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Preseason games?

I always used 18-9 as the benchmark of a good season in the old days.

Would people consider 21-10 and 23-11 on selection Sunday a good season nowadays?
 
Depends on the strength of schedule. Fordham was 25–8 on Selection Sunday last season and wasn't sniffing a postseason bid of any kind.
 
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It was a very bad game, though. I was very disappointed with our play in that one.
no, just noting we barely beat a DIII team in an exhibition with a very good Richmond team.
if we barely beat a DIII team in an exhibition this year, this board would implode.
maybe it did in 2019 too. but it wasn't a predictor to a bad sea
 
Depends on the strength of schedule. Fordham was 25–8 on Selection Sunday last season and wasn't sniffing a postseason bid of any kind.
Interesting, it seemed difficult to go 21-9 back in the 80s & early 90s CAA and not have a good chance at the NIT.
 
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I was at that RMC game in 2019, and they definitely made us earn it. I would be all for inviting them back every year so that Merkel can get used to his future digs.

Merkel is good I like him & have brought him up on board b4.

I’m proponent of 1 exhibition & 1 closed scrimmage too. I get why u go w 2 d1 scrimmages but I think the value is just as good or better for 1 & 1. Teams like Randy Mac & Union r not pushovers & they will get up for the game. There is something to be gained from going through a more formal game setting w a crowd etc. it’s more pressure. Neither may be lot of pressure but I think it’s more than a scrimmage. what I read on here we could use the prep for off court stuff too like concessions!

Especially for the freshman get a game under the lights so to speak. Bonus is maybe u get a little revenue out of it. & u Support the smaller local schools who I’m sure would never say no.

The scrimmage is great for higher comp since we usually play 1 p6 team & u can run thru game scenarios like end of game end of shot clock situations that u may not get in exhibition. But I’m ok w 1. We have often come out of the gates slow under Moon in our opener too so I wouldn’t say 2 scrimmages is the clear best prep.
 
Yep, Merkel is a winner and will probably have a better career than Rhoades if he aspires to that.

Anecdotally, he also runs a summer camp for kids at RMC that is far superior to what UR does. Obviously I say that as a UR guy with a kid who has done both, but Merkel's was night and day better and he is super involved from start to finish. UR's has sort of turned into "Get as many kids signed up as possible, then just roll the ball out and let them play for 3 days" whereas at RMC, there was a lot of teaching and coaching happening in addition. It might be a little thing, but that sort of attention to detail is noticeable and (I think) indicative of bigger things.
 
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Gkiller, right on board with you on the 1 and 1 split. Completely like the idea of a D3/D2 exhibition with a solid D3/2 winning program. As noted it allows for a dress rehearsal of all the little things so we are not going through that on real game 1. And agree that the lower level team should have a high level of motivation - while putting some pressure on our guys to find the motivation to play above that. I think much more value in having one rehearsal to work out the game day kinks.

EL - the points about Merkel seem to be similar to those about my observations about walking into a JB practice at the RC once when visiting. Very high level of detail and feedback provided, not running drills to drill, but enforcing precision.
 
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I thought Grace was running Spider Management? From Cyprus?
 
On a serious note have seen reports on plenty of these secret scrimmages. Not that they mean that much but would be nice to hear something.

Yeah not sure how secret they really r now.
Pitt bball tweeted out highlights from their closed scrimmage w Georgetown.
 
VCU in the RTD today talking about their "secret scrimmage". 1) Not so secret. 2) You can bet the information about the scrimmage was "leaked" by a staffer.
 
Yeah, JOC comes through with a bit of info...King, Hunt, Noyes, Bigelow, and Quinn started. Roche and Bailey contributors off the bench, plus some from Walz. Scrimmage was even, with each team winning two quarters.

 
great to hear Walz was a positive.
Harris was the only non-freshman to not be mentioned. no talk of the freshmen at all?

so we went 4 regular quarters. I thought they used to add a 5th quarter in scrimmages for guys who didn't play much.
 
VCU in the RTD today talking about their "secret scrimmage". 1) Not so secret. 2) You can bet the information about the scrimmage was "leaked" by a staffer.
VCU's coverage of their scrimmage in the RTD was similar to ours, very lean on any actual information. VCU also announced that Bairstow is out 6-8 weeks with a foot fracture. Bairstow is of the guys Odom brought with him from Utah State.
 
great to hear Walz was a positive.
Harris was the only non-freshman to not be mentioned. no talk of the freshmen at all?

so we went 4 regular quarters. I thought they used to add a 5th quarter in scrimmages for guys who didn't play much.
eh, Walz got the "also" comment which I took as a reporter-ly way to say he played more than any of those not mentioned. I see the boost comment as a neutral remark since two other bench guys were specifically called out as positives.

Moon's history is as relying on his upperclassmen, with maybe 1 freshman in the mix most years, so I don't see this as anything new that no freshmen were mentioned. So IMO, that's your top 8 for now with 9th man getting the 3-4m per game and 10th man in when foul trouble occurs (likely Soulis bc bigs are more prone to foul trouble.).
 
eh, Walz got the "also" comment which I took as a reporter-ly way to say he played more than any of those not mentioned. I see the boost comment as a neutral remark since two other bench guys were specifically called out as positives.

Moon's history is as relying on his upperclassmen, with maybe 1 freshman in the mix most years, so I don't see this as anything new that no freshmen were mentioned. So IMO, that's your top 8 for now with 9th man getting the 3-4m per game and 10th man in when foul trouble occurs (likely Soulis bc bigs are more prone to foul trouble.).
to me "boost" implies a positive contribution ... as opposed to him saying "also playing significant minutes".
and I can't see any chance Harris is the 9th man only getting 3-4 mpg.
 
Sman what do you anticipate Harris’s role to be? Especially when comparing it to other guys playing same general position?

Also, I’m just going on Moon’s history as a season develops. 9th guy sees some minutes early then once top 8 is finalized the 9th man’s mpg dwindle. “Gotta find him more minutes…”
 
not sure but could be a pretty substantial role. Mooney said he was really excited to land him. said he's very athletic and a good rebounds and defender. I know Western Carolina isn't a major program or anything, but he did start 77 games there. I'll be surprised if he doesn't have a role transferring in.

I expect he gets all non-Bigelow minutes at the 4. whether that's 5 minutes or 20 depends a lot on how Bigelow plays. could even earn extra time at the 3 but we do have a lot of bodies there already.
 
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