I have a couple player thoughts, but as with last game, our coaches are not putting us in the position to win.
Exhibit A: We come out flat (again) are in an immediate 14-2 hole. This is a team that hasn't played much together, so coaches should be getting guys ready to go from the opening whistle, yet we throw out our standard lets "feel things out" offense and we are always starting in a hole.
Exhibit B: Last 6 minutes of the game, what the ever loving hell is Mooney doing? He sees our offense just stagnate, the ESPN announcers said on multiple occasions, how they didn't understand why Richmond was not initiating offense, so was the entire world. Yet, Mooney has a front row seat to all of this and just sits on his hands, doesn't call a timeout to set up a play to help his young PG out and poof we watch our lead vanish. And then two games in a row, when Mooney actually designs an end of game play, it is the ugliest no chance in hell of succeeding play. Just embarrassing. He let this young and growing team down.
As for the players:
Burton: Played all 45 minutes. To me his missed FT's at the end and a couple missed finishes, were a product of being tired. Mooney has to get him some rest during the game. Take that away, and I thought Burton had a pretty impressive game, and was an absolute beast on the glass.
Bigelow: I don't think this needs to be said again, but just in case, he needs to start and play major minutes every single game. When Grace returns, Quinn comes off the bench. Dude is a player, he makes big plays all of the time and at critical times.
Roche and Goose: Just go the box score and look at their respective lines and tell me who should be starting. It is pretty damn obvious. Goose had a couple really bad turnovers and Girard torched us and he was certainly one of Goose's assignments. Couple that with the fact that Goose gives us basically nothing on offense. The choice is pretty clear and stark here. Only a matter of time.
Quinn: I thought Quinn had a really nice game, he seemed for the first time comfortable out there. His size on defensive rebounding is solving a huge Mooney issue which is rebounding and not giving up second chance points so readily. Had a couple nice moves on the offensive end as well.
Dji: For everything Dji does well, he couples it with a really bad mistake, which last night was not losing the ball on the fast break. He has little margin for error with Mooney right now and so when he does that, it gives Mooney the green light to sit him down, which he does.
Nelson: Did some really nice things as our PG in the second half but that all evaporated once we hit under the 5 minute mark and we all sat and watched him dribble 25 seconds off the clock each offensive possession and then try to make some rushed move to get a shot off. It's his 5th game, so I place most of the blame on Mooney, he needs to be directive with his young PG, he can't treat him like Gilly and KA and just expect him to make plays, he is not ready for that yet. Mooney needs to help him and coach him in these situations.
Exhibit A: We come out flat (again) are in an immediate 14-2 hole. This is a team that hasn't played much together, so coaches should be getting guys ready to go from the opening whistle, yet we throw out our standard lets "feel things out" offense and we are always starting in a hole.
Exhibit B: Last 6 minutes of the game, what the ever loving hell is Mooney doing? He sees our offense just stagnate, the ESPN announcers said on multiple occasions, how they didn't understand why Richmond was not initiating offense, so was the entire world. Yet, Mooney has a front row seat to all of this and just sits on his hands, doesn't call a timeout to set up a play to help his young PG out and poof we watch our lead vanish. And then two games in a row, when Mooney actually designs an end of game play, it is the ugliest no chance in hell of succeeding play. Just embarrassing. He let this young and growing team down.
As for the players:
Burton: Played all 45 minutes. To me his missed FT's at the end and a couple missed finishes, were a product of being tired. Mooney has to get him some rest during the game. Take that away, and I thought Burton had a pretty impressive game, and was an absolute beast on the glass.
Bigelow: I don't think this needs to be said again, but just in case, he needs to start and play major minutes every single game. When Grace returns, Quinn comes off the bench. Dude is a player, he makes big plays all of the time and at critical times.
Roche and Goose: Just go the box score and look at their respective lines and tell me who should be starting. It is pretty damn obvious. Goose had a couple really bad turnovers and Girard torched us and he was certainly one of Goose's assignments. Couple that with the fact that Goose gives us basically nothing on offense. The choice is pretty clear and stark here. Only a matter of time.
Quinn: I thought Quinn had a really nice game, he seemed for the first time comfortable out there. His size on defensive rebounding is solving a huge Mooney issue which is rebounding and not giving up second chance points so readily. Had a couple nice moves on the offensive end as well.
Dji: For everything Dji does well, he couples it with a really bad mistake, which last night was not losing the ball on the fast break. He has little margin for error with Mooney right now and so when he does that, it gives Mooney the green light to sit him down, which he does.
Nelson: Did some really nice things as our PG in the second half but that all evaporated once we hit under the 5 minute mark and we all sat and watched him dribble 25 seconds off the clock each offensive possession and then try to make some rushed move to get a shot off. It's his 5th game, so I place most of the blame on Mooney, he needs to be directive with his young PG, he can't treat him like Gilly and KA and just expect him to make plays, he is not ready for that yet. Mooney needs to help him and coach him in these situations.
