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Syracuse Game observations

97spiderfan

Spider's Club
Feb 2, 2005
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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.
 
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 and B are so sad and so true and it's the 2nd straight year of Exhibit A which seemed to happen many times especially at home last year. Exhibit B was just painful last night ...
 
Exhibit A and B are so sad and so true and it's the 2nd straight year of Exhibit A which seemed to happen many times especially at home last year. Exhibit B was just painful last night ...
Was screaming at my TV the last 6 minutes. The sad thing is that in between Exhibit A and Exhibit B, we played 30 minutes of really damn good basketball. This team has talent, it needs guidance and coaching from the coaching staff.

Mooney is too used to having Gilly out there and this hands off approach didn't even work sometimes with a player with the experience of Gilly, it sure as heck isn't going to work with a PG playing his 5th collegiate game.
 
I think once Quinn picked up his 4th, Mooney opted to run the clock down to limit possessions as the game wound down. Not the worst idea considering the depth issue in the front court right now. That doesn't mean you don't draw up a play in two consecutive possessions where your freshman PG is just standing there. We had 2 or 3 TOs at the time and once the shot clock got under 10 seconds I'm not sure why we didn't call a TO and draw an inbounds play.

Was actually shocked to see how much we outrebounded them, but the turnovers absolutely killed us.
 
Do everything the same in the last 5 minutes of the game as we did in the rest of the game we win. Mooney out smarts himself often.
 
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14-2 start: What should we have done differently, other than not come out "flat"? I don't think we came out flat. We had turnovers, missed some shots and they made some. So, yes, we played poorly to start the game, but why act like the coaches are not getting the guys ready to play? I would think the guys were pretty excited about playing Syracuse at Barclays. I don't think anyone was flat. I'm not sure what else the coaches could have done. So, if we protect the ball and make 3s, the coaches should get credit for getting us ready?

We wanted to be patient, and get the best shot possible, and it worked well at times in the 2nd half. I agree the last 6 minutes, we were too patient and waited too long to get going. I don't think we were intentionally milking the clock inside of 10 and then running something. I think we just had a hard time finding something, and some guys might have been a little too hesitant. Nelson was in his 5th game playing against a real unique zone out there. Maybe he was a little undecided at times late, but I thought he played well overall and would expect him to do a few things differently down the stretch as the season moves along.

I would be fine with giving Tyler a few minutes on the bench each half, but I say maybe do that and not definitely do that because some guys are more than capable of playing every minute. With media timeouts, you get some decent rest several times a half. But, something to keep an eye on, and if looks like fatigue might be a factor with him, rest him a few minutes each half.

Bigelow is solid. Not a great shooting night, but he does so many things well, and impacts the game so much, he needs to be out there a lot. I am not worried about starting or not. He will get plenty of minutes regardless.

I agree about Roche. He needs to play a lot. His defense is more than acceptable, and I could definitely see starting him over Goose.

Quinn played well last night. He seems to be getting more and more comfortable out there.

I think Dji has little room for error because he is behind Nelson, Goose, and Roche. It is the life of a reserve, and having guys in front of you. You are supposed to come in and play well, and if you do, it doesn't guarantee more time.

I thought Nelson was really good last night. And, if he can make some 3s like he did, that will be huge. He and Quinn should continue to get better and better, which will be a big key for us and make us that much better during conference play.
 
Nelson has a lot of pressure on him functioning as the only/main point guard option. His scoring was good and ball handling until the last part of the game. Has the talent and with some direction and assistance particularly in closing parts of games will do fine. Reasonable to think he would have passed the ball sooner except for being instructed otherwise.
 
Good post as usual.

I agree with almost everything. I'll give credit for adjustments in game to start to crack the zone a bit, but the start to the game and most certainly the finish negate any positives and then some by a large margin.

Regarding Tyler playing 45 minutes, I hadn't realized that during the game, but again, maybe use a timeout or two so he can rest, if nothing else? Saving them for made baskets that never came shows an inherent absurdity to that longstanding, terrible timeout strategy.

Re: Quinn. I guess I'm not exactly seeing where all the praise is coming from for last night's game. I was sitting a few rows up near the Cuse bench and 2 or 3 times in the first half he had the ability to go up strong and chose to pass back out, once to Nelson at 5'8" eight feet away. Did he shoot any FTs? I don't remember any. His good post move was extremely nice and it made me want more. Just continued to look indecisive with the ball for the most part, unwilling to use his size to his advantage, and his inability to be effective first 5m in the zone offense was a major contributor to the early deficit. It will be interesting to see how it goes bc I don't think he and Grace can both start - Bigelow has to be in there.

Dji played okay. His poor sequence of getting burned backdoor and then just losing the ball oob was bad but he had positives in the first half that I thought made a case for 2nd half minutes too. Basically was him or Quinn and staff went with Quinn.

Walz showed the same as he did in garbage time - deer in headlights when he touches the ball. No expectations this year for him unfortunately.

Finally, I'm going to reverse course and say I've been wrong this year. Goose should not start anymore. The offense desperately needs Roche's 3 point shooting - especially early in games - and needs at least 8-10 FGA from him per game, and that demands starters minutes. Goose has not gotten it done on offense, perhaps even regressed a bit, and has both committed bad fouls at inopportune times, and not been giving a clean sheet on turnovers. I thought in 2nd half he mostly did okay on #11 but then the 3 point foul was brutal. What he brings can translate to a sub role and can always go back to him starting later if a change doesn't work out.

I don't expect any changes tonight but going forward, I think there have to be some past that.
 
Was screaming at my TV the last 6 minutes. The sad thing is that in between Exhibit A and Exhibit B, we played 30 minutes of really damn good basketball. This team has talent, it needs guidance and coaching from the coaching staff.

Mooney is too used to having Gilly out there and this hands off approach didn't even work sometimes with a player with the experience of Gilly, it sure as heck isn't going to work with a PG playing his 5th collegiate game.
I know I will get attacked for this, but how many teams play well and play "really damn good basketball" for 40 minutes? Yes, it stinks to lose, and I wanted to win as badly as anyone, but this is game 5 against a good opponent, and I saw a lot of positives out there. And, it just seems so silly, but so predictable that when we play poorly, it's the coaches fault, and when we play well, it's because of the players.

And, I know I will definitely get attacked for this, but whatever. This board disgusts me sometimes. Absolutely 100% disgusts me. In March, we win the A-10 tourney, and beat Iowa in the dance, lose a bunch of seniors, minutes, points, rebounds, etc., and now in game 5 of the following year, with a bunch of new guys and a PG who has never played before, we battle our asses off all night and take Syracuse to OT. And, what do we hear on here? My goodness, you read this negative board and it just amazes me how miserable some of you are, attacking not only the coaches non stop, but players too in the process. Some even getting on Tyler? What the heck is wrong with some of you? All of the "never" and "always" comments come out. We "never" win a close game. We "never" close games down the stretch. We "always" choke. Nevermind the fact that we won close game after close game throughout the A-10 tourney and then again against Iowa in the dance.

So, attack me all you want for being too positive and for not joining your miserable pity party. Attack me for not joining you and getting all over the coaches and players. I like this team. I like this team a lot. They battle their asses off out there. I like and respect the heck out of the players and the coaches. Just like last year's players and coaches. You know, last year, when just about everyone on here was crapping on them, silly me remained positive and kept believing in them, right?
 
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.
X2

We all heard the announcers, and I'd hope we all agree. However, it doesn't take announcers to point out the obvious flaw & Mooney strategy / part of system.

The bigger question is why Mooney won't change this. Either he won't or can't. Either way, it burns us too often. When is enough enough? I wish someone would challenge him on this.
 
Generally speaking, we have been much more apt in the Mooney era to blow leads and lose close games than to overcome deficits and win close games. That's where this frustration comes from. I'm unable to put that into larger perspective to know how other teams do, but this has been our experience more often than not.

Since 2020-21, we are 9-14 in games decided by 5 or fewer points. Somewhat of an arbitrary dividing line, and it's obviously not a be-all/end-all, but it gives a little data to support the frustration. Four of those wins happened in about 7 days in March. I'm really glad they did, but the close-game record looks worse without that run -- albeit a hugely significant one.

Just eyeballing them, I would say most of the other wins in that group (with a couple exceptions, notably that Toledo game last year) were games we led comfortably that turned into smaller margins of victory at the end, rather than games we trailed late and came back to win.

The main frustration now is that these last three games were ALL games we very easily could have won. It felt like we actively didn't want to win (obviously I'm not saying that was the case, I'm just illustrating the point). It's not like Syracuse played this amazing game and we clawed back and just fell short at the end. Syracuse played an average game and made a lot of mistakes, especially in the second half and down the stretch, almost begging us just to do ANYTHING to win the game, especially when we were up 3 and then 5, and every time we failed.

We had the Charleston game won! Up 5 with like 1:10 to go? Blew it. The Wichita game, similar. That's the frustration. Giving games away that we HAD. Just like we did last year against Drake, against Maryland, the second time against Mason, and to a slightly lesser extent the home games against VCU and Dayton and that game last November against MSU.
 
btw ... we had advantages when we ran. Syracuse didn't get back very well. we didn't always finish and they made some athletic plays from behind, but I liked it a lot better than letting them set up in that zone.
 
And we have the horses to run! We also look better defensively when we trap and press, just like the rare instances when we did so last year. There's obviously a reason why neither becomes more than a passing fancy for us, and I would love to know what it is.
 
This is the definition of coming out flat.
to me "flat" means lacking intensity. we defended hard. starting Goose to defend Girard made some sense but Girard was hot. and we missed shots. the same kind of shots we hit later.
 
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sure, and the usual popluar theory here ... "Once we fell behind 14-2, we decided not to listen to Mooney anymore. Until 5 minutes left. Then we listened to him again."
 
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sure, and the usual popluar theory here ... "Once we fell behind 14-2, we decided not to listen to Mooney anymore. Until 5 minutes left. Then we listened to him again."
I think the players listen don't coach and don't go rogue.

More likely scenario is we fell behind 14-2, Mooney responds by using pressure and forces tempo a bit, which as in the past couple of games works really well, and then we get up, and Mooney lets off pressure and tries to bleed clock and then we go passive again.
 
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I think the players listen don't coach and don't go rogue.

More likely scenario is we fell behind 14-2, Mooney responds by using pressure and forces tempo a bit, which as in the past couple of games works really well, and then we get up, and Mooney lets off pressure and tries to bleed clock and then we go passive again.
can't remember, but I thought we started pressing right away ... not after we were down 14-2.
am I mistaken?
 
I think the players listen don't coach and don't go rogue.

More likely scenario is we fell behind 14-2, Mooney responds by using pressure and forces tempo a bit, which as in the past couple of games works really well, and then we get up, and Mooney lets off pressure and tries to bleed clock and then we go passive again.
Just one thing about pressure. The reason pressure usually looks good....is because it comes off of MADE BASKETS. So yes the pressure works and looks good because it is coming when we are scoring. It is much more difficult to show pressure off misses because people are not in position, ready, etc. Another reason it is difficult to consistently show pressure, is because it becomes repetitive. The more you see of something like that, the more the players see the openings. We saw this when Charleston started throwing the ball in to mid-court and attacking from there after we came back. Wish our offense was able to see/ feel that way against the defense last night, but then again, we missed a lot of layups/foul shots we should have made.
 
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from the Wichita State gamer (https://richmond.com/sports/college...cle_bfa24255-8d12-566c-823a-5f1a3e85137e.html)

“Passive” was the word Spiders forward Isaiah Bigelow employed to describe how UR played in the first half. “We didn’t play with no intensity until the second half,” he said. “We just came out flat.

I feel like I've read a whole lot of quotes like this over the
I think the players listen don't coach and don't go rogue.

More likely scenario is we fell behind 14-2, Mooney responds by using pressure and forces tempo a bit, which as in the past couple of games works really well, and then we get up, and Mooney lets off pressure and tries to bleed clock and then we go passive again.
Uh....kind of hard to pressure when you don't score. How much pressure could we have done down 14-2?
 
Bigs is lying to cover up Mooney, plain and simple.
Or, it is easier to say that than say, "we were 3-16 from 3 in the 1st half. We all missed shots. I didn't play well in the 1st half and went 1-4 from 3 and got a couple fouls which took me out of the game". I don't know, if you hold a team to 28 1st half points, that tells me the intensity was there and our guys were very much into the game.

I love Bigelow and want him on the floor a ton, but it is about shooting, not being flat. Our last 3 games, Bigelow is 3-11, 5-14, and 7-19 from the field. We just need to protect the ball better and make more shots. I think it is as simple as that right now.
 
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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.
If I was to pick between Goose and Nelson for point guard I’d pick Goose. He pushed the offense. Nelson hits some shots but was completely loss in the last 5 minutes
 
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I missed the press conference , if there was one. Did anyone ask Mooney what was going on in with the 3 shot clocks violations?
 
I know I will get attacked for this, but how many teams play well and play "really damn good basketball" for 40 minutes? Yes, it stinks to lose, and I wanted to win as badly as anyone, but this is game 5 against a good opponent, and I saw a lot of positives out there. And, it just seems so silly, but so predictable that when we play poorly, it's the coaches fault, and when we play well, it's because of the players.

And, I know I will definitely get attacked for this, but whatever. This board disgusts me sometimes. Absolutely 100% disgusts me. In March, we win the A-10 tourney, and beat Iowa in the dance, lose a bunch of seniors, minutes, points, rebounds, etc., and now in game 5 of the following year, with a bunch of new guys and a PG who has never played before, we battle our asses off all night and take Syracuse to OT. And, what do we hear on here? My goodness, you read this negative board and it just amazes me how miserable some of you are, attacking not only the coaches non stop, but players too in the process. Some even getting on Tyler? What the heck is wrong with some of you? All of the "never" and "always" comments come out. We "never" win a close game. We "never" close games down the stretch. We "always" choke. Nevermind the fact that we won close game after close game throughout the A-10 tourney and then again against Iowa in the dance.

So, attack me all you want for being too positive and for not joining your miserable pity party. Attack me for not joining you and getting all over the coaches and players. I like this team. I like this team a lot. They battle their asses off out there. I like and respect the heck out of the players and the coaches. Just like last year's players and coaches. You know, last year, when just about everyone on here was crapping on them, silly me remained positive and kept believing in them, right?
VT you may place your humble self on a lofty pedestal, but you are as bad as those you put down. You may not criticize a player or a coach, but you vehemently criticize opinions of others including those who have substantial coaching experience. Don’t you think there are those of us who have bled red and blue many years and we have the right to constructively criticize.
 
VT you may place your humble self on a lofty pedestal, but you are as bad as those you put down. You may not criticize a player or a coach, but you vehemently criticize opinions of others including those who have substantial coaching experience. Don’t you think there are those of us who have bled red and blue many years and we have the right to constructively criticize.
Of course, you have the right to criticize. And, I have the right to disagree with the criticism. I am in the minority with my positive attitude, so, as your post shows, it is more convenient to call me out, and act like I am the one who posts the wrong way, while ignoring everything that gets said to me. That's fine. I am very used to that. People on here actually wished we would not have won the A-10 tourney last year. Sorry, but I will criticize that all day long. And, yes, that disgusts me. I should have put my post from here on that thread because that is where my frustration came from. People on here just love to complain, and yes, they love to get on the coaches and players. It's very telling that the threads after we lose are way longer than the threads after we win.
 
We should never have had at-large hopes. That was and is unrealistic for this group. They have flaws and only Burton and Goose have meaningful experience. Dont get me wrong - -- the showing so far hasn't been good or even what I expected quite frankly, but at-large should never have been an expectation.

Tempted to say we'll be fine - - - but not if people had those expectations!
Totally agree with this comment. It is a development year for the team, which simply means there will be growing pains. The "super senior" class is gone and rebuilding is required.
Agree with this totally. I went on record thinking we would win 18/19 games. The sad thing is we could very easily be 5 and 0 right now. Get mad all you want but they're not very well coached. They're just not prepared and tough enough down the stretch which is nothing new.
I agree that the failure to close games seems to be a program trait and not a player one. A UR fan is never comfortable with any lead.
Burton...simply is not going to be good enough to just ride him to wins down the stretch of these games - especially against a team with multiple guys who are his equal (or better) athletically......We will be best when we develop more compliments such that there is less actual pressure on him to do it all and when he feels less pressure to do it all. Hopefully that happens and we will see the best of TB
I knew the lack of Burton love was going to go over real well on the board. I agree with the statements I left above. Burton in my opinion is not the type of player that "takes over" a game. He needs others to take the pressure off of him. Otherwise, he forces things to happen and the outcome is typically not good. His athleticism is easily matched by most of the A10 competition and that is why his productivity typically suffers once he enters league play. Obviously, there is a hope that he can overcome this deficiency this year and he has been mentioning in interviews that he is ready to take the "featured" role. Just haven't seen it and as others have mentioned it will take creating special plays by the staff to make this happen.

For clarification, yes I am glad Burton is a Spider again this year and he is an essential part of the team. He is a great rebounder and we all know the Spiders need all of that they can get. It may even be a blessing in disguise that he isn't "the team" as it makes the Spiders better balanced. I just think anyone who thinks Burton is going to carry the team and close out games is living in a different world than I am.
 
14-2 start: What should we have done differently, other than not come out "flat"? I don't think we came out flat. We had turnovers, missed some shots and they made some. So, yes, we played poorly to start the game, but why act like the coaches are not getting the guys ready to play? I would think the guys were pretty excited about playing Syracuse at Barclays. I don't think anyone was flat. I'm not sure what else the coaches could have done. So, if we protect the ball and make 3s, the coaches should get credit for getting us ready?

We wanted to be patient, and get the best shot possible, and it worked well at times in the 2nd half. I agree the last 6 minutes, we were too patient and waited too long to get going. I don't think we were intentionally milking the clock inside of 10 and then running something. I think we just had a hard time finding something, and some guys might have been a little too hesitant. Nelson was in his 5th game playing against a real unique zone out there. Maybe he was a little undecided at times late, but I thought he played well overall and would expect him to do a few things differently down the stretch as the season moves along.

I would be fine with giving Tyler a few minutes on the bench each half, but I say maybe do that and not definitely do that because some guys are more than capable of playing every minute. With media timeouts, you get some decent rest several times a half. But, something to keep an eye on, and if looks like fatigue might be a factor with him, rest him a few minutes each half.

Bigelow is solid. Not a great shooting night, but he does so many things well, and impacts the game so much, he needs to be out there a lot. I am not worried about starting or not. He will get plenty of minutes regardless.

I agree about Roche. He needs to play a lot. His defense is more than acceptable, and I could definitely see starting him over Goose.

Quinn played well last night. He seems to be getting more and more comfortable out there.

I think Dji has little room for error because he is behind Nelson, Goose, and Roche. It is the life of a reserve, and having guys in front of you. You are supposed to come in and play well, and if you do, it doesn't guarantee more time.

I thought Nelson was really good last night. And, if he can make some 3s like he did, that will be huge. He and Quinn should continue to get better and better, which will be a big key for us and make us that much better during conference play.
This is such an ill informed post it’s comical
 
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Totally agree with this comment. It is a development year for the team, which simply means there will be growing pains. The "super senior" class is gone and rebuilding is required.

I agree that the failure to close games seems to be a program trait and not a player one. A UR fan is never comfortable with any lead.

I knew the lack of Burton love was going to go over real well on the board. I agree with the statements I left above. Burton in my opinion is not the type of player that "takes over" a game. He needs others to take the pressure off of him. Otherwise, he forces things to happen and the outcome is typically not good. His athleticism is easily matched by most of the A10 competition and that is why his productivity typically suffers once he enters league play. Obviously, there is a hope that he can overcome this deficiency this year and he has been mentioning in interviews that he is ready to take the "featured" role. Just haven't seen it and as others have mentioned it will take creating special plays by the staff to make this happen.

For clarification, yes I am glad Burton is a Spider again this year and he is an essential part of the team. He is a great rebounder and we all know the Spiders need all of that they can get. It may even be a blessing in disguise that he isn't "the team" as it makes the Spiders better balanced. I just think anyone who thinks Burton is going to carry the team and close out games is living in a different world than I am.
Yes, agree on Burton. He is our best player for sure, but not one who can take over games although I would argue that he is a dominating presence on the glass. He is not the type of player who can get double teamed and still be the man, he just isn't. Our key is surrounding him with other really good players that can make shots on the offensive end of things, so he can get his favorable one on one match-ups which he can exploit. Why I like Bigelow out there with him. Bigelow is very dangerous, they play similar positions so teams won't be able to double Burton or key on him as much because Bigelow has skills too.
 
Yes, agree on Burton. He is our best player for sure, but not one who can take over games although I would argue that he is a dominating presence on the glass. He is not the type of player who can get double teamed and still be the man, he just isn't. Our key is surrounding him with other really good players that can make shots on the offensive end of things, so he can get his favorable one on one match-ups which he can exploit. Why I like Bigelow out there with him. Bigelow is very dangerous, they play similar positions so teams won't be able to double Burton or key on him as much because Bigelow has skills too.
Just saw this now. I agree we are waiting to see Burton taking over games consistently. But, the guy had 38 against Charleston, if that isn't taking over a game I'm not sure what it is.
 
After 4 years in the program and with his skill set, I would like to see more consistency.
 
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