside D, which always left an open shooter. Fortunately, we played Maine and they missed a ton of open 3's, that won't be the case most games. We did this a few years ago and I thought Boyden got us out of this terrible habit but it is back.
Other observation is that having Walz play up top as our center is not working. He is no threat up there the defense can play off of him and it gums up our whole flow on offense.
We won which is good but if we played anyone other than a team of Maine's caliber last night, it is a loss and probably not even a close loss.
Other observation is that having Walz play up top as our center is not working. He is no threat up there the defense can play off of him and it gums up our whole flow on offense.
We won which is good but if we played anyone other than a team of Maine's caliber last night, it is a loss and probably not even a close loss.
Defense has been super disappointing. Thought we saw great improvement last two years with Boyden, but despite what any metrics say - eye test is beat off dribble constantly and open shots. Obviously the defensive talent is downgraded big time at forward spots, but would have hoped the philosophy and seemingly re-emphasis would carry over.
1) Roche may be one dimensional, but we need that dimension. he's got to get shots. we need shooting.
2) we put the ball in the center's hand a ton. Walz and Beagle are pretty good passers, but have both too many turnovers and missed opportunities. reminds me just how good at passing Quinn and Golden were.
3) tough to judge our defense. numbers look good but felt like we should have been down a ton at the half if Maine could shoot a lick.
4) like that we shook things up with the lineup. not sure it helped much other than Roche.
2) we put the ball in the center's hand a ton. Walz and Beagle are pretty good passers, but have both too many turnovers and missed opportunities. reminds me just how good at passing Quinn and Golden were.
3) tough to judge our defense. numbers look good but felt like we should have been down a ton at the half if Maine could shoot a lick.
4) like that we shook things up with the lineup. not sure it helped much other than Roche.
I wouldn't call it super disappointing. It's not last year's defense, but I doubt we will see that many years. We finished 34th in defensive efficiency last year, so I guess we look bad compared to that, but, while I know stats are not a tell all, we are holding teams to 46.2% shooting from 2 and 29.1% from 3.
I here a lot about the open 3s we give up on here, and will never really understand the frustration. That's part of basketball. Most guys will beat their man one on one if there is never any help coming from anywhere, so, yes, every team in the country will help out on defense and give up some open 3s. Just watch other games. Open 3s happen all the time. Or, just watch us. As bad as we have looked offensively, we still get a lot of open 3s. All teams do. You just want to limit the amount of wide open 3s a team gets the best you can, and more often than not we do that. 4 of the past 5 seasons, we have finished 48th, 49th, 68th, and 117th in 3 point defense. Yet, what do we always hear on here when teams makes 3s against us..."there goes that terrible wide open Mooney 3 point defense again". I guess we have just been amazingly lucky to have teams miss so many 3s for 4 of the last 5 seasons, right?
Anyway, maybe I am not as disappointed as you are with our defense because I expect us to be more of an offensive team based on our roster. You bring up Bigs, Dji, and Harris a lot, but we don't have guys as good as them defensively on our roster, so I don't expect us to be nearly as good on that end.
I thought Roche's defense was good last night, and have never thought he was an issue defensively. I would love to see him get 30+ minutes every game.
yeah - I think his defense has steadily improved and is a plus at this point. If we have any chance of being > .500 in conference, Roche is need to start imo - otherwise, we just don't have enough offense/3 point shooting.
I always thought Roche’s defense was ok. But was surprised to hear Mooney last night say that he was our best frontcourt defender, because of positioning.
Yes, Tanner played a true guard at times last night. Had one hideous pass turnover to the other team, but then settled down. Really think he is a key, needs to get comfortable and aggresive for us to be decent this year.
I think that says a lot, lol.
I like his positioning and effort, but he's no Bigs or Dji or Harris on the defensive end.
Roche is a super solid, smart player. But he looks a little gimpy out there. And against good comp (which I know we won't really play until A10 schedule sans Auburn) he struggles physically. I know sman will debate me on this but he gets targetted in A10 play, and has to work so hard falls down, etc when ISO'd.
But I agree, he is a solid all around player and playing much better than other options at this time.
But I agree, he is a solid all around player and playing much better than other options at this time.
****! If this holds true, and it appears it may with 5 games under our belt, we will get our ASSES kicked in the A10. And I don't mean just a bad record, I mean blown the **** out in a large number of games.
Yeah he’s solid enough on D but that statement enough is indictment on the D.
I’m good trying to ride Roche more too on O right now. I think Brook pointed this out but how does he get 7 mins vs Charlotte & 12 mins of an OT game vs Bucknell? That’s on Moon. If he’s your best defensive frontcourt player AND your best 3 pt weapon it feels automatic he’d be getting more run. Possible 1 of those workload deals which feels more trendy than anything btw, but he got 31 mins last night.
feels like CM didn't think much of Roche's defense before, but decided last night that he's one of our best frontcourt defenders.
Watched the game and I can go either way on this one. As I said - was trying to be very positive entering the season. So I will give 2 reviews of the game - positive and negative.
Positive
A tough and gritty win for the spiders to end the 3 game slide. Just what they needed before entering the Florida tourney where we hope to win a few games. Maine is scrappy team and I would not be surprised if they end up being a good win on our resume and end up at the top of the America East conference. Mooney made the adjustments and they paid off. Roche came out hot and got us started. Beagle and Roumoglou were the changes we needed as they provided a spark and some toughness (17 points and 15 rebounds between the 2). Tyne, Roche, and Hunt all played over 30 minutes - getting back to the Mooney roots of limited rotation and ride the guards. We know that formula works, lets stick with it. DLO - some might say he had an off game, and he did, but even in his off night - he still gives us 15 points, 4 steals, 3 assists, and 4 rebounds. Solid night for an off night. And we even saw a GW3 sighting. Not sure if it will lead to more minutes - but when he plays, we are 2-0. Just saying. This was a perfect game for the Spiders to get on track. Now they can go to Florida, win 3 in a row and come back 5-3 and get ready for the upset of Auburn.
Negative
Spiders eek out a win against a Maine team that is not very good. Roche was the bright spot, shooting 5-8 from deep. But the rest of the team - shooting woes continue. Remove Roche from the equation and UR shoots 25% from deep and 41% overall. Thought Beagle played a solid game ,but lets see if he can do it against better competition and better size. DLO did not play well, but that is going to be expected from time to time. Overall - a needed win, but not one that instills a lot of confidence going forward. Being down 2 at halftime and then pulling away, barely in the 2nd half to win by 4 against a middle of the pack America East team is not a good sign. Expect us to win 2 out of 3 in Florida, and then hope we keep the Auburn game under 20.
Positive
A tough and gritty win for the spiders to end the 3 game slide. Just what they needed before entering the Florida tourney where we hope to win a few games. Maine is scrappy team and I would not be surprised if they end up being a good win on our resume and end up at the top of the America East conference. Mooney made the adjustments and they paid off. Roche came out hot and got us started. Beagle and Roumoglou were the changes we needed as they provided a spark and some toughness (17 points and 15 rebounds between the 2). Tyne, Roche, and Hunt all played over 30 minutes - getting back to the Mooney roots of limited rotation and ride the guards. We know that formula works, lets stick with it. DLO - some might say he had an off game, and he did, but even in his off night - he still gives us 15 points, 4 steals, 3 assists, and 4 rebounds. Solid night for an off night. And we even saw a GW3 sighting. Not sure if it will lead to more minutes - but when he plays, we are 2-0. Just saying. This was a perfect game for the Spiders to get on track. Now they can go to Florida, win 3 in a row and come back 5-3 and get ready for the upset of Auburn.
Negative
Spiders eek out a win against a Maine team that is not very good. Roche was the bright spot, shooting 5-8 from deep. But the rest of the team - shooting woes continue. Remove Roche from the equation and UR shoots 25% from deep and 41% overall. Thought Beagle played a solid game ,but lets see if he can do it against better competition and better size. DLO did not play well, but that is going to be expected from time to time. Overall - a needed win, but not one that instills a lot of confidence going forward. Being down 2 at halftime and then pulling away, barely in the 2nd half to win by 4 against a middle of the pack America East team is not a good sign. Expect us to win 2 out of 3 in Florida, and then hope we keep the Auburn game under 20.
If Roche is one of our best frontcourt defenders, we are in big trouble. But yes, Duscan, AP, Tanner all appear to be slower than the average player they are charged with defending. Roche is as well but perhaps he has learned in Year 3, how to mitigate that and play passable enough D in our scheme,
Said at the beginning of the year if Roche is starting on this team, we are in trouble. But yeah, right now, he looks like one of our better options on the court.
I don't watch every baseball or football game either. But when I look at a box score and see that the pitchers only gave up 3-4 hits, I can logically assume that was good pitching. When I see a team only scored 10 points, I can assume someone played good defense.
Our opponent shot a miserable 6-for-30 from 3, that's 20% Someone must have been doing something right.
At this point, Mooney could invent a vaccine that cured cancer and some here would complain the shot hurt too much.
A lot of them were wide-open shots that they simply missed because they're not very good.
Right - against any A10 caliber team, we would have been down by 10 at halftime with the amount of wide open 3s
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I was wondering where all the Mooney cheerleaders were. Give you credit for popping your head up on this one Wood. Most have run for the hills to wait for the next up cycle in 5-6 years to beat their chest.
every team will get open looks from 3. and every team will miss a good percentage of those looks.
what we're saying is that it wasn't great defensive pressure that forced non AJ Lopez shooters to miss 21 of 22 from 3 last night.
we were fortunate.
BB mentioned that Maine likes to get to the rim. perhaps that was our focus ... not letting them in the lane and giving them more perimeter shots to miss. they ended up taking 30 threes (hitting 20%) and only 28 two's (hitting 15 of 28).
I actually was at the game and so I saw it and therefore don't have to make assumptions about what might have happened. We gave Maine a ton of wide open 3's, the flying dutchman defense was in full effect. Maine just missed them.
We keep playing defense like this, good teams are going to be lighting us up.
Yes, during the game BB and Ungerer mentioned how Maine has been one of the worst 3 point shooting teams in the country. Just looked it up, they are 349 in D1.
so it was the right strategy then.
why extend to take away 3's and give lanes to the basket to a team that can't hit 3's?
U can take some things from a box score. They have value.
But since u used baseball terms they won’t tell u if 1 hit was a luckier seeing eye single vs. an out that was crushed but right at somebody.
What this box also misses imo is we got some home cooking. A couple drives by DLo I think he got bailed out by calls. 1 Maine dude got hammered on drive even Philly Bob said “lot of contact there”. Granted we’ve been on the other side too.
Btw is Ungerer a Bills fan? We need some balance. It’s always Philly this Philly that out of our AD. If a Philly team didn’t meet expectations it was always ironic to hear Mooney Philly Bob etc. bring it up. Hello. Mirror.
But since u used baseball terms they won’t tell u if 1 hit was a luckier seeing eye single vs. an out that was crushed but right at somebody.
What this box also misses imo is we got some home cooking. A couple drives by DLo I think he got bailed out by calls. 1 Maine dude got hammered on drive even Philly Bob said “lot of contact there”. Granted we’ve been on the other side too.
Btw is Ungerer a Bills fan? We need some balance. It’s always Philly this Philly that out of our AD. If a Philly team didn’t meet expectations it was always ironic to hear Mooney Philly Bob etc. bring it up. Hello. Mirror.
