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We clearly don't have that marquee OOC win this year, so agree we need to get it done in conference play. One hurdle for that is we seem to have a tougher A-10 schedule than we did last year...with the home-and-homes, we swapped out GW and Davidson and added in SLU and Bona.

Bona-Davidson might be a wash, although the swap also means we're adding a trip to Olean we wouldn't have otherwise had, and that's always a tough one to make. SLU is obviously a big step up from GW and is a bad matchup for us on top of that.
 
VT4700 said:
Yes, I know it's good for the program. I just finished saying that. But, it is certainly not everything, especially this year. We can still do everything we set out to do this year. Also, we can't control rankings. We can control our other goals. Had we stayed ranked most of the year, and not won the regular season or tournament titles, or a game in the dance, are we really looking back saying at least we were ranked?
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I agree it’s not more important than those other things but they often go together. U know there’s no rule u can’t do say 3 out of 4 of those or even 2 out of 4. Except maybe at Richmond there is a rule.

of course u also asked how many ppl outside Richmond knew we were ranked. It’s millions. What do u think? I’m shocked u think so low. I heard from easily double digits about it from ppl who didn’t go to UR & from some I wouldn’t have imagined would know.
 
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VT4700 said:
Maybe, but I doubt it. Hofstra will have a good year. This won't be a sub 200 loss or anything. And, we won't be competing with Hofstra for a bid. We will be competing with other A-10 teams. If we finish 3rd, that is likely 2 teams ahead of us in the at large order, whether we had beaten Hofstra or not. I don't know if our conference as a whole will have enough out of conference data to get more than two teams in this year. We need a 1st or 2nd place A-10 finish to feel safe this year. Nothing has changed.
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Did you realize the committee is not required to take the top 2? Did you know they could take 1st and 3rd if they think 3rd has a better resume than 2nd?

Did you also know that 2 teams from the league are not guaranteed? Out of conference results determine that. So, losing to Hofstra certainly hurts our cause.
 
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VT4700 said:
Yes, I know it's good for the program. I just finished saying that. But, it is certainly not everything, especially this year. We can still do everything we set out to do this year. Also, we can't control rankings. We can control our other goals. Had we stayed ranked most of the year, and not won the regular season or tournament titles, or a game in the dance, are we really looking back saying at least we were ranked?
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Of course, we control rankings. Last I checked, a team with a losing record is not usually ranked at least not after 8 games have been played. Win and beat good competition without losing to bad competition gets you ranked. It is not random.

If we are ranked, we almost certainly get in. Plus, we get the bonus of recognition throughout the year, not just at Tourny time.
 
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SFspidur said:
We clearly don't have that marquee OOC win this year, so agree we need to get it done in conference play. One hurdle for that is we seem to have a tougher A-10 schedule than we did last year...with the home-and-homes, we swapped out GW and Davidson and added in SLU and Bona.

Bona-Davidson might be a wash, although the swap also means we're adding a trip to Olean we wouldn't have otherwise had, and that's always a tough one to make. SLU is obviously a big step up from GW and is a bad matchup for us on top of that.
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Agree, and you make good points, but it might not be a bad thing to swap GW for SLU because this gives us 2 chances to beat SLU and we need as many quality A-10 wins as we can get. We don't know how the season will turn out, and maybe we would have beaten SLU had we played them once, but I do know going 2-1 against GW and SLU with a win over SLU is a lot better than going 2-1 because we swept GW.
 
SFspidur said:
We clearly don't have that marquee OOC win this year, so agree we need to get it done in conference play. One hurdle for that is we seem to have a tougher A-10 schedule than we did last year...with the home-and-homes, we swapped out GW and Davidson and added in SLU and Bona.

Bona-Davidson might be a wash, although the swap also means we're adding a trip to Olean we wouldn't have otherwise had, and that's always a tough one to make. SLU is obviously a big step up from GW and is a bad matchup for us on top of that.
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When I look at our A-10 schedule I see...
At SLU, VCU, SBU, Dayton, Davidson
Home SLU, VCU, SBU

Any of those could be tough and nearly half our schedule...

Home URI & at Umass may be tougher than they appear. Do we make up the Duquesne game?
 
mr.spider said:
Did you realize the committee is not required to take the top 2? Did you know they could take 1st and 3rd if they think 3rd has a better resume than 2nd?

Did you also know that 2 teams from the league are not guaranteed? Out of conference results determine that. So, losing to Hofstra certainly hurts our cause.
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Yes, I hear you, but the committee will have a lot less data than normal to work with, and chances are the 2nd place A-10 team will look a lot better to them than the 3rd place A-10 team. This is just a different year than normal. Without a lot of OOC games to look at, I think the committee is probably looking at us as a 2 bid league. Who in the A-10 had such a great OOC that a 3rd place finish would be looking good for them right now?

It's all opinion, but my guess is the Hofstra loss has about a 1% chance of costing us this year. I wouldn't worry much about seeding. If a loss like that costs us a seed in the dance, that could be a good thing anyway because it is all about matchups.
 
mr.spider said:
Of course, we control rankings. Last I checked, a team with a losing record is not usually ranked at least not after 8 games have been played. Win and beat good competition without losing to bad competition gets you ranked. It is not random.

If we are ranked, we almost certainly get in. Plus, we get the bonus of recognition throughout the year, not just at Tourny time.
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The committee has left out ranked teams before.
 
I'm not trying to disagree with a few of you on here. I think we actually agree on a lot more than you think. My only point is we still have a lot of basketball left, and still have a very good chance to make the dance, which I am pretty sure is what we all are focused on this year.
 
VT4700 said:
I'm not trying to disagree with a few of you on here. I think we actually agree on a lot more than you think. My only point is we still have a lot of basketball left, and still have a very good chance to make the dance, which I am pretty sure is what we all are focused on this year.
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Of course, that's what we are focused on. Our margin of error is always very slim, though. So, a bad loss or highly questionable loss hurts badly.

I was also focused on being ranked because that builds our program and pride and attention.

Sometimes, I wonder if the CAA was better fit for us because we had a much higher probability of winning the auto-bid. Seems that the margin of error in the A-10 is still so thin, that it, perhaps, hasn't helped us. If it were one notch higher of a league it certainly would help, but the A10 is very tough but doesn't get recognized as such enough.
 
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fwiw - our consultant "Joey Brackets' has 3 teams in the A-10 in "the Dance" - Spiders, Billikens, Wildcats .....................
 
spider fan said:
fwiw - our consultant "Joey Brackets' has 3 teams in the A-10 in "the Dance" - Spiders, Billikens, Wildcats .....................
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That would be great if we can get 3 in, but I wouldn't count on it. Once again, I just go back to thinking this year will be harder for the mid majors to get extra bids. In a normal year, we could hope to have a really good out of conference run as a conference, and get three or four in, but this year seems different.
 
Remember all of that national press we were getting the first few weeks of the season - that’s gone now. We got steamrolled by WVU and lost to Hofstra, the national guys will move on.

But maybe we hang a banner at the end of the year for being ranked for a few weeks.
 
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ur2K said:
Remember all of that national press we were getting the first few weeks of the season - that’s gone now. We got steamrolled by WVU and lost to Hofstra, the national guys will move on.

But maybe we hang a banner at the end of the year for being ranked for a few weeks.
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But there's hope for 2024. The national press will return. No longer "next year will be our year".
 
spider fan said:
fwiw - our consultant "Joey Brackets' has 3 teams in the A-10 in "the Dance" - Spiders, Billikens, Wildcats .....................
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Just checked on this. And Wildcats were in as a 12 because they won an A-10 game...
 
gcarter52 said:
With fans like you, who need enemies.
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I've probably been a fan way longer than you. We all see & support through our own lenses. Sorry to disappoint you, but you are not my standard of judgement nor will I lose any sleep over what anyone thinks about my posts, and I would hope no one would lose any sleep over anything I post. Are you losing sleep, my friend? I live in a world of reality and facts; not in a world of wishes that get moved year to year. Eternal optimism and rah-rah does not parlay into victories the last time I checked. I would much rather be an realist and deal with facts as opposed to wishes and dreams that some do. I've found it's best to be grounded in the concept of "what is" as opposed to "what I wish it was".

Sorry if you couldn't follow my 2024 point. Let me help you out. Although we have some good talent returning next year, this is the year that has been hyped to be our year. I highly doubt next year will be a 20 win year. Hopefully I will be proven wrong. I was projecting into the future when hopefully recruiting will pay dividends to get us to an NCAA again. If not this year, then when? How many years has it been, gcarter? How many years will it be? Moving goalposts and calendar years forward works, right? Rah-rah.
 
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Are we supposed to act like last year didn't happen? Like we didn't go 24-7? We are now 30-9 since last year started, and the theme around here is "what is wrong with us"? It certainly wasn't the coaches or players fault the 24-7 season got cut short, but all we seem to hear around here is "what have you done for me lately"? Well, 30-9 with a very likely tourney bid last year is what we have done lately. If that is not good enough, go cheer for Gonzaga or something and just be done with us.
 
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VT4700 said:
Are we supposed to act like last year didn't happen? Like we didn't go 24-7? We are now 30-9 since last year started, and the theme around here is "what is wrong with us"? It certainly wasn't the coaches or players fault the 24-7 season got cut short, but all we seem to hear around here is "what have you done for me lately"? Well, 30-9 with a very likely tourney bid last year is what we have done lately. If that is not good enough, go cheer for Gonzaga or something and just be done with us.
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What have you done for us lately?! You mean no tournament appearances since 2011? You mean an inexcusable loss to Radford last year? Or do you mean the literal latest which was an inexcusable loss to Hofstra?

Last year we tried to make the tournament but at the end of the day it doesn’t count because it didn’t happen, and we didn’t make it. If we’re hanging a banner for “coulda woulda shoulda” then I’m taking my damn donations to broad street where the expectations are to win basketball games and not simply to have basketball games.

With Mooney it’s always he tried. Do or do not, there is no try.
 
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VT4700 said:
Are we supposed to act like last year didn't happen? Like we didn't go 24-7? We are now 30-9 since last year started, and the theme around here is "what is wrong with us"? It certainly wasn't the coaches or players fault the 24-7 season got cut short, but all we seem to hear around here is "what have you done for me lately"? Well, 30-9 with a very likely tourney bid last year is what we have done lately. If that is not good enough, go cheer for Gonzaga or something and just be done with us.
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Last year really doesn't count.
 
Spiders4ever said:
Last year really doesn't count.
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to me it does.
it was disappointing of course that they didn't get the chance to go further, but it was a great year. why wouldn't that count?

do we as fans feel we're OWED ncaa bids and water cooler glory from our teams because we spend our time watching and donate some money?
 
Spiders4ever said:
Last year really doesn't count.
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24-7. 14-4 A-10. A win over Wisconsin. Whipping VCU in front of a great, fired up crowd. Winning 9 of their last 10. It all counted. Nick's 3s still counted. Jacob's steals still counted, otherwise he wouldn't have a chance at the career record. You can try to take it all away if you want, but it all happened and I had a blast watching them!
 
The issue is that last year we were squarely on the NCAA bubble. While we were more likely in than out, it wasn’t a lock that we were in. It seems too many are treating it like we made a deep run. So it’s kind of hard to count last year a success if you measure success as making NCAAs.
 
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All fair points. But, I would take 24-7, 14-4 every year. We can't control what the committee thinks or does, but 24 wins is not easy or automatic with any team. So, I do consider it a big success and would take that every year.
 
VT4700 said:
It's not, but when debating wins and losses, and players and coaches on a message board, it is more than fair to include it in the discussion.
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Does that also count for winning the conference and reasonable NCAA appearances over...say...a 15 year time period?
 
I know this sounds crazy, but did anybody find it easier to be a fan when we knew we sucked? Those two years we won 12 games I had no issues with watching because losing was expected. But this year at 6-2 I'm sitting here pissed after the Hofstra game because we did not meet my expectations.

How can I love something that makes me so upset lol
 
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No, it most certainly is not easier to suck. I'm excited to be a Spider! It is exciting to have spent time in the rankings, be picked to win the A10, to be talked about pre-seasom as a sleeper Final 4 pick. These are great things for our program and the future! These help with recruiting as does the new practice facility. We are aiming high as we should be. The Robins Center is top notch. Fan base is strong, game day atmosphere is fantastic. We are willing to spend money on the program. Good times are here and will happen here at even higher levels in the future.

I believe superb coaching is the ONLY thing missing. I was excited to see Mooney's complete change of heart last year. I hope it doesn't slip backwards again. Even so, I believe any success we have could have been at least a little better with another coach. But it is not a matter of lack of commitment to this program. I'm excited about this year and the future!

I would much rather have high expectations and fall a little short than to have low expectations and surpass them but still suck.
 
I hear what you're saying, ply. The pro teams I root for mostly have sucked for the past 5 or 6 years. It's hard to get too frustrated because they have really had no chance to win, so there were no expectations. When there are expectations, you hang on every play of every game that much more, and it's more frustrating when they don't go your way.
 
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The regular season was good but the end of year (such as a bid) and how u do in postseason disproportionately defines that. Whether u think it should or not rightly or wrongly that's high level sports in America. We don't know we could have been heading for a bitter pill that would have had huge effect on how we viewed the season ultimately. Personally I felt our metrics were very good. Yet we would have been sweating had we lost 1st game in A10. With Mooney historical performance in A10 tourney that was no gimme. Even our own Joe Lunardi who we hired to help position us best in NCAA committee eyes had us last in, which is very precarious. & our program thinks very highly of him.

the stats all count but overall just a massive incomplete and what if. That's not just for UR but for so many teams. Tough deal for the players especially. And now they have to play with that extra burden. There's now more pressure on them this year and it's showing. It should instead be on Mooney but he got the benefit of the doubt. And he shouldn't get that with a 9 year ncaa drought. We need more grit at UR. We don't need to be talking REGATTAS or playing the victim when you're the highest paid UR employee who has gotten extended twice on a 10 year deal that has given us zero ncaa bids.

Big hat no cattle. Go Spiders.
 
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I thought this tread was over for the year after our loss to Hofstra, however we still seem to be hanging in there with votes in both polls. in The ESPN College basketball Power Rankings we are currently a respectable 32.

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/bpi.

Our SOS has been a lot harder than many give credit and currently ranks 47th.
 
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