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UMass Game Thread - 7pm Wed ESPN+

The scouting report is now out on us. UMass did the same thing vcu did on defense -- in our faces constantly, aggressive on D, one-and-done for our offense because we couldn't get any rebounds. It prevented us from ever getting anything going. It was the same exact game we saw against the lambs.
Yes, this is scary. Mooney has done a very good job this year in the portal and coaching, but his deficiencies and lack of adjustments are something the players will have to overcome.
 
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Three ballwrite-up almost got his Frank Martin "freakout" - after the game in the shaking hands line the former Kansas State and South Carolina coach turned toward our section and said in a loud voice "Shut up". Couple of fans had been ragging on him during the game, but it's rare for an opposing coach to acknowledge it affected him.
 
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The scouting report is now out on us. UMass did the same thing vcu did on defense -- in our faces constantly, aggressive on D, one-and-done for our offense because we couldn't get any rebounds. It prevented us from ever getting anything going. It was the same exact game we saw against the lambs.

Not every team has the personnel to do that to us, but enough do that we better figure things out or else the season is going to go off the rails in a hurry,
I would agree with this.
 
Three ballwrite-up almost got his Frank Martin "freakout" - after the game in the shaking hands line the former Kansas State and South Carolina coach turned toward our section and said in a loud voice "Shut up". Couple of fans had been ragging on him during the game, but it's rare for an opposing coach to acknowledge it affected him.
That is wild. I guess he got the last laugh, but yes he does seem to have some anger issues for sure.
 
I don't see it that way, bc we had the week off they are 10-2 and we are 9-2...Did we not defeat both of those teams? If we finish with the same record at the end, who holds the tie breaker? Sat if we are sitting at 10-2 are we not still tied? Let's agree to disagree bc mind isn't going to change until we are an actual game behind.

Ok I’ve just never heard of anyone saying we are in 1st place when u r a half game behind two teams, unless they were a novice on sports. Yes we have the tiebreaker. For it to matter we r required to win 1 more game. U r saying “IF” we win that should be indication right there. Sure we can disagree but this isn’t a subjective view on say a foul call. It’s factually how standings works. Right now we are not in 1st. We could be another time. Go to A10 site and see how we r listed.
 
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The Spiders showed some life near the end of the first half, but shot themselves in the foot clanking free throw after free throw. Sideline coaching has never been Mooney's strong suit, but the FTs are on the players.

Maybe the women should give them lessons....last night 20-20 FTs against VCU.
 
Down 16 and we still aren’t following missed shots. No urgency for offensive rebounds when down 16. Everyone headed opposite way to prevent Mass from going up 18 I guess is Mooney’s thought process.
The Spiders rank 361 out of 362 teams in team offensive rebounding. Most of that is attributable to the annual scheme to purposely not go after offensive rebounds especially on outside shots. How great can a basketball program be with no plan to rebound on the offense? In high school, I was a deep bench player-one of those last minute players. I averaged about 4 points- all on offensive rebounds and put-backs. So if a scrub like me could do it, why can't college scholarship players do it? The answer is-they can if allowed, if in the game plan.
 
Teams have figured out how to take King out of the game. Harass him up top, deny him the ball when he gets rid of it and make him work exceedingly hard for any shot. Mooney is always slow to make adjustments either in game or in season, so I suspect this will take a few more games for him to come to the conclusion that he needs to make an adjustment.

And then to top that off, we are taking Quinn out of the game. Our offense works best when we try to run it through Quinn in the low post. I think we did that maybe three times last night the whole game. Rest of the game we were basically doing wind sprints 35 feet from the bucket. When Quinn has the ball at the 3 point line with his back to the basket we are giving the team exactly what they want. That is where Quinn was most of last night. And don't get me started on Walz, who is permanently stationed there with his back to the basket. No need to even guard him out there.
 
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Quinn has been AWOL for three games in a row now. I don't know if he is hurt worse than we are being led to believe or what, but he is playing incredibly passively and timid. I cannot understand why he doesn't just back his man down and go strong to the basket. It's really frustrating to watch because either he would score or get fouled. This is basic stuff that I teach my 10-year-olds in practice. Golden used to drive me mad with his 13 spin moves in the post that concluded in a fade-away jumper, too, so it seems to be the style we teach.
 
The Spiders rank 361 out of 362 teams in team offensive rebounding. Most of that is attributable to the annual scheme to purposely not go after offensive rebounds especially on outside shots. How great can a basketball program be with no plan to rebound on the offense? In high school, I was a deep bench player-one of those last minute players. I averaged about 4 points- all on offensive rebounds and put-backs. So if a scrub like me could do it, why can't college scholarship players do it? The answer is-they can if allowed, if in the game plan.
That 361 out of 362 stat is disgraceful. I don’t care if CM deemphasizes offensive rebounds. At some point reality has to kick in that it’s a liability and foregoing opportunities. Not buying that we ‘re more than offsetting fast baskets to the opposition.

Mass had 11 offensive rebounds to our 4 last night. Total rebounds - Mass 46 and UR 29. That’s minus 17.

Is there any historical Q and A where Mooney defends his rebounding philosophy? I’d like to read it if someone can post a link?
 
The team with Golden and Cayo had a strong post presence on offense. They both could score down low which created the inside / Out action and some wide open threes. Love Bigs, but that is not his game - he can do it - but Cayo was all day long in there backing guys down. Quinn seems to have abandoned the strong move inside. We really need to get that back to create some open 3 looks.
 
Teams have figured out how to take King out of the game. Harass him up top, deny him the ball when he gets rid of it and make him work exceedingly hard for any shot. Mooney is always slow to make adjustments either in game or in season, so I suspect this will take a few more games for him to come to the conclusion that he needs to make an adjustment.

And then to top that off, we are taking Quinn out of the game. Our offense works best when we try to run it through Quinn in the low post. I think we did that maybe three times last night the whole game. Rest of the game we were basically doing wind sprints 35 feet from the bucket. When Quinn has the ball at the 3 point line with his back to the basket we are giving the team exactly what they want. That is where Quinn was most of last night. And don't get me started on Walz, who is permanently stationed there with his back to the basket. No need to even guard him out there.
No better place to let your 2 centers placed - out at 3 point line. Can get a lot of close shots from there and in position for rebounding. Make sense? I’m with you, 97.
 
I would give every single starter a grade of a F, with the exception of Tynne who at least brought some energy.
I thought Bailey was great ... outside of the regression from the line.
not a starter, but Harris gave us good minutes too. Bigelow worked hard with not much to show for it.

Quinn is clearly not 100%. when healthy he's doing much more than 1-5 against Cohen.
anyone know if Soulis is progressing? would like to get a look at him.
 
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I attribute this game to simply a bad one. This was one where everyone was off or having a bad one.
UMASS could do no wrong, the bounces and tips were going their way. We missed FTs and our
decision making by the guards were off, with poor passes. I felt early in this one it was not going to
be our night. King should go back to the old hair style and he showed a lot of frustration last night.
But these guys did not give up till last 20 seconds, it just was not their night.
 
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I suspect Soulis is done for the season. Get him that medical redshirt and try again next year.
 
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I thought Bailey was great ... outside of the regression from the line.
not a starter, but Harris gave us good minutes too. Bigelow worked hard with not much to show for it.

Quinn is clearly not 100%. when healthy he's doing much more than 1-5 against Cohen.
anyone know if Soulis is progressing? would like to get a look at him.
I feel the same, I thought Dji and TY were solid minus the FTs from Dji. He has a huge not on his shooting elbow from all the falling. I think that may have contributed but not really an excuse bc FTs have been a bugger all year. I just think we got our worked by Cross and the center., and I didn't think Cross was very skilled but just outworked everyone. They go hard and we didn't match it. Neal has to be more aggressive, as coach mentioned...he has too for us to be where we have been throughout the season.
 
I attribute this game a simply bad one. This was one where everyone was off or havin a bad one.
UMASS could do no wrong, the bounces and tips were going their way. We missed FTs and our
decision making by the guards were off, with poor passes. I felt early in this one it was not going to
be our night. King should go back to the old hair style and he showed a lot of frustration last night.
But these guys did not give up till last 20 seconds, it just was not their night.
I think you nailed it...we just got to get back to it on Saturday!
 
Ok I’ve just never heard of anyone saying we are in 1st place when u r a half game behind two teams, unless they were a novice on sports. Yes we have the tiebreaker. For it to matter we r required to win 1 more game. U r saying “IF” we win that should be indication right there. Sure we can disagree but this isn’t a subjective view on say a foul call. It’s factually how standings works. Right now we are not in 1st. We could be another time. Go to A10 site and see how we r listed.
I’d rather go here

And you two can end this discussion on the 26th, when the current Top 4 will all have played 14 A10 games.
 
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I thought Bailey was great ... outside of the regression from the line.
not a starter, but Harris gave us good minutes too. Bigelow worked hard with not much to show for it.

Quinn is clearly not 100%. when healthy he's doing much more than 1-5 against Cohen.
anyone know if Soulis is progressing? would like to get a look at him.
All I know is the guy behind me kept calling Dji, D.J to his kid and it was driving me crazy. Damn dude, he's been on the team for 4 years now, know his name. Bailey was fine, as you noted he left a fair amount of points at the FT line which were pretty critical, so I can't say he was great out there.
 
This can be attributed to a bad game. But its not a bad Spider game. its a bad King game. As he goes, this team will go. He was 3-11 (1-6 from deep) and had 1 assists and 3 turnovers for 11 points.

And now someone will say - he didn't have a great game vs. LaSalle. He didn't have a high volume game, but he was very efficient vs. LaSalle. He went 5-10 (3-5 from deep) and had 5 assists to 1 turnover for 13 points. So in my mind a totally different and better game than UMASS.

He is allowed to have bad games. But when he does - we are in trouble. Simple as that. We have been lucky he has been playing at A10 POY level and is a big reason we are near the top. But when he has an off night, we will be hard pressed to come out with a victory.
 
All I know is the guy behind me kept calling Dji, D.J to his kid and it was driving me crazy. Damn dude, he's been on the team for 4 years now, know his name. Bailey was fine, as you noted he left a fair amount of points at the FT line which were pretty critical, so I can't say he was great out there.
Yeah we get that a lot...I hate that too DJ isn't DJI :)
 
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DJ the music man who is stationed in the student section had a birthday last night and was awarded the Strange's florist flowers during a timeout. 97 - maybe the fan behind you was totally dazed and confused - probably not - but he was confused about Dji's name.........................yeah it is annoying to be called by the wrong name................
 
DJ the music man who is stationed in the student section had a birthday last night and was awarded the Strange's florist flowers during a timeout. 97 - maybe the fan behind you was totally dazed and confused - probably not - but he was confused about Dji's name.........................yeah it is annoying to be called by the wrong name................
Well with my name, you can call me Rich, or you can call me Rick, family members who have passed called me Richie, one guy calls me Ricardo, My name is Richard.

But you don’t have to call me Dick, even if I know a few people who would like to…
 
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DJ the music man who is stationed in the student section had a birthday last night and was awarded the Strange's florist flowers during a timeout. 97 - maybe the fan behind you was totally dazed and confused - probably not - but he was confused about Dji's name.........................yeah it is annoying to be called by the wrong name................

spider fan nobody has ever screwed up your name right ;)

Happened to me a lot as a kid too so I'm on the Dji side here.
 
Well with my name, you can call Rich, or you can call me Rick, family members who have passed called me Richie, one guy calls me Ricardo, My name is Richard.

But you don’t have to call me Dick, even if I know a few people who would like to…

Don't be a Richard.

Bought that T shirt for someone I know w same name. Pretty sure he wore it just the once.
 
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This can be attributed to a bad game. But its not a bad Spider game. its a bad King game. As he goes, this team will go. He was 3-11 (1-6 from deep) and had 1 assists and 3 turnovers for 11 points.

And now someone will say - he didn't have a great game vs. LaSalle. He didn't have a high volume game, but he was very efficient vs. LaSalle. He went 5-10 (3-5 from deep) and had 5 assists to 1 turnover for 13 points. So in my mind a totally different and better game than UMASS.

He is allowed to have bad games. But when he does - we are in trouble. Simple as that. We have been lucky he has been playing at A10 POY level and is a big reason we are near the top. But when he has an off night, we will be hard pressed to come out with a victory.
Yes, King had an off night, a bad game, which is gonna happen, especially as teams key on him. But we have to be able to overcome that. Our second most critical player to everything we do is Quinn and he also had a bad game. When both of them have that at the same time, you get what we got last night, which was largely an ass whooping, a game where we were never really in.
 
I’d rather go here

Well it's any site. You can go anywhere and it's the same. That site has us a 3 seed now which is correct as of today. Looks like decent resource for tiebreakers.

I think u go by losses, if your deleted post today was accurate.

SDad's Lakers are 30-26. Golden State is 26-26. Would anyone call them tied? Of course not, GS just has games in hand like Spids. If we were 0-2 I guess we could say we were in 1st place too. Amazing. At little UR.
 
I attribute this game a simply bad one. This was one where everyone was off or havin a bad one.
UMASS could do no wrong, the bounces and tips were going their way. We missed FTs and our
decision making by the guards were off, with poor passes. I felt early in this one it was not going to
be our night. King should go back to the old hair style and he showed a lot of frustration last night.
But these guys did not give up till last 20 seconds, it just was not their night.
I was saying to myself that King's game hasn't been the same since the new hair style lol. I am a superstitious guy, so I would never change something mid season if things were going well. I do like the new style tho.
 
Pathetic "effort" from basically all the other sports teams that were there for the halftime thing. They sat on their hands for the entire first half like they were being punished by having to attend the game, then all but about 6 of them left at halftime.
Basically ZERO school spirit. I’m sure there are some sour grapes about the attention (and dollars) that the basketball team gets compared to all the other sports, but athletes are supposed to be representing their school. If you have to be there you might as well make the most of it. Another sign of how little sports matter to the student body. Too much “what’s in it for me” with this generation.
 
I was saying to myself that King's game hasn't been the same since the new hair style lol. I am a superstitious guy, so I would never change something mid season if things were going well. I do like the new style tho.
I wondered if the new doo was an attempt to change things after the VCU game.
 
Well it's any site. You can go anywhere and it's the same. That site has us a 3 seed now which is correct as of today. Looks like decent resource for tiebreakers.

I think u go by losses, if your deleted post today was accurate.

SDad's Lakers are 30-26. Golden State is 26-26. Would anyone call them tied? Of course not, GS just has games in hand like Spids. If we were 0-2 I guess we could say we were in 1st place too. Amazing. At little UR.
It makes even more sense to list games you are ahead or behind in the NBA or MLB with the large number of games.

I wouldn’t claim 9-2 is first or tied with 10-2. and expect it to be listed the way it is.

What my post was going to say was that since top teams have more wins than losses, I concentrate more on those. So in general, I see equal losses plus tiebreaker as a better chance of finishing on top If equal total games will be played.
 
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Basically ZERO school spirit. I’m sure there are some sour grapes about the attention (and dollars) that the basketball team gets compared to all the other sports, but athletes are supposed to be representing their school. If you have to be there you might as well make the most of it. Another sign of how little sports matter to the student body. Too much “what’s in it for me” with this generation.

Hey yeah - talked at the game last night of how we would have thought it was heaven to be able to walk across campus to such a wonderful facility as the Robins Center. Instead we had to make our way to the Arena between the Boulevard and Hermitage Road. We often thumbed a ride which was safe in those days. Students would pack the place out in the days when even being close to a .500 record was valued. But nobody wanted to miss the game even when Lefty instructed his Davidson team to hold the ball most of the game. Definitely the place to be to support the team, the school, and have a great time.
 
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