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Positive off season observations

Ulla1

Ulla1

Head Coach
Apr 21, 2011
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Wanted to start a thread to report off season observations of the Spiders. As I often drop by the Robins Center in the afternoon, I will provide brief reports of what is going on. My hope is that others will do the same.

Went by the Robins Center a few days ago on the way home from the department. Phoenix was practicing his free throw form with an assistant coach; his form looked good. One observation was Phoenix looked like an NBA power forward. He appeared strong when he redshirted last season, but now he is a beast. Here's betting that he will be a force this coming season.
 
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There has to be some reason he was redshirted. By all accounts he has and has had the physical tools. Perhaps he was/is a poor defender, didn't grasp CM's multi-variate calculus defensive scheme, or has the offensive arsenal of Darius Garrett. Time will tell.
 
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Spiders05 said:
His body has never been an issue.

I'm on record saying I feel he has a very high ceiling but believe shaking off two years of rust will be a tough thing.
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05, what is meant by “two years of rust”?
 
I think '05 is referring to Mooney's new move, it is called "Double Redshirt". He is in discussions with the NCAA competition committee now to have this approved.

I jest, sorry '05 - couldn't resist that one. It would be nice if he can be a contributor next year.
 
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Positive observation - I ate at the Dining Hall on Sunday for the first time in 25 years. I saw many students who were seemingly enjoying their time at Richmond. The food choices were plentiful and "high end." It is definitely a much better Dining Hall experience than when I was at UR.

Any transfer/incoming commit will appreciate the Dining Hall and all it has to offer.
 
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Ulla1 said:
Wanted to start a thread to report off season observations of the Spiders. As I often drop by the Robins Center in the afternoon, I will provide brief reports of what is going on. My hope is that others will do the same.

Went by the Robins Center a few days ago on the way home from the department. Phoenix was practicing his free throw form with an assistant coach; his form looked good. One observation was Phoenix looked like an NBA power forward. He appeared strong when he redshirted last season, but now he is a beast. Here's betting that he will be a force this coming season.
Click to expand...

Phoenix is certainly a well developed kid. And literally every single time I dropped by the RC, I see him on the court (and often times it was just him). He appears to be putting the time in to make himself a better player.

He was not highly recruited for a 6'8 kid and wasn't even a featured player on his high school team, so to me, he is and has always been a major project.
 
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Another positive observation, though this is more of an "in-season" observation: My younger brother is a Va Tech Grad. He has never been nor will be a fan of sports. He has 2 young children. He took his children to a Spider Men's basketball game this season. He called me afterwards to tell me what a great time they had. His kids loved it. They will definitely be back.

I know we once complained about the product transcending Spider fans moving forward. Here we have evidence that non UR, non sport fans enjoyed the game day experience this year. Kudos to whoever is making that happen.
 
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UR Fan 2 said:
Another positive observation, though this is more of an "in-season" observation: My younger brother is a Va Tech Grad. He has never been nor will be a fan of sports. He has 2 young children. He took his children to a Spider Men's basketball game this season. He called me afterwards to tell me what a great time they had. His kids loved it. They will definitely be back.

I know we once complained about the product transcending Spider fans moving forward. Here we have evidence that non UR, non sport fans enjoyed the game day experience this year. Kudos to whoever is making that happen.
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Just curious- did he have the Spider kids package with the free tickets? Did he personally have a promotion discounted ticket?
 
UR Fan 2 said:
Positive observation - I ate at the Dining Hall on Sunday for the first time in 25 years. I saw many students who were seemingly enjoying their time at Richmond. The food choices were plentiful and "high end." It is definitely a much better Dining Hall experience than when I was at UR.

Any transfer/incoming commit will appreciate the Dining Hall and all it has to offer.
Click to expand...

Food has become a major recruiting tool for schools and not just when it comes to athletes. I have eaten the food at more than 25 of our "peer institutions" and our food compares favorably to all but a very few. One area where we excel is the dessert bar, I think ours is the best one I have seen/tasted.
 
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97spiderfan said:
Phoenix is certainly a well developed kid. And literally every single time I dropped by the RC, I see him on the court (and often times it was just him). He appears to be putting the time in to make himself a better player.

He was not highly recruited for a 6'8 kid and wasn't even a featured player on his high school team, so to me, he is and has always been a major project.
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Nice to hear that it sounds like he is a gym rat. That is the kind of kids you need to have a successful program - like Kenny Atkinson, Chris Fleming, David Gonzalvez, etc. That was something I found very interesting reading an article about Wes Miller at UNC-G - he really seems to put in extra effort to determine how important the game is to guys he is recruiting. You see these big time athletes and players from h.s. that never quite develop, the "love of the game" quotient I think is really critical.
 
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9Legs said:
Just curious- did he have the Spider kids package with the free tickets? Did he personally have a promotion discounted ticket?
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Who cares? I remember a friend offering me nutella for free for my toast one morning; liked it so much now I purchase it all the time. Get it?
 
Ulla - RS year and a year hampered by back issues. To '97s point, he also was a secondary option for his HS. Just think it's a lot to ask of him to be a force in his first year on the court for us.
 
good. he's used to being a secondary option. he's a guy I want banging the boards, running the floor and defending. we've got enough primary offensive option guys.
 
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Spiders05 said:
Ulla - RS year and a year hampered by back issues. To '97s point, he also was a secondary option for his HS. Just think it's a lot to ask of him to be a force in his first year on the court for us.
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I think most are expecting maybe 5-7 minutes a game. Maybe even closer to 3-5 the first half of the season. I don't think he needs to be a force in his first year (at least I hope we won't have to rely on him as a force - no offense to him but just means we won't have much depth)
 
Spiders05 said:
Ulla - RS year and a year hampered by back issues. To '97s point, he also was a secondary option for his HS. Just think it's a lot to ask of him to be a force in his first year on the court for us.
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Did he have back issues his senior year of high school? Picking up players who have flown under the radar their junior/senior years due to injury is probably a very good strategy for a school like ours. It has payed off so far with Buck and Grant.

Getting into game shape does take time, but I think a lot of progress can be made during red shirt years. Grant in his limited minutes during his true freshmen year looked nothing like Grant after his redshirt. The difference was astounding, and I don't think it was due to the small sample size his first year. I don't know if it was working with TJ or the coaches or what, but there was a huge jump there. This type of improvement is not seen in all players for whatever reason, but for Ford at least we know that it won't be for a lack of effort. It sounds like his athleticism and size is already there and he is putting a tremendous amount of work into his game, hopefully this redshirt year and his work ethic will pay off in the coming seasons. I am not expecting much from him next season, but I love to see hard work pay off so I am really rooting for him (and all of our hard working players).
 
keefusb said:
Food has become a major recruiting tool for schools and not just when it comes to athletes. I have eaten the food at more than 25 of our "peer institutions" and our food compares favorably to all but a very few. One area where we excel is the dessert bar, I think ours is the best one I have seen/tasted.
Click to expand...

i was just about to say that. I too visit a lot of university campuses and the bar has been raised throughout. I have some serious misgivings, honestly, when I see how much food/mega dining hall construction costs are raising overall university costs, too. But, as a fan of eating in general, I do like it. The Heilmann Dining Center is pretty top notch.
 
9Legs said:
Just curious- did he have the Spider kids package with the free tickets? Did he personally have a promotion discounted ticket?
Click to expand...

No idea. He called me the day after and told me about his experience knowing that I am a big Spider fan.
 
Also on the note this thread started on, I’ve seen AJ around campus, and he definitely looks the most physically imposing of the players I’ve seen. If he keeps working on his skills hopefully he’ll be a good one
 
Sometimes a kid will just hit the "go" button and suddenly transform his game and contributions and I hope that happens with Phoenix. I posted my observations of him, based on 4-5 practices this past summer, and he did appear to be in good shape and have good size. To me it just looked like he needed to get help with his shooting form and get lots of shooting practice, including FT shooting. I had a small sample of time to see him, but he looked like he had very limited shooting range. I saw him shooting with Nathan one day, and Nathan looked like he was far ahead of Phoenix in shooting range and form.

The good news is that kids who work hard at something can often make great strides. Phoenix reminds me a lot of Darius (Sp?) Garrett (who should have red-shirted), in many ways, including his shooting range and FT shooting. Fingers crossed that he can work hard, put on some added muscle, become a rebounding and shot-blocking force, and continue to improve his shooting, incrementally..
 
We've only lost 1 of our 5 starting caliber players on our roster to transfer. I guess in the bizarro world that our basketball program resides this might qualify as good news.
 
97spiderfan said:
We've only lost 1 of our 5 starting caliber players on our roster to transfer. I guess in the bizarro world that our basketball program resides this might qualify as good news.
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It does appear there were 884 transfers from 351 D1 schools after the 2016-2017 season.There appears to be 2.52 per roster of 13, So far we seem to be 3 of 13 which is rather close to average.
 
urmite said:
It does appear there were 884 transfers from 351 D1 schools after the 2016-2017 season.There appears to be 2.52 per roster of 13, So far we seem to be 3 of 13 which is rather close to average.
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what are you talking about? Solly didn't transfer, it appeared he dropped out school (and based on what some one poster said was engineered by the father) and went home to France. Friendshuh graduated, and may or may not play his 4th year. KF2 would be 1, assuming he goes to another school and not playing professionally.
 
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LongTimeLurkerFirstTimePoster said:
what are you talking about? Solly didn't transfer, it appeared he dropped out school (and based on what some one poster said was engineered by the father) and went home to France. Friendshuh graduated, and may or may not play his 4th year. KF2 would be 1, assuming he goes to another school and not playing professionally.
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Thanks, LTL, for keeping the record straight.
 
LongTimeLurkerFirstTimePoster said:
what are you talking about? Solly didn't transfer, it appeared he dropped out school (and based on what some one poster said was engineered by the father) and went home to France. Friendshuh graduated, and may or may not play his 4th year. KF2 would be 1, assuming he goes to another school and not playing professionally.
Click to expand...

That's just semantics. Transfer, dropout, go pro: result is the same for the team they leave.
 
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gospidersgo said:
That's just semantics. Transfer, dropout, go pro: result is the same for the team they leave.
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Exactly. We lost 3 players already this year. So, we are above average. Not shocking coming off a 12 win season that some of your players want off the ship.
 
97spiderfan said:
Exactly. We lost 3 players already this year. So, we are above average. Not shocking coming off a 12 win season that some of your players want off the ship.
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Nope. Two players graduated; one player turned pro in France from whence he came. The title of this thread is "Positive off season observations". 97, you seem to want to only post negative views. Please post on your other negative threads. Thanks for being so kind.
 
Roydell, the JC transfer iffered by the Spiders, is pretty athletic; hope he chooses to become a Spider.

 
Ulla1 said:
Nope. Two players graduated; one player turned pro in France from whence he came. The title of this thread is "Positive off season observations". 97, you seem to want to only post negative views. Please post on your other negative threads. Thanks for being so kind.
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Well, it looks like the only positive off season observation garnered from this thread is that Sunday brunch at D-hall is off the chain. I'm going to have to try it. Basketball wise, I'm not sure what positive there is to report. We just lost our senior leader for our basketball team in the off season, that is the only thing of note thus far.

But I won't rain on you and Long Time Lurker's positivity parade (which is ironic because I don't think Long Time Lurker has ever made one positive remark on this forum) and post negative stuff on this thread any more. As you noted, there are plenty of other threads to do so.
 
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