UMass

[plydogg]

Couldn’t disagree with you more. If you want to say he is nitpicking that’s fine, but there’s “no coaching” everytime in the second after the shot and before the rebound. When the opposition goes for the ball and our 5 guys stand around and look for someone else. We looked great yesterday, but still had plenty of wasted possessions. Especially once UMASS put on the press.

If we need to breakdown every bad play so that we can criticize Mooney, that would take an incredible long time and be a waste Of everybody’s time. When we’re halfway through the second year of essentially the same lineup, and guys are still making the same bad decisions as they did day 1 of year 1, THAT is bad coaching.

 

[spiderman]

every single team will have bad possessions. national champions have bad possessions. this is why I never post on in-game threads. it's reactionary. a guy can make a bad play and still have a really good game. I'll let it play out and think about it later.

Blake had a really good game. I don't have a problem with a good 3 point shooter taking an open 3 early in the clock. that's a shot I want. that's not "settling" to me. I'll take that open look over a contested shot all day.

 

[plydogg]

every single team will have bad possessions. national champions have bad possessions. this is why I never post on in-game threads. it's reactionary. a guy can make a bad play and still have a really good game. I'll let it play out and think about it later.

Blake had a really good game. I don't have a problem with a good 3 point shooter taking an open 3 early in the clock. that's a shot I want. that's not "settling" to me. I'll take that open look over a contested shot all day.

Is he really that good though? Blake is shooting 34.4% from deep this year.

There are 141 teams in NCAA shooting better than that this year.

Everybody here has lamented that Gilyard has lost his shot and been bad behind the arc this year. Francis is only shooting 2% better than Gilyard from behind the arc. To put it into perspective, Matt Grace and Nathan Cayo (who many people want to never shoot 3’s) have a better percentage than Francis (albeit on much lower volume).

A Francis 3 with 22-25 left on the shot clock is, almost certainly, the lowest percentage shot or look that we can have on any given possession

 

[Eight Legger]

Is he really that good though? Blake is shooting 34.4% from deep this year.

There are 141 teams in NCAA shooting better than that this year.

Everybody here has lamented that Gilyard has lost his shot and been bad behind the arc this year. Francis is only shooting 2% better than Gilyard from behind the arc. To put it into perspective, Matt Grace and Nathan Cayo (who many people want to never shoot 3’s) have a better percentage than Francis (albeit on much lower volume).

A Francis 3 with 22-25 left on the shot clock is, almost certainly, the lowest percentage shot or look that we can have on any given possession

34% is amazing! To wit: NBA First-Ballot Hall of Famer Bones Hyland, the greatest player in A10 history, is shooting 38% from three this year. He is the gold standard, so anything close to that must be considered fantastic!

 

[SouthJerseySpiderFan]

that there's "no coaching by Mooney" is just absurd. Completely absurd.

And more to my point, it erodes the value of any thoughtful, informed criticism on here about the things that Mooney does not do well or that are not good in the program.

First off thanks for the reply to what I posted. Hopefully I can give you a better understanding of what I posted even though you might not agree with it.

Agree. That 3PTA shouldn't even be in his head, especially that EARLY in the shot clock. Then Francis comes right down and throws up a contested layup EARLY in the shot clock. No coaching by Mooney

So this in-game obsrvation post upset you. Yes, does read like throwing two players under the bus but the blame for their ill-advised decisions lies 100% on Mooney.

Okay so you replied to the NEGATIVE post but how about these two POSITIVE ones?

Good aggressive offensive start for GG. Nice passing too.

Good 1st half. UMass only 1 Off Reb and 0 2ndChPts.

If you want to stat these, I say I'm shooting 66%. That 2nd one might also deserve a Banner.

Did you see that Grace 3PTA? Did it graze the rim or just get netting? Here's my issue. Not having a 28% 3PT shooter attempting that shot but doing it with 21 SECONDS left on the shot clock. Next time down Blake does it alone against three defenders with no other Spider in sight on my 50" tv. Blake's a scoring machine (at times) but there were 19 SECONDS left on the shot clock.

Two not very smart decisions by obviously two smart individuals (got into UR). Mooney who has announcers raving about his sophisticated, patient offense hasn't taught these two going into their third year about working for a good shot? There's a reason it's a 30 second clock.

And Knee all the superlative team stats I totally agree with but maybe these two decisions hurt the team against a team that you lose to in a close loss.

For me Mooney shows he's not a coach who can MAX out the talent that he has at his disposable. I believe difference between good and better than good coaches.

Hopefully Knee you are now informed of the thoughtful criticism I bestowed upon Coach Mooney.

PS Spiders up 72-63. UR get defensive rebound with 1:16 mark and Blake makes 3PT shot at 1:10. WTF dude! Okay he didn't miss it, but even if you just hold ball with no shot there is only :46 left and 3 possession lead still. I blame it on Mooney for not educating proper end of games situations, but maybe Mooney doesn't know about those himself? That thought is scary!!!

And thanks plydogg for getting me!

 

[kneepadmckinney]

I appreciate the reply. Truly I do.

I just think that it is completely off-base to think that Chris Mooney, of all people, hasn't coached his team in what is a good shot or bad shot. If anything, there is a long-standing criticism on this board about how his team are robots, or dating back a few years (and I'm going to get the exact Coach Fezz vernacular wrong) the "go to special spot" offense.

But I think more to my point--at some point there HAS to be recognition that even if they have been coached, players occasionally make bad choices all on their own. GIlyard makes bad choices in leaving his man to seek a steal sometimes. Lord knows Francis forces up some shots. Golden actively runs away from being baseline help defense on a repetitive basis. Burton sometimes hunts shots. Gustavson seems to have resurrected the special "cheap and-1" foul. I'm betting dollars to donuts these things are actively discussed and coached, but sometimes they do it anyway.

Or, put another way, what if every time we made a basket, I posted on here, "Golden with a layup. Great coaching." That would be equally absurd, and I'm quite certain that it wouldn't take even one full game before I'd be accused of being on the Spiders staff and that I care more about Mooney's success than I do about Richmond basketball generally.

 

[Eight Legger]

Or, put another way, what if every time we made a basket, I posted on here, "Golden with a layup. Great coaching."

I would have enjoyed seeing this post a few more times during the VCU game at least, I'll say that.

 

[GKiller]

every single team will have bad possessions. national champions have bad possessions. this is why I never post on in-game threads. it's reactionary. a guy can make a bad play and still have a really good game. I'll let it play out and think about it later.

Blake had a really good game. I don't have a problem with a good 3 point shooter taking an open 3 early in the clock. that's a shot I want. that's not "settling" to me. I'll take that open look over a contested shot all day.

i agree with first paragraph. But Ply’s point is well taken. Francis is a good player, & his stats may skew slightly down bc we’ll give him hard ones at end of shot clock, but he’s an average 3 pt shooter.

 

[kneepadmckinney]

I would have enjoyed seeing this post a few more times during the VCU game at least, I'll say that.

 

[Wood Hall]

So, 37-12 (.755) overall and 20-7 (.741) in the A-10 the last 1+ seasons. We have much to be angry about.

 

[SpiderRick]

And Zero postseason

 

[Wood Hall]

And Zero postseason

Which teams did play in postseason in 2020? We certainly would have, had there been one.

We will play in the postseason this year as well.

So your statement is ridiculous, on so many levels.

 

[GKiller]

Which teams did play in postseason in 2020? We certainly would have, had there been one.

We will play in the postseason this year as well.

So your statement is ridiculous, on so many levels.

Oh the NIT. Yes 100% on nit last year. Ncaa was about 60% which was odds to beat a Davidson in quarters last year. I liked our chances last year but we needed that game.

NCAA is like 25% this year. Which is a massive underachievement, an all timer. Now we could make it & I want nothing more.

& if u r referring to NIT this year don’t count on it. I’d still be surprised if it occurs.

so 10 years without NCAA or 9 if u knock out the maybe last year would be something to be angry about. It should never happen at U of R with our resources and history.

 

[Spider B]

Which teams did play in postseason in 2020? We certainly would have, had there been one.

We will play in the postseason this year as well.

So your statement is ridiculous, on so many levels.

I think this is the thinking and main issue inside the Robins Center. Only 1 post season tournament is acceptable this year and that's the NCAA Tournament. I don't understand why our admin and fans like you Wood accept mediocrity. We can do so much better than no NCAA tournaments in a freaking decade! I could care less about our record the last 2 years. Plus, you forgot to mention the 2 years before that which were absolutely miserable. At this level its about NCAA tournaments, period. We can do much, much better.

 

[MrTbone]

every single team will have bad possessions. national champions have bad possessions. this is why I never post on in-game threads. it's reactionary. a guy can make a bad play and still have a really good game. I'll let it play out and think about it later.

Blake had a really good game. I don't have a problem with a good 3 point shooter taking an open 3 early in the clock. that's a shot I want. that's not "settling" to me. I'll take that open look over a contested shot all day.

Blake’s shot selection last night was loads better than it’s been recently. Perhaps he was told to be more mindful, maybe he figured it out himself, or maybe he just shot better.

regardless, it’s worth noting that it made a difference. I think that game was won from inside out, not because we shot better from three.

 

[Eight Legger]

So right, TB. It has such a difference when we actually move the ball around into the post. We ran a lot of quick pass plays to get a ton of good looks down low. And imagine that, it worked! And it opened up some outside shots. We are a totally different team when we play that way. I hope to see 11 more games of that.

 

[SpiderRick]

Which teams did play in postseason in 2020? We certainly would have, had there been one.

We will play in the postseason this year as well.

So your statement is ridiculous, on so many levels.

If you can cherry pick the last year and a half, then I can cherry pick the last 10 years...

 

[97spiderfan]

If you can cherry pick the last year and a half, then I can cherry pick the last 10 years...

Seriously, it's not the past year and a half, it's the past 10 years. My lord, we need to make the NCAA tournament this year. Period, end of story. I could give a rats a** about some watered down NIT appearance.

 

[urmite]

Seriously, it's not the past year and a half, it's the past 10 years. My lord, we need to make the NCAA tournament this year. Period, end of story. I could give a rats a** about some watered down NIT appearance.

It is not the past 10 years it is the 8 from 10/2012-4/2019 which is still far too long.

 

[Wood Hall]

I wanted him released two years ago. He wasn't; nothing anyone says will change that. He has posted outstanding numbers since then, winning 75% of your games is not mediocrity. We most likely would have played in the NCAA tournament last year, had there been one.

So, you guys can harp on the past all you want, but it won't change anything. I live in the present. As long as he's coach, I want him to win and I'll support him. I'll feel the same about his successor, whenever he is hired. Same as I feel about any coach at UR.

 

[spider23]

I'll feel the same about his successor, whenever he is hired

Hmmm, so you are saying you will not support if Nancy is hired?

Just kidding. I support the team, but cannot overlook the mediocrity of the past several years - with no strong signs that it will change in coming years. But yes, it would be great if these players can make it in. College basketball season is crazy every season, this year more than most. Teams that looked like locks a few weeks ago are on the outside, and vice verso. I am feeling pretty good about our chances again, but have a huge one on Friday.