UR versus West Virginia

[TBSpyder]

God, I hope we win this game. I recognize West Virginia will be a heavy favorite. But, like most big name schools, I despise their fans' smugness. They seem to believe that they have a divine right to beat us. Further, I remember when we were conference mates with WVA. They'd probably like to forget that fact.

Minimize our turnovers, play smart, and beat the Mountaineers, by double digits. Is that asking too much?

 

[Ulla1]

WVU is ranked #22 in the latest ESPN/Coaches Poll. This would be a great win, if the Spiders can pull it off. Cal is ranked #13. OSC

 

[fan2011]

We will be the first real challenge that West Virginia faces. If we can hold onto the ball and play decent defense we should have a shot. WVU thrives off turnovers, we traditionally have been really great at not turning the ball over. I hope we see better defense and a solid win on Thursday!

 

[R&B fan]

our next four games are going to be tough. If we are able to win, it will be big help on rpi. I would guess we are underdogs in all 4 and only 1 is in RC.

 

[fan2011]

our next four games are going to be tough. If we are able to win, it will be big help on rpi. I would guess we are underdogs in all 4 and only 1 is in RC.

We are underdogs against WVU and Florida, but if we play SDSU we are probably not dogs depending on our performance against WVU. We are definitely not going to be dogs against UNI unless we really underperform in our next three games.

 

[R&B fan]

UNI is picked to finish second in their league behind W. St. and they just beat UNC. If we win 2 of 3 then we may be favored but if the line comes out today we would be a definite dog. I feel you are underestimating both UNI and SD state. This is the toughest stretch of 4 games we have had in a while.

 

[fan2011]

UNI is picked to finish second in their league behind W. St. and they just beat UNC. If we win 2 of 3 then we may be favored but if the line comes out today we would be a definite dog. I feel you are underestimating both UNI and SD state. This is the toughest stretch of 4 games we have had in a while.

If the line came out today we would be favored by 2 or 3 points. You underestimate how large home court advantage is and/or overestimate how good UNI is.

 

[97spiderfan]

This is a murderous stretch. If we go 2-2 over the next four, I would be happy with that. Hope we are playing Cal on Friday.

 

[urfan1]

I want to go 4-0 and be elated!!!!

 

[R&B fan]

I may be underestimating the value of home court but I am not underestimating UNI. That I feel very confident about. As 97 just said , I would be very happy 2-2 in the next 10 days

 

[SouthJerseySpiderFan]

Going 2-2 would be great from what the Spiders have shown so far. Agree R&B that NI would be at worst probably an EVEN line betting wise.

 

[Ulla1]

Would be greatly disappointed to go 2-2. Let's go 4-0. Roll Spide! OSC

 

[fan2011]

Vegas isn't as impetuous in their team evaluations as a lot of you.

 

[Eight Legger]

We should beat UNI. They graduated five seniors and most of their best talent. I realize they just beat UNC, but we have a lot more back this year than UNI does, and if we hadn't been ice cold for the first 15 minutes last year, we probably would have won that game out there. They also lost at home to Colorado State by 6 this year. The UNC game was an anomaly for them. Solid program, won't be an easy game for us, but it is one we should win.

 

[SouthJerseySpiderFan]

Vegas isn't as impetuous in their team evaluations as a lot of you.

LOL. I had to look the word up but I do evaluate teams before making a line prediction. I'm guessing WV -7/8 fav so would be nice upset by the Spiders if they can pull it out.

 

[MolivaManiac]

Regarding the WVU game, i like the fact that we'll have a full preparation for RPI's style of play against a team of RPI's caliber prior to playing RPI - whether we beat the Mountaineers or not, it helps for later in the year.

Going 2-2 over the next 4 would be very, very good. Going 1-3 would probably be livable, assuming we get ODU and Texas Tech and take care of the rest of our OOC business.

 

[fan2011]

West Virginia forced Bethune-Cookman to turn the ball over 30 times tonight. If we can deny them turnovers we will have a good chance to win.

 

[urmite]

West Virginia forced Bethune-Cookman to turn the ball over 30 times tonight. If we can deny them turnovers we will have a good chance to win.

What I'm hoping for is to limit our turnovers, Taylor limits Holton's offensive rebounds a few times, and Wood & Cline hit from outside.

 

[SpiderRick]

2004 team had Temple, Kansas, Xavier (all on the road), and GW (home) in a tough four game stretch.

Won'um all. Let's go 4-0

 

[HartsCreekByGod]

We will be the first real challenge that West Virginia faces. If we can hold onto the ball and play decent defense we should have a shot. WVU thrives off turnovers, we traditionally have been really great at not turning the ball over. I hope we see better defense and a solid win on Thursday!

You realize WVU beat JMU don't you?

WVU forced turnovers on EVERYBODY last year. No team had single-digit turnovers and 18 or more were forced 21 times. Season lows were 10 against Kentucky and 13 @ Oklahoma

You can say "limit TOs and crash the defensive glass" all you want, but at the end of the day it's a TALL task, especially for an A10 team

 

[keefusb]

As much as I hate Huggy Bear, his teams always play tough, disruptive defense, and they hit the glass hard. It will be a tall order for us to beat them if we are not shooting well and don't take good care of the ball.

 

[SouthJerseySpiderFan]

Good 1st post Harts, yes we're hoping UR can crash the D boards against a team that thrives off 2nd chance points when we haven't shown it much over CM's coaching history even against average teams. Rebounding is the Spiders handicap they enter every game with. Like Keef stated the good maybe great shooting and limiting TOs probably are necessary for the win. Hopefully this game is where the defense also shows up again as it has been in previous years.

 

[fan2011]

You realize WVU beat JMU don't you?

WVU forced turnovers on EVERYBODY last year. No team had single-digit turnovers and 18 or more were forced 21 times. Season lows were 10 against Kentucky and 13 @ Oklahoma

You can say "limit TOs and crash the defensive glass" all you want, but at the end of the day it's a TALL task, especially for an A10 team

First let me say it is nice to have a WVU fan visit the board, we usually only get visits from VCU fans and those are rarely pleasant. Enjoy your stay, I hope we can have some good enlightening conversation before the game. And I hope you learn that the A10 is a very competitive conference that has teams that can play with the 'bog boys'. A10 teams are something like 7-3 against P5 teams this year including taking down a top 10 UVA.

Not sure what WVU beating JMU has to do with this game. We beat Wake on their home court and they beat #13 Indiana, doesn't mean we are a top 13 team or that we would be favored if we played Indiana. Transitive property doesn't work in sports.

On the topic of turnovers, we are one of the best teams in the country at not turning the ball over. Last year we were 10th in turnover percentage despite playing VCU 3 times (11th best team in the country at forcing turnovers). Last year West Virginia didn't play anyone who was better at limiting turnovers than Richmond. The closest team was Iowa St. and they beat West Virginia twice. It seems like not turning the ball over is a possibility for us and something that would really hurt West Virginia because their offense and defense rely on turnovers so heavily.

Do I think it is likely that we beat WVU on Thursday? I see us having a 1 in 3 chance, would be higher if we had any sort of defense. Do I think we will win if we have less than 10 turnovers? I think our chances jump way up if that is the case which is why people on here are saying if we limit turnovers we have a good chance of winning.

 

[urmite]

Since we have played 3 of the same teams in 4 games these seem relevant.

The big issue - offensive rebounds WVU 20.25/g UR 10/g

The main battle - WVU 13.5 steals/g 24.5 TO caused /g UR 5 steals allowed/g 10 TOs allowed/g

I also found this interesting our 4 players averaging over 25 min/g (Allen, Cline, Jones, Davis) have 58 assists/ 17 TOs 3.41 ratio...

 

[fan2011]

Since we have played 3 of the same teams in 4 games these seem relevant.

The big issue - offensive rebounds WVU 20.25/g UR 10/g

The main battle - WVU 13.5 steals/g 24.5 TO caused /g UR 5 steals allowed/g 10 TOs allowed/g

I also found this interesting our 4 players averaging over 25 min/g (Allen, Cline, Jones, Davis) have 58 assists/ 17 TOs 3.41 ratio...

We have good ball handlers. We also have good shooters who can make shots when they get a good pass. I think we will be the best team WVU has faced so far and this will be their first game away from home for the season. We have done well in the recent past against teams that live off of turnovers, although we don't have K0 anymore and have a lot of freshmen playing so we are more likely to turn the ball over this year. It will be interesting to see how it plays out. I just hope it is an entertaining, competitive game and doesn't turn into a foul fest.

 

[keefusb]

I think the key to fewer turnovers is to keep the ball in the hands of SDJ and KF. I get puckered whenever I see TA or TD dribbling through a full-court press, we really should be passing our way out of pressure whenever possible. I think Huggy's teams are the closest we will see to the original havoc the Lambs used to run at us.

If we can limit TO's to 12 or fewer, shoot 35% or better from the 3 point line, and make our FT's, we will win this game. I'm already counting on the fact that we will get killed on the glass.

 

[32counter]

Huggins does the real Elvis impersonation at the Orleans courtside on Thursday beginning at 2pm PT.He'll even do marriages at halftime for a small fee.

 

[Spideroldie]

I see this as a game where Khwan Fore, our freshman PG, will need to get plenty of minutes. He is a very good ball-handler, and passer, and we will need those skills on Thursday. If we can play three "guards," who are also decent shooters, and we can break the press, and get a few cheap-ones, it could be really interesting. Sounds like keeping the TOs to 10-12 would be quite an accomplishment, and give us a good chance to "steal one" in this game. Avoiding TOs and keeping our "bigs" out of foul trouble, early, will likely be two points of emphasis in our coaching this week. .

 

[64Spider]

I may be the only one on here that feels this way but I think Khwan has a ways to go before he becomes the ball handler we need. He is fast but he has not been the floor leader that I expected so far. He also had his pocket picked twice by #10 for BC last week bringing the ball up when they pressed us. He will see a lot more pressure from WVa.
I believe he is extremely talented and just needs the real game experience to improve but it may take a few more games.

 

[Ulla1]

Think you are spot on, 64. But with experience, Khwan will be awesome. OSC

 

[sdspider]

Like to see us push the ball like we do against VCUS press. Break the press and attack. Just keep attacking. I think we see more ball handling by committee and more Trey Davis than Fore

 

[urmite]

Yes, if every failed turnover is an assist instead, that would definitely help.

 

[ur2K]

Like to see us push the ball like we do against VCUS press. Break the press and attack. Just keep attacking. I think we see more ball handling by committee and more Trey Davis than Fore

Agree - Trey will be a key in this game. Guess he'll be the primary inbounder. He, Fore and SDJ will have a major role in limiting turnovers with Terry and TJ being outlets. It'll be interesting to see if the other freshman get any minutes since this game will look a whole lot faster than anything they've seen before.

We limit live ball turnovers and hit a lot of 3's - I like our chances.

 

[keefusb]

Clearly, Huggins is impersonating the "1977" Elvis (i.e. the King after he discovers carbohydrates...). The real Elvis died while sitting on the toilet from complications stemming from extreme constipation. Huggins looks like he could meet with a similar fate.

 

[97spiderfan]

Agree with 64, Khwan is not ready to be our primary ball handler yet, soon I think, but 5 games into his freshman year not quite yet. And if we are going to knock off a Top 25 team, we should not be resting that fate on freshman.

Trey, SDJ, Terry, TJ all need to bring there "A" games if we are going to win tomorrow.

 

[SouthJerseySpiderFan]

JMU against the Spiders was +19 in 2nd chance points and won by like 12, WV was +14 in the same against JMU and won by 13, yes other factors were involved in determining the outcome but hope even if UR shoots well and limits their TOs the defensive rebounding bug doesn't jump up and bite them again.

 

[Ulla1]

According to Vegas, West Virginia is an 8.5 point favorite. Of course, Wake was favored over UR as well. OSC

 

[PhiDeltaSpider]

According to Vegas, West Virginia is an 8.5 point favorite. Of course, Wake was favored over UR as well. OSC[/QUOT

Could someone explain to me what OSC means and why does ULLA always put it at the end of his posts?

 

[PhiDeltaSpider]

What does OSC mean? It is always at the end of ULLA's posts.

 

[SpiderRick]

I see this as a game where Khwan Fore, our freshman PG, will need to get plenty of minutes. He is a very good ball-handler, and passer, and we will need those skills on Thursday. If we can play three "guards," who are also decent shooters, and we can break the press, and get a few cheap-ones, it could be really interesting. Sounds like keeping the TOs to 10-12 would be quite an accomplishment, and give us a good chance to "steal one" in this game. Avoiding TOs and keeping our "bigs" out of foul trouble, early, will likely be two points of emphasis in our coaching this week. .

Add rebounding to his list of talents......