No Blame, just pain

[UR Fan 2]

Hate losing like that, and yes losing was a team effort, I am not assigning blame to any one person. We win as a team and lose as a team. Losing last night was a group effort.

That being said it was as painful as a loss gets. We had them dead to rights and could not close.

I am excited by the way the team was playing late in the year. Here are my observations:

1. I would like to see more Josh Jones. He can shoot a bit and is a taller defender at the 2 than we currently roll out the majority of time. Yesterday Miami ran the same play about a dozen times where they gave the ball to a physical guard at the upper left of the key and the guy gave our smaller guards a forearm shiver to clear them out of the way and then 4 Miami players attacked the basket simultaneously. A more physical guard never lets them get that deep in the first place. Thus Josh Jones plays more.

2. The 3 defensive players at the same time line up needs to stop. By Def I mean Ododa + Taylor + Davis. Play two of the 3 together but not all 3.

3. The starting line up next year needs to be:

1-2 - Fore + S Jones ( J Jones gets significant minutes) (still too small at guard but ok if you play JJ more)
3 - T Davis (Taylor subs, Terry Allen sub)
4 - Cline (Taylor and Wood sub)
5 - T Allen (Ododa subs)

Allen, S Jones and Cline really played w confidence at the end of the year. That nucleus keeps us competitive next year. I am not sure what Diekvoss and Friendsuh will give us but hopefully a year in the weight room and system pay off. The incoming frosh seems to be full of potential.

I agree w the posters that we need to rebound way better going forward. We have some beasts, we just need to get angry.

 

[SpiderFan26]

I like Khwan and SDJ together but he won't start both next year

 

[SpiderK]

I agree with UR Fan 2 about putting the 3 "defenseman" on the floor at the same time. We all know the definition of insanity. How many times do we put those 3 on the court and expect a different result??

 

[Eight Legger]

I would really like to see Josh Jones step up and earn the starting 2-guard spot next year. Then play him with SDJ, Terry, TJ and Alonzo, with Trey first off the bench and the others slotted in as needed. Trey is more of a 3 than a 2, while Josh is more of a 2 than a 3. Problem is Trey is built like a 2 and Josh is built like a 3. But your shooting guard needs to be able to shoot, period.

 

[spiderman]

SG needs to be able to handle, not just shoot. if you have a shooting PG like SDJ you can get away with a defensive 2. plus we have a shooting 5 in Cline.
Trey handles much better than Josh. Trey starts.

 

[SpiderK]

Trey rebounds well and handles the ball ok. He has got to find away to score 8 points a game and shoot 65% from the FT line. That is not asking a lot of a senior in a mid major conference.

 

[MrTbone]

ANO gets lumped in with the "Defensive 3"...that's misinformed I think. He averaged 7.7ppg and was up at 11ppg in the 5-6 games preinjury.

I think he can really contribute on offense for us if we rotate him and TJ in and out of the block. Terry should camp out down there either way.

6'8"/6'9"/6'9" would be hard to handle for most teams.

 

[spider fan]

Agree - appeared ANO not back to pre injury form although he did well offensively in the first NIT game.

 

[UR Fan 2]

not too say the three should not get meaningful minutes, but when all 3 play together we have trouble getting quality shots off

 

[SpiderK]

ANO is a very good free throw shooter. He needs to shed the, not laziness, but lack of aggressiveness and go to the hole strong. He is big enough for the A-10 to do that. Next year Mooney is going to have to find a way to beat the packed in Zone, because that is all we are going to see until he does.

This post was edited on 3/25 6:46 PM by SpiderK

 

[kneepadmckinney]

I think the more generic point is that we need to have three people on the court who are legitimate threats to make three pointers. When TD, DT, and ANO are on the court together, the defense can sag, and whoever the guard kicks out to is not capable of taking advantage. My optimal scenario is that both Trey and Deion reform their shooting stroke and come back as legitimate shooting threats, because they already pass and defend well. We would be SOOOOOO good.

 

[8legs]

Ok, I'm just going to say it. I'm sure this will be criticized, but it's the way I see it and no use tiptoeing around it. (Maybe if I don't actually use the name or initials).
If your shooting guard can't shoot from either the floor or the free throw line you are in trouble against the competition we play.
Why would we expect there to be a miracle turnaround after 4 years in the program? I followed he and some of the other Spiders in the Ben Wallace summer league where everybody scores and he didn't score there either, so I knew what to expect this year.

His dad couldn't shoot and is in the UR Hall of Fame. There are meaningful minutes to be had for somebody who plays so hard and gives it his all. Plus he's a great teammate and should be a great senior leader.

BUT....if we don't put a shooting guard on the floor next year who is actually a threat to score, then we will be in just as much trouble as if we continue to get outrebounded and give up so many second chance points.
AND.... if both our point guard and our shooting guard are tiny by D1 standards, they'd better each score 15 a game every night or we'll end up in a deficit situation there too.

I see us having the talent we need in these areas and I hope we use it.

I'm VERY excited to see more minutes from Josh, and to see what Wood, Smithen, the red shirts and the new recruits bring to the table!

 

[SouthJerseySpiderFan]

Originally posted by Eight Legger:
I would really like to see Josh Jones step up and earn the starting 2-guard spot next year. Then play him with SDJ, Terry, TJ and Alonzo, with Trey first off the bench and the others slotted in as needed. Trey is more of a 3 than a 2, while Josh is more of a 2 than a 3. Problem is Trey is built like a 2 and Josh is built like a 3. But your shooting guard needs to be able to shoot, period.

You got my vote on this!

 

[Eight Legger]

Originally posted by kneepadmckinney:

I think the more generic point is that we need to have three people on the court who are legitimate threats to make three pointers. When TD, DT, and ANO are on the court together, the defense can sag, and whoever the guard kicks out to is not capable of taking advantage. My optimal scenario is that both Trey and Deion reform their shooting stroke and come back as legitimate shooting threats, because they already pass and defend well. We would be SOOOOOO good.

Hadn't thought of it in these terms before, but you are absolutely right. I will say that Zo can and does make some threes, but probably not at a high enough clip to warrant a lot of attention (unless he takes and makes the first one of the game, as he has been apt to do in the past).

 

[MrTbone]

I think Zo was at around 28%, so he's not terrible, but probably no one is going to scout him as likely to put up the three.

I think he could easily be a 33% guy though with a little more work, at which point he would not be any kind of liability in this regard.

 

[SouthJerseySpiderFan]

UR is already slow paced team. So why not just use the clock and work the ball in-and-out of the low post to guys like TA and TJ who excel there or even ANO who I see as someone who can be much better. If playing 3 bigs take advantage of it offensively and take 3s only when the opportunity exists. Why try to make ANO something he isn't?

NI killed us by taking their time and going in as often as possible with for the most part only Tuttle there. That game they shot bad from 2PT range but plenty more FTs than the Spiders helped. NI shots during the season consisted of 40% being 3PTAs. Against UR was only 24%. UR is great defensively against the 3PT shot but NI made adjustment and negated UR advantage.

Maybe CM does a little tweaking with the offense and possibly it improves along with the benefit of getting their opponents in foul trouble more often.

 

[SpiderGuy]

Originally posted by SouthJerseySpiderFan:

Originally posted by Eight Legger:
I would really like to see Josh Jones step up and earn the starting 2-guard spot next year. Then play him with SDJ, Terry, TJ and Alonzo, with Trey first off the bench and the others slotted in as needed. Trey is more of a 3 than a 2, while Josh is more of a 2 than a 3. Problem is Trey is built like a 2 and Josh is built like a 3. But your shooting guard needs to be able to shoot, period.

You got my vote on this!

My vote too, but I put the odds at about 9 to 1 it will not happen. If history holds true, I'd be shocked if CM shakes things up for that to happen.

 

[fan2011]

Originally posted by SpiderGuy:

Originally posted by SouthJerseySpiderFan:

Originally posted by Eight Legger:
I would really like to see Josh Jones step up and earn the starting 2-guard spot next year. Then play him with SDJ, Terry, TJ and Alonzo, with Trey first off the bench and the others slotted in as needed. Trey is more of a 3 than a 2, while Josh is more of a 2 than a 3. Problem is Trey is built like a 2 and Josh is built like a 3. But your shooting guard needs to be able to shoot, period.

You got my vote on this!

My vote too, but I put the odds at about 9 to 1 it will not happen. If history holds true, I'd be shocked if CM shakes things up for that to happen.

We have had players break out their junior year. Greg Robbins had a very limited role until his junior season. We have also had freshman come in and be solid contributors and play lots of minutes KA, K0, SDJ, Geriot, TJ, and our current juniors got significant playing time their first seasons.