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VCU Game Thread at the Stu- 4pm Sat ESPNU/ESPN+ (?)

I think King is just trying not to force things when they are so locked on him. Its not easy to do what Hunt is doing when he has the double team all the time
 
Another offensive rebound given up. Long time Mooney spider problem, but we have been solid on that before tonight.
 
Here we go with the VCU home team refs. This is not a fair game and is exactly what I was afraid of. Despite the off night.
Some bad calls but we have nobody to blame but ourselves for poor shooting, giving up too many offensive rebounds, and sloppy play. We are supposed to be better than this.
 
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Fvcu won their superbowl. They do not impress me one bit. Look at Nelson hopping around like he actually contributed..
 
Hope you can all get the idea of an at large bid out of your heads now. Season will come down to how we do in Brooklyn. Always has been thay way since the 5-5 start. Has been an impressive run but we have beat one good team all season. The good news is that the A10 sucks and as long as we dont run into VCU in the A10 tournament we have a shot to win it.
 
haven't read the thread since game started, but my immediate reaction was this was just like the Loyola game, only VCU made shots/FTs at the end when Loyola didn't, and King wasn't able to bail out the offense. UR has been walking a razor thin line and the variance went against us today on the shotmaking.

I do think that once Shulga hit the 3s and turned the game, Richmond needed to play with a lot more urgency starting at around 5m mark. Instead it waited until 90s left to really attack off the dribble and press and then still didn't get stops. Harris on that last press - wtf was he doing playing the guy at midcourt when he was last man back?

UR traded 2 for 3 the last 10 minutes and that was the difference. They. hit 4 big threes and also had a 3 point foul - that was essentially the entire lead. UR hit one three that I can recall, otherwise played for 2 point shots. They knew Quinn was playing drop coverage, so ran Shulga off King's man to get the switch, then ran him off a curl at the top of the key forcing King to have to fight around it. Shulga got open and made shots. We didn't adjust quickly enough on this very play to get Dji or Hunt into that defensive mix.

Bench gave nothing today - less than nothing when you consider the turnovers and fouls they gave, Harris was poor, Walz poor, Tyne o-fer, Roche out of sync with teammates and o-fer - and needs to be better.

Oh, and defensive rebounding wasn't there in 2nd half and led to huge second chance points.

Combine these factors and a chance at a tight win pretty much went away.

(Last gripe...It's been this way for years, but I hate, hate, hate, how UR turns 5-7 point games into double digit losses, and turns double digit wins into 5-7 point wins.)
 
I think King is just trying not to force things when they are so locked on him. Its not easy to do what Hunt is doing when he has the double team all the time
But if king does NOTHING then VCU doesnt have to double him. I guess that was the strategy… LET them take our A10 player of the year candidate completely out of the game on purpose so they cant double him. Not, lets work really hard to get that POY his shots with screens and set plays.
 
Hope you can all get the idea of an at large bid out of your heads now. Season will come down to how we do in Brooklyn. Always has been thay way since the 5-5 start. Has been an impressive run but we have beat one good team all season. The good news is that the A10 sucks and as long as we dont run into VCU in the A10 tournament we have a shot to win it.
Dude..1 loss......if we get down and flounder yes, it if we shake this off and play ball, u never know....we r still #1 in a10 based on tie breakers .take a pill
 
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One more thought - said this after Davidson game, but we knew teams (esp. better coaches) would eventually double King and take the ball out of his hands and dare others to beat them, and guys would need to step up and score a lot. We still don't know who that guy is to take control when that happens. Hunt was only one playing with consistent aggression IMO. Bigs settled for jumpers, Neal was in love with backdoor passes, Dji was okay but ball stalled in his hands on perimeter at least twice bc he wouldn't pull trigger late in shot clock.
 
It's the same old shlit. We could go 16 and 2 and will lose both games to feces u.
Being a graduate I can see why you feel this way but Whamp I would take two losses but get an at-large/A10 bid and they don't every year. No worries though we will get them at home.

Just wasn't an offensive game maybe like Fan1 stated good D and nerves of the city rivalry. When you shoot 3-18 downtown (worst A10 game all year) this Spider team won't win many games. Also though they had 9-2 offensive board ad only 7-4 2ndCP ad. Plus I believe 0 points from the bench.

And watched enough of him this season and don't see how Nelson is getting that many minutes. Maybe Shulga being only other true guard? His play today was consistent with what I have seen from all year, inconsistent and not productive. Looking at it, probably would be 4th guard in Mooney's rotation, or at least should be.


Got the next four games, in reality next six all very winnable. Been a better than expected season so looking forward to the rest of it!
 
One more thought - said this after Davidson game, but we knew teams (esp. better coaches) would eventually double King and take the ball out of his hands and dare others to beat them, and guys would need to step up and score a lot. We still don't know who that guy is to take control when that happens. Hunt was only one playing with consistent aggression IMO. Bigs settled for jumpers, Neal was in love with backdoor passes, Dji was okay but ball stalled in his hands on perimeter at least twice bc he wouldn't pull trigger late in shot clock.
Didn't help Bigelow was gone for decent chunk of 2nd half after taking one to face.
 
Big surprise. Mooney chokes at VCU. No matter who VCU brings in to coach, Mooney is out of his league. He cant draw up one play for the 2nd best player in the conference??? This is why I refuse to believe in this team.
Exactly. I would have rather King force up 20 shots then watch him do nothing. Mooney thought it was easier to let VCU shutour King then try to get him open.
 
We had put the A10 on notice but had an opportunity to put the city on notice and wet the bed. It might be another 20 years before we meet them where they were riding so low and we were riding so high so that was another opportunity lost. Only two thoughts and then I’m checking out for the night:
1 the press seemed fairly effective at the end there too bad we didn’t try to pressure their inbounds even a TINY amount until the game was already out of hand
2 pretty surprised at how light the Spider crowd was given the disparity of our seasons so far but maybe the joke was on me after all!!

Good night all.
 
Needed to really start scoring early in 2nd half. The 2-4th foul calls on us were all VCU guys out of control running into our guys sometimes not even going to basket. Ridiculous. Never gonna have a chance against them when we are getting called for more fouls than them unless shooting lights out from deep. onto Saturday
 
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But if king does NOTHING then VCU doesnt have to double him. I guess that was the strategy… LET them take our A10 player of the year candidate completely out of the game on purpose so they cant double him. Not, lets work really hard to get that POY his shots with screens and set plays.

It’s year 19, we don’t run set plays - same issue with Roche. We run an offense with tremendous fluidity- if it’s not there, we don’t adjust.
 
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Bad shooting first half last week vs Dayton. 2 bad shooting halves tonight. Need to get in gear. Sandwiched in between was decent shooting vs a bad Fordham team earlier this week.

Teams learning to play King. Need a Plan B, and others need to step up.

Didn’t think we played well to players’ skills tonight and fell back into the pass the ball around until well into shot clock instead.

Really need to show VCU when they play at RC that tonight was aberration and not who we really are, or at least I hope.
 
it's an issue with the offense that all the passing can end with a non-shooter with the ball at the 3 point line with 7 on the shot clock. Have said this for years. Jordan has been great at 1v1 moves this year but could have used some more help from sidelines today to get different shots when defense ramped up on him. C- for Moon today. Was a winnable game for about 32 minutes and lost by 11.

VCU scored on 6 consecutive possessions over a 4 minute period - 4 three pointers (or 3 FTs), a live ball turnover dunk and a semi-transition bucket after a UR miss. Agree that this stretch was the game. They then got another 3 (from Bamisile) after the timeout. UR defense was not up to it during that stretch - 2 point lead to 8 point deficit. On the only stop VCU got a tip out that led to the Bamisile 3.
 
Credit to VCU - they took King out of the game, hit all their free throws. Our offense never looked clean all game.
It funny how you make it seem like… oh well they took King put of the game, good for them. Lol. UR let them take King out of the game. Didnt even try to get him shots. Why was it Hiunt trying to manufacture his shot and not King?
 
Zays lip with 8 stitches would like a word
he caught one, but appeared from all indications - including the review - to be incidental and not excessive or dangerous play in any way. I once broke a guy's nose coming down with a rebound bc he stuck his hand (and head) in trying to poke the ball away as I landed and brought the ball down. Accidents/injuries happens sometimes, doesn't mean it is always a foul.
 
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The bigger team won. Shulga blew it open shooting 3’s over a much shorter King. Defensive switch too late. VCU earned it. They were better tonight. Our policy of no offensive rebounds was exposed.
 
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It funny how you make it seem like… oh well they took King put of the game, good for them. Lol. UR let them take King out of the game. Didnt even try to get him shots. Why was it Hiunt trying to manufacture his shot and not King?

Mainly because when the ball went away from King, he never got it back - that’s what they did on defense. They denied him the ball. We also don’t have a coach that is willing to bend his offense to try and make sure he gets the ball.
 
The Siegel center is a difficult place to play basketball. The fan were extremely loud which led to a few 3 point violations or last second shots, the refs heavily favored VCU, we missed a number of shots we normally make and they played great defense, which often included beating the shit out of our players with no call.

We were predicted to lose this game and did lose. Of our remaining 9 games we are favored in 8. We have a great team and they played their hearts out. All this criticism for losing on this board is inappropriate. We just had the longest winning streak in all most a century. It was unrealistic to assume we would go undefeated the rest of the season.

Look forward to our next game and happy I wasn't mugged while in the Siegel center.
 
he caught one, but appeared from all indications - including the review - to be incidental and not excessive or dangerous play in any way. I once broke a guy's nose coming down with a rebound bc he stuck his hand (and head) in trying to poke the ball away as I landed and brought the ball down. Accidents/injuries happens sometimes, doesn't mean it is always a foul.
Let’s agree to disagree with this one. The constant flopping and touch fouls that vcu was getting was an issue. No we didn’t adjust, no we didn’t make plays and they did. They are not a good team and we didnt use our advantage inside but the officiating was a factor. We should have had multiple and 1s but got nothing. But I still love this team. We knew the streak would prob end but we aren’t dead. Where are some of these posters on this board all year?? I see new people popping up to complain. We are a good team and still poised for a great season. This one game doesn’t make the season and I dislike vcu just as much as everyone on here.
 
As they just said, they have thrown a lot of size at King. Combined with their athleticism they can really make it tough on him. Think we will see more of this until we find a number 2 on offense. We have had someone step up most nights but its been spread around etc. We need somone to emerge as the clear #2 and be there on nights like this!
This has been my concern as we have seen against better competition. They can throw big long athletes at King and we don't have that 2nd real scorer ( yes the other 4 are good offensive players but not true scorers), like KA had Gonzo and vice versa. Need to pile up more wins and then beat VCU but damn, even with an underachieving coach, Mooney can't beat VCU. Disappointing.
 
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