Things the team could work on

[MrTbone]

1) Jacob should carry more of the scoring load
2) Blake should carry less of the scoring load
3) Every single guy has got to find their man and box out. This is so basic, I just don’t get why we don’t do it.

I’m sure someone will tell me I’m oversimplifying things

 

[SpiderGuy]

1)Offensive rebounding
2)Defensive rebounding
3)Covering 3 point shooters

I realize this is on Mooney to change the basic philosophy of his system & that old habits die hard. Correction - old habits will never change during his tenure.

 

[Eight Legger]

As mentioned in thread, no more switching/hedging at the top of the key. Absurd. It leads directly to points for the other team.

 

[Spider2020]

Mentality when we build leads - we hardly ever close a team out before the last 2 minutes of a game. We take our foot off the gas and let teams back in games

 

[spider23]

It's just a culture on rebounding. Watching SDSU, same type of balls that we don't get, SDSU's guards , everyone just scrapping to get defensive rebound. We have Golden and Cayo trying but no sign of anyone else.

 

[spider23]

Just went to a TO in SDSU game, 3 times Dutcher said, "Will u effing rebound the ball" can't believe they caught that on air. Reinforces the difference in culture.

 

[kneepadmckinney]

It's just a culture on rebounding. Watching SDSU, same type of balls that we don't get, SDSU's guards , everyone just scrapping to get defensive rebound. We have Golden and Cayo trying but no sign of anyone else.

Golden? Lol.

 

[32counter]

No parties,wearing masks,creating a bubble.

It’s not clear that Mooney believes in Covid even though we’ve had 3 pauses and now have our backs against the wall.

 

[SouthJerseySpiderFan]

1) Jacob should carry more of the scoring load
2) Blake should carry less of the scoring load
3) Every single guy has got to find their man and box out. This is so basic, I just don’t get why we don’t do it.

I’m sure someone will tell me I’m oversimplifying things

Not at all for me and all 3 would help greatly. Of course Mooney is an Ivy league grad so possibly he doesn't get the simple, important things.

 

[CarolinaSpider]

It's just a culture on rebounding. Watching SDSU, same type of balls that we don't get, SDSU's guards , everyone just scrapping to get defensive rebound. We have Golden and Cayo trying but no sign of anyone else.

Hold on 23, Burton scraps in there pretty hard. Golden for his size rebounds the worst.

 

[CarolinaSpider]

1. Lack of discipline on offense at times, with little patience and ball movement
2. When we hedge a screen, we have to have back line support picking up screener (Duke and UVA did this last night)
3. Have Sal fill in for Golden instead of Grace. Grace‘s block out technique is pathetic
4. use Wilson more than Goos till Goos gets his game rhythm back( Goos has not been same since injury)

 

[RichmondNative]

As mentioned in thread, no more switching/hedging at the top of the key. Absurd. It leads directly to points for the other team.

Maybe one of the coaching types can explain what this tactic is supposed to do because I have never seen anything positive come out of the Spiders doing it. The Spider execution looks like some sort of shuttle run drill that is supposed to help the bigs work on quickness - run up to guard, give him a menacing look, run back and find your man.

 

[spider23]

Hold on 23, Burton scraps in there pretty hard. Golden for his size rebounds the worst.

Good point, I guess my point is really since our big men are giving up so many offensive rebounds, need 5 guys chipping in. That is what I saw in Aztecs game, guards were not always getting rebounds, but they thwarted quite a few by getting a hand on the ball and knocking some potential offensive rebounds away. Again, broadcasters mentioned culture of defense several times in pre game. Head coach talks rebounding and defense very often in interviews. And yet they still shot 8-12 from 3 last night. Mooney seems to be under impression that pretty offense is priority 1 , 2 and 3.

 

[SouthJerseySpiderFan]

1. Lack of discipline on offense at times, with little patience and ball movement
2. When we hedge a screen, we have to have back line support picking up screener (Duke and UVA did this last night)
3. Have Sal fill in for Golden instead of Grace. Grace‘s block out technique is pathetic
4. use Wilson more than Goos till Goos gets his game rhythm back( Goos has not been same since injury)

Love 1,3, and 4!
1) Adding name. Blake! BLAKE!! Mooney's has to get in his ear, plenty of shot clock time left. He can get that shot anytime.
2) You want an athlete or a body? Give me Sal. Grace trys his best but with the offensive weapons available, he should only dunk the ball. Did you see the 3PTA from the corner yesterday?
4) Wilson productive and maybe could be more so if given time early in the year?

 

[Spider Bob79]

-Offensive rebounding (probably won’t happen since it doesn’t fit the Princeton offense)
-Defense in the paint
-Blocking out
-Stop complaining to refs about the foul calls and just play ball!

 

[GKiller]

 

[Eight Legger]

Maybe one of the coaching types can explain what this tactic is supposed to do because I have never seen anything positive come out of the Spiders doing it. The Spider execution looks like some sort of shuttle run drill that is supposed to help the bigs work on quickness - run up to guard, give him a menacing look, run back and find your man.

I'm with you here. I don't know the philosophy behind it, only that it's something players are "supposed" to do. But I know they're not supposed to do it the way we do. It seriously looks like we're trying to allow as easy a basket as possible.

It looks like we're filming "How To Lose Your Man In 3 Seconds."

 

[SpiderGuy]

View embedded media

Bingo. Look

Look no further than in the fundamentals Mooney doesn't teach or prioritize. This has been a pattern over many years. This quote in today's RTD by Mooney re: yesterday's game follows:

"They're a great offensive rebounding team, and that reality hurt us throughout the second half."

Response - Mooney makes a lot of teams look like great offensive rebounding teams.

 

[MrTbone]

Bingo. Look

Look no further than in the fundamentals Mooney doesn't teach or prioritize. This has been a pattern over many years. This quote in today's RTD by Mooney re: yesterday's game follows:

"They're a great offensive rebounding team, and that reality hurt us throughout the second half."

Response - Mooney makes a lot of teams look like great offensive rebounding teams.

They certainly emphasize offensive rebounding at Duquesne, but it’s painfully evident that we are just fundamentally unsound at defensive rebounding. We make poor teams look average and average teams look great in this regard.

 

[ur2K]

It’s been this way for 16 years, it’s embedded in the program.

 

[MrTbone]

I realize I’m not breaking any news in the rebounding observation. It was just on painful display in the second half yesterday.

 

[SpiderRick]

Work on:
1. Finding a new coach.
2. Finding a new athletic director
3. All of the above

 

[whampas]

Work on winning games that you should win, especially at home and winning a few games that you shouldn't.

 

[KE Spider]

Work on shot selection.

Not sure why the guy with the second lowest FG% has taken 42% more shots than any of his teammates. Seems counter intuitive.

 

[Spiders4ever]

Work on shot selection.

Not sure why the guy with the second lowest FG% has taken 42% more shots than any of his teammates. Seems counter intuitive.

He could get hot.

 

[Eight Legger]

Work on shot selection.

Not sure why the guy with the second lowest FG% has taken 42% more shots than any of his teammates. Seems counter intuitive.

Seems like we need an analytics guy on staff to crunch some numbers and spit out some new ideas.

 

[ChoppinBroccoli]

Seems like we need an analytics guy on staff to crunch some numbers and spit out some new ideas.

Add another wedge to the Wheel of Excuses. We need MORE STAFF!

 

[spider23]

I remember a big announcement 5 or 6 years ago about an analytics guy. Faded away with no other discussion. Probably like our scheduling consultant in a couple years.

 

[8legs]

Rebounding:
"He who wants it, gets it!"
"Every miss, ours or there's, is MINE" Moses Malone

 

[97spiderfan]

1. Playing with g-d damn intensity out there. If we are down the last 3 minutes of a game, this team goes after it on both ends of the floor, because they know their backs are too the wall. Why aren't they playing the whole game like that.
2. Grant fouling a guy hard instead of watching him have an uncontested lay-up or dunk.
3. Stop shooting so many damn 3 balls, we aren't that good at it. I know this is Mooney's offense but again you adjust to your players and their play. We are very efficient inside, but yet his offense works for and encourages taking 3's. And then when we lose, Mooney's comment always is how we just need to make shots. Yeah, no shit sherlock, but we haven't made those shots all stinking year, so perhaps draw your offense up differently to get us shots we are better at knocking down.

 

[kneepadmckinney]

Statistically, as for three pointers, as long as we are making 34%, it's statistically better for us to shoot that than a two pointer, since we are not making 50% of twos. We'd be getting 102 points for every 100 shots, as compared to 100 points for every 100 shots at 50% efficiency.

In real life, I prefer us to attack the rim with Kentucky Nate Cayo and Wyoming Grant Golden. With Gilyard penetrating and attacking more often than he has been doing.

If the choice is between a three pointer and a pull up deep two from Blake Francis, I take the three from any of our guys, including Blake Francis.

 

[spider23]

1. Playing with g-d damn intensity out there. If we are down the last 3 minutes of a game, this team goes after it on both ends of the floor, because they know their backs are too the wall. Why aren't they playing the whole game like that.
2. Grant fouling a guy hard instead of watching him have an uncontested lay-up or dunk.
3. Stop shooting so many damn 3 balls, we aren't that good at it. I know this is Mooney's offense but again you adjust to your players and their play. We are very efficient inside, but yet his offense works for and encourages taking 3's. And then when we lose, Mooney's comment always is how we just need to make shots. Yeah, no shit sherlock, but we haven't made those shots all stinking year, so perhaps draw your offense up differently to get us shots we are better at knocking down.

1. Depth, lack of competition, knowing your spot is guaranteed as many minutes as you can play, culture. I know, we lost Sherod and Crabtree, but still have Wilson and Goose, if you are not guarding with intensity, you come out for a few. WE basically have guaranteed minutes it seems every year.
2. This goes back again to lack of quality depth, and mindset that we cannot have Grant pick up fouls, just like TJ before him. It seems to be instilled in the 5 position, that yes you can pass, shoot, and are skilled, therefore cannot be tough, rebound and enforce.
3. Good point. Pounding Cayo inside has been most effective play lately. At some point you do need to make shots, but adapting is not a Mooney strong point.

 

[SFspidur]

Statistically, as for three pointers, as long as we are making 34%, it's statistically better for us to shoot that than a two pointer, since we are not making 50% of twos. We'd be getting 102 points for every 100 shots, as compared to 100 points for every 100 shots at 50% efficiency.

We're shooting 56% on twos, so we'd need to be shooting 37% on threes in order to score at roughly the same efficiency.

 

[Eight Legger]

I'm not a statistician but it also seems like shooting 34% on threes becomes an even more dangerous situation when you consider how often those 66% of misses immediately result in a change of possession. I wouldn't be surprised if the number of times we have gotten an offensive rebound off a missed three is in the single digits or close to it all season. It's like an instant turnover when we miss. At least when we miss a two, there's usually a better chance (though obviously still slim) of getting an offensive rebound.

 

[97spiderfan]

1. Depth, lack of competition, knowing your spot is guaranteed as many minutes as you can play, culture. I know, we lost Sherod and Crabtree, but still have Wilson and Goose, if you are not guarding with intensity, you come out for a few. WE basically have guaranteed minutes it seems every year.
2. This goes back again to lack of quality depth, and mindset that we cannot have Grant pick up fouls, just like TJ before him. It seems to be instilled in the 5 position, that yes you can pass, shoot, and are skilled, therefore cannot be tough, rebound and enforce.

I love the use of the word "culture". Yes, we certainly have a culture here. Gilly knows he can play basically all 40 minutes and will never come out regardless of play (Blake to a lesser extent).

Grant knows he is to stay out of foul trouble, even though, he is only playing 30 minutes a game AND has never come close to fouling out of a game. I'm sure every other team we play knows this as well. Pound it inside at Grant, get a step on him and you got yourself an easy deuce.

 

[8legs1dream]

97 seeing you say this made me curious "he is only playing 30 minutes a game AND has never come close to fouling out of a game"

so I took a quick look at his career stats out of 120 games (111 asa starter) he fouled out once in 2017 to Old Dominion and then six times in the past three seasons he has reached four fouls.

 

[Eight Legger]

It's frustrating because Grant is a big dude and theoretically has the potential to be a physical presence for us, if in no other way than as a defensive rebounder. But it's just not his style of play, for whatever reason. Doesn't make it any less frustrating, but I guess we just need to accept that it is never going to be what he excels at.

 

[SpiderRick]

Mooney has a bonus clause for games that Golden doesn't foul out, just like the unused time outs.

 

[RichmondNative]

Good point on the basic stats Kneepad.

I agree with 8legger though that this strategy leads to long rebounds and lead to transition opportunities by the opposition. Of course, this is why the team is told to get back and not worry about the rebound, so success!! LOL

The other big issue to me is that taking the ball inside also leads to fouls on the opposition. Why the Spiders did not continue to pound the ball inside to Cayo versus Duq is beyond me because they had 2 bigs with 4 fouls with significant time left in the game and NEITHER fouled out because the Spiders went away from going inside. So frustrating.

 

[97spiderfan]

97 seeing you say this made me curious "he is only playing 30 minutes a game AND has never come close to fouling out of a game"

so I took a quick look at his career stats out of 120 games (111 asa starter) he fouled out once in 2017 to Old Dominion and then six times in the past three seasons he has reached four fouls.

That 8legs. I didn't actually look it up but I know from watching every game that Grant is rarely if ever in foul trouble. There were several occasion in the Duquesne game where he got beat and then just stood and watched the player dunk or lay it in.

Obviously, you can't foul every time, but sometimes a hard foul by the big man is a deterrent from doing that again.