Round 2 of Philly Phun- St Joe's Game Thread

[Section9.RowD]

At least, I won't have to watch the hawk close up from Section 9 all game like I do when they play us at home ..

The Hawk (Saint Joseph's University mascot) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[GKiller]

Shouldn't the SLU & VCU game threads come first?

 

[Section9.RowD]

Shouldn't the SLU & VCU game threads come first?

oh crud - sorry ... too much excitement at work this morning ..

 

[SFspidur]

I assumed we were just conceding those two games.

 

[8legs1dream]

it might actually help our pillow fight standings to forfeit the next two games

 

[urmite]

I assumed we were just conceding those two games.

Why? Don't we win 78.6% of our games in RVA?

 

[plydogg]

On to St. Joe’s. It would be nice to be able to end the season with a winning record or .500 and this one is just about a must for that

 

[Eight Legger]

Road game.

UR 67
St. Joe's 73

 

[8legs1dream]

On to St. Joe’s. It would be nice to be able to end the season with a winning record or .500 and this one is just about a must for that

I'm hoping we can reach .550 🙏🙏

 

[MrTbone]

On to St. Joe’s. It would be nice to be able to end the season with a winning record or .500 and this one is just about a must for that

Honestly, does finishing with a .500 record or slightly above it actually feel good? That’s the definition of a moral victory to me.

 

[SpiderGuy]

Honestly, does finishing with a .500 record or slightly above it actually feel good? That’s the definition of a moral victory to me.

No, it feels awful. We had pretty optimistic expectations with returning players and 3 portal additions. The season has been frustrating, and we underachieved (or maybe not). I haven’t done the math but guess we’ll fall below our long term 55 pct norm.

 

[Eight Legger]

Massively underachieved. This is the worst the A10 has been this century, and we are near the bottom of it.

 

[MrTbone]

No, it feels awful. We had pretty optimistic expectations with returning players and 3 portal additions. The season has been frustrating, and we underachieved (or maybe not). I haven’t done the math but guess we’ll fall below our long term 55 pct norm.

I’ll ask to be excused from the “we” who had optimistic expectations. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about spider basketball, it’s that we rarely meet preseason expectations. I only figured this out about 6 years ago.

I expected about this record although I did think we’d be on the right side of .500. None of this should be construed as acceptance that this is ok, we definitely have the players to be far better.

 

[spider23]

Yep, Tarrant had a down season here or there, but typically his teams would get better and were mentally and physically tough. Despite the utter bs revisionist history the hater 80s spews on here. Now the expectations are generally pretty low every season. I do get sucked I to the optimism every off season, based on new players, and hoping for individual improvement.

 

[97spiderfan]

I don't think I've cared less about these next two games than I have about UR hoops in a long time. Judging from the coaches show last night either that spent the vast majority of the time talking to one of our walk-ons about his time here, talking to PT about positives to take from the VCU game (he found 3 but the correct answer was zero, we got our asses kicked AGAIN by our rivals), they barely had time to talk about this weeks game. It was all flowers and sunshine avoiding any talk about the massive failure that is this season.

 

[RichmondNative]

Massively underachieved. This is the worst the A10 has been this century, and we are near the bottom of it.

Once again the “negative forum” got caught in overwhelming positivity at the beginning of the year. Here is one of the preseason rankings:

3 Bid League
@3BidLeaguePod
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Matt’s early A10 tiers, alphabetical order within:

Tier 1: Dayton, SLU, VCU
Tier 2: Davidson, GMason, LOY-CHI, Rhody
Tier 3: Richmond, St. Bona, UMass
Tier 4: Duquesne, Fordham, GW, La Salle, Saint Joe’s

By October I’ll figure out one more team to bump up to tier 1.
9:34 AM · Jul 22, 2022

I thought UR could make it to the “second tier” and of course the goal was the first tier. Looks like a precarious finish in Tier 3, which is right where this ranking put UR. However, look at how wrong Tier 2 is and of course Fordham made it from Tier 4 to Tier 1. Who would have guessed that? Definitely other teams that fared worse than the Spiders, but still very disappointing.

 

[spider23]

Yes, for certain posters that paint us negative, I thought we could be much better this season. Again, we see teams that over acheive every year - think Fordham and Duquesne especially this season. We seem to be on the achieve to under achieve scale.

 

[GKiller]

remember this tweet. ned ryerson says its a doozy. Last year ended up 2 to 6. This year 7 to 9-12? So if that's right, in the last 12 years we've overachieved 2 times. 2-10. Right there with 8-24.

 

[spiderman]

we had a lot of unknowns. we all hoped for the best.
but we were counting on Nelson being pretty much a star from day 1, the incoming transfers stepping up the the A10 and doing better than they did in lower conferences, Goose and Grace somehow becoming more on the offensive end than they've been their entire career, Crabtree being healthy, we thought Noyes would earn time, etc...

this team just isn't as talented as last year's, and we finished 6th last year.

I don't think any of us see an A10 tournament run this year, but who knows. I'm already thinking about next year. I think the 3 transfers already on board can take a big step with bigger roles next season. I want to see what we do with the openings. I want to see Smith and Tanner. PG play can and must improve. but clearly we have a Burton sized hole to file in scoring and rebounding. that's daunting.

 

[whampas]

Until something changes nothing changes; top to bottom.

 

[spider23]

this team just isn't as talented as last year's, and we finished 6th last year

Here is the problem, we keep comparing to underachievement. Hell, the pre-season A10 picks are probably baking it in. Yes, for once, I would like to see major improvement in a player under Mooney from one year to next.

 

[Eight Legger]

Expecting us to be better next year than we are this year is going to be an exercise in futility, I'm afraid.

 

[97spiderfan]

we had a lot of unknowns. we all hoped for the best.
but we were counting on Nelson being pretty much a star from day 1, the incoming transfers stepping up the the A10 and doing better than they did in lower conferences, Goose and Grace somehow becoming more on the offensive end than they've been their entire career, Crabtree being healthy, we thought Noyes would earn time, etc...

this team just isn't as talented as last year's, and we finished 6th last year.

I don't think any of us see an A10 tournament run this year, but who knows. I'm already thinking about next year. I think the 3 transfers already on board can take a big step with bigger roles next season. I want to see what we do with the openings. I want to see Smith and Tanner. PG play can and must improve. but clearly we have a Burton sized hole to file in scoring and rebounding. that's daunting.

When you look at the past 12 years of undeperformance vs. expectations and then see who is leaving and who we have returning, all you can do is hope for the best. But for all of our sanity, I think a better strategy would be prepare for the worst, because about 83% of the time, that is going to be the outcome.

I have little expectation for next year. We lose our by far our best player as well as two other starters off a team that is below .500 in the weakest version of our league ever. We return a backcourt that is probably Mooney's worst in his tenure and oh our head coach, who even when fully healthy, can't see to push all the right buttons is now on an indefinite leave of absence for medical purposes during the prime spring recruiting push we need to make to fill some pretty gaping roster holes.

There have been plenty of bleak times during Mooney's tenure, next year is shaping up to be perhaps one of the darkest.

 

[Spider B]

Until the administration starts caring about winning, why should we? Don't get me wrong, I want this Program to someday reach its potential, but until the admin proves they want to win its silly for us to think we will. The school has really lost its way. So I agree with EL. I have zero expectation that we will win. History tends to repeat itself.

 

[8legs1dream]

In 29 games so far this year Tyler has been our high scorer 18 times and our high rebounder 20 times so even with us having a trainwreck of a season, subtract him and it would be even worse. It will be an interesting offseason to see who might leave and who we bring in.

 

[kneepadmckinney]

Here is the problem, we keep comparing to underachievement. Hell, the pre-season A10 picks are probably baking it in. Yes, for once, I would like to see major improvement in a player under Mooney from one year to next.

You really can't identify a single player that has made a major improvement under Mooney? Come on.

 

[kneepadmckinney]

You really can't identify a single player that has made a major improvement under Mooney? Come on.

More to the point, there is SO MUCH meat on the "things Chris Mooney doesn't do well" that it just seems ridiculous to make statements that are easily, objectively, and patently disprovable.

 

[SpiderAlways]

More to the point, there is SO MUCH meat on the "things Chris Mooney doesn't do well" that it just seems ridiculous to make statements that are easily, objectively, and patently disprovable.

Does winning matter to you knee? At all? I’ll tell you what he doesn’t do well! Win!!

 

[SpiderGuy]

Does winning matter to you knee? At all? I’ll tell you what he doesn’t do well! Win!!

We have a bingo.

Fact.

 

[spider23]

More to the point, there is SO MUCH meat on the "things Chris Mooney doesn't do well" that it just seems ridiculous to make statements that are easily, objectively, and patently disprovable.

Don't get worked up. I'm talking about making the jump form current level to where we would need them to be for a very successful year next season. Harper his senior year was a good jump. He went up to Boston for a big man camp in the summer and came back much improved over first three years.

 

[spiderman]

agreed we need someone to make a big jump. actually more than one. one has to be at PG, whether it's a returning player or an incoming. and one probably has to be Bigelow. I'm hoping for a big jump there.

 

[SFspidur]

 

[Eight Legger]

Sweet, now if 3 or 4 more guys come down with the stomach bug tonight, we might have a chance.

 

[SouthJerseySpiderFan]

Must win tonight. Justing seeing above Hawk injuries see why went from +1 to -2. Preseason/presently on paper Spiders more talented team so need to step up tonight.

Joe's floundering of late so just the right time to get that win to assist avoiding next Tuesday game. Not good at defending the 3PTA so we get healthy tonight.

82 Spiders
71 Hawks

 

[8legs1dream]

the A10 would be so much improved if it could somehow, some way kick the Philadelphia schools to the curb.

 

[97spiderfan]

the A10 would be so much improved if it could somehow, some way kick the Philadelphia schools to the curb.

St. Joes has a good and recent history of success. LaSalle though looks like the entire school may shut down at any moment.

 

[8legs1dream]

St. Joes has a good and recent history of success. LaSalle though looks like the entire school may shut down at any moment.

They have the same number of NCAA appearances as we do in the Mooney Era it looks like. Maybe I spoke to quick to include them 😵‍💫

 

[GKiller]

we might actually play worse when the other team is missing players

 

[GKiller]

Flight of 'Goose' ending. Spider Andre Gustavson among seniors to be saluted.

Andre Gustavson gradually became a fan favorite at the Robins Center through five seasons as a University of Richmond basketball player. He has two theories about why this happened.

richmond.com

 

[SpiderK]

we might actually play worse when the other team is missing players

We should wear the red jerseys to make sure.