vs Duquesne (A-10 tournament)

[urfan1]

I'm not sure if you're correcting me or agreeing with me.
Of course 3 of those teams have left the A-10. The point still stands; we are in the not-very-distinguished bottom four of the current conference when it comes to success. PQ should start seeking a better return on his investment.
Of those 10 teams, I believe 8 have gone dancing in the past four seasons (and a 9th - St. B, almost certainly will this year), which means seniors on most of the teams have been to the dance at least once in their career.

Your post made me want to check the current teams that have not made it, just to see who our "partners" were. The only one that surprised me was GMU

 

[plydogg]

We have 4 (potentially 5) freshman coming in next year. Some of them I don't think are very good. Will you use youth as an excuse next year as well?

Next year there will be 3 upperclassmen starting. Not 1. Next year we won't have 2 freshmen starting and 1 coming off the bench off the bench as a contributor. So no. This is so foolish of you to say. Insanely foolish. I honestly have to assume it is a troll attempt. So taking a valid "excuse" for this year and saying it will be used again next year when it is invalid is seriously insulting the intelligence of all of the Spiders fans on here and I have taken it as a big insult by you.

 

[plydogg]

None of those guys will help. They are all d2 or d3 caliber players that for some reason Mooney thought could play for us.

Let's hire this guy. He's clearly got all the answers and a crystal ball. And he has that know-it-all condescending tone on the message board that a coach needs

 

[Eight Legger]

Half our team next year is likely to be freshmen, so it seems like the youth "excuse" has some validity, no?

 

[fan2011]

Half our team next year is likely to be freshmen, so it seems like the youth "excuse" has some validity, no?

Only if they are playing 70%+ of our minutes.

 

[Eight Legger]

Freshmen aren't playing 70% of our minutes this year, and I have a hard time thinking of guys like buck and Sherod, who played and contributed a ton last year, as being super "young" at this point. If we were playing mostly freshmen 30+ minutes a game this year, ok. But I feel like there will still be a lot of people next year who say "We have 6 freshmen! We're really young!"

 

[fan2011]

Freshmen aren't playing 70% of our minutes this year, and I have a hard time thinking of guys like buck and Sherod, who played and contributed a ton last year, as being super "young" at this point. If we were playing mostly freshmen 30+ minutes a game this year, ok. But I feel like there will still be a lot of people next year who say "We have 6 freshmen! We're really young!"

True. Freshmen are only playing 40% of our minutes, which is top 5 most in the country outside of the one and dones. Underclassmen are playing 70% of our minutes. This should not be the case next year, so youth should not be an excuse.

 

[plydogg]

Freshmen aren't playing 70% of our minutes this year, and I have a hard time thinking of guys like buck and Sherod, who played and contributed a ton last year, as being super "young" at this point. If we were playing mostly freshmen 30+ minutes a game this year, ok. But I feel like there will still be a lot of people next year who say "We have 6 freshmen! We're really young!"

Freshmen do not play 70% of our minutes you re correct. But also our average starter by year is not even a sophomore. Just think about that. THAT is why the excuse we are young is really less of an excuse and more a valid point

 

[Eight Legger]

Wasn't my intent to get so far off course on this thread, sorry about that. The youth excuse in a vacuum is fine this year. But given the circumstances of why we are so young and the fact we've had the same coach this long, sorry, but there are no excuses anymore. He needed to have us in the tournament by now even if we were playing five infants. Up to him to figure out how to make it work, and he hasn't.

 

[plydogg]

Wasn't my intent to get so far off course on this thread, sorry about that. The youth excuse in a vacuum is fine this year. But given the circumstances of why we are so young and the fact we've had the same coach this long, sorry, but there are no excuses anymore. He needed to have us in the tournament by now even if we were playing five infants. Up to him to figure out how to make it work, and he hasn't.

I'm about as pro-Mooney as you can get. I'm on the side of giving a bit of extra leeway to a coach. But if next season isn't significantly better I will say that I will agree the calls for a new coach will be warranted and I'll agree. I think that the bigger problem was actually the 2015-2016 season compared to this one. I was much more upset after that one than I am this year.

 

[Eight Legger]

I was pretty upset then too, but equally upset that with a senior team last year, we still couldn't get it done. This shouldn't be an impossible mountain to climb, but it sure has felt like it.

 

[VT_Spider]

I'm about as pro-Mooney as you can get. I'm on the side of giving a bit of extra leeway to a coach. But if next season isn't significantly better I will say that I will agree the calls for a new coach will be warranted and I'll agree. I think that the bigger problem was actually the 2015-2016 season compared to this one. I was much more upset after that one than I am this year.

I would be very interested to know what makes you a pro Mooney guy. Do you consider NIT bids as outstanding seasons?

 

[SpiderK]

Va Tech was out of the NCAA from 2007-2017. VT-Spider knows from painful experience.

 

[spiderman]

I don't think any of those guys will help. I think they are all d2 or d3 caliber players that for some reason Mooney thought could play for us.

FIFY. Feel like I need to go back and do this for all of your posts so nobody misinterprets all of your opinions as the facts you make them out to be.

 

[GKiller]

Let's hire this guy. He's clearly got all the answers and a crystal ball. And he has that know-it-all condescending tone on the message board that a coach needs

Ply u haven't been around long enough to know that VT_Spider is planning to be the head coach of the Spiders football team. If so, why he's majoring in gardening at VT I don't know.

 

[SpiderHoops32]

Next year there will be 3 upperclassmen starting. Not 1. Next year we won't have 2 freshmen starting and 1 coming off the bench off the bench as a contributor. So no. This is so foolish of you to say. Insanely foolish. I honestly have to assume it is a troll attempt. So taking a valid "excuse" for this year and saying it will be used again next year when it is invalid is seriously insulting the intelligence of all of the Spiders fans on here and I have taken it as a big insult by you.

Our starting lineup if everyone stays will be very strong. We will have one (maybe two if we land JMA 2.0) upperclassmen coming off the bench (Julius Johnson). The rest of our bench will be comprised of underclassmen and a lot of them have the signs of Mooney recruiting misses.

Cayo is the only underclassmen I think will contribute. I really don't think Tomas, Bryce, or AJ will have an impact for us next year or at all. Hope I'm wrong. I like Sal but he's the next Cayo so he's like 2 years away.

When Bob Black mentions how young our bench is next year in the postgame of our home opening loss to Delaware I'll bring this back up.

 

[I-M-UR]

Nope. If you watch our redshirts practice, you would see that they will likely help next year.

I can only hope, and I haven't seen them...but we say that constantly and get disappointed, Solly being the most recent.

 

[VT_Spider]

Our starting lineup if everyone stays will be very strong. We will have one (maybe two if we land JMA 2.0) upperclassmen coming off the bench (Julius Johnson). The rest of our bench will be comprised of underclassmen and a lot of them have the signs of Mooney recruiting misses.

Cayo is the only underclassmen I think will contribute. I really don't think Tomas, Bryce, AJ will have an impact for us next year or at all. Hope I'm wrong. I like Sal but he's the next Cayo so he's like 2 years away.

When Bob Black mentions how young our bench is next year in the postgame of our home opening loss to Delaware I'll bring this back up.

I agree with everything here except about Sal and Cayo, I don't think either of them are A10 level players. If we could just get any kind of depth we could be better next year.

 

[SpiderHoops32]

Nope. If you watch our redshirts practice, you would see that they will likely help next year.

Every time Kovien Dominaus shoots, it looks like it is going in. He will be good.

Bet the ranch!

 

[SpiderHoops32]

I agree with everything here except about Sal and Cayo, I don't think either of them are A10 level players. If we could just get any kind of depth we could be better next year.

Cayo will be good. He has progressed tremendously this year.

 

[VT_Spider]

Bet the ranch!

Statements like that are why I don't trust or believe anything that ulla says.

 

[I-M-UR]

I agree with everything here except about Sal and Cayo, I don't think either of them are A10 level players. If we could just get any kind of depth we could be better next year.

We don't know, they could be. It really depends on how well coaches/they develop. We've seen a lot of players flat line in their play to early in their careers.

 

[plydogg]

For those of you going to the game. What section will you be in?

 

[MidloTrader]

Taking fan bus tomorrow as well. Sec 100. Glad I was able to get cheap tix online Sat night.

 

[Gospiders06]

favored by two points tomorrow. I am going to say we cover the spread. Hopefully we don't choke on it. A 50 percent chance of that happening.

 

[SpiderK]

What is Hardt thinking? Bucknell is dancing!!

 

[MrTbone]

I was pretty upset then too, but equally upset that with a senior team last year, we still couldn't get it done. This shouldn't be an impossible mountain to climb, but it sure has felt like it.

Not that I’m defending CM, but calling last year’s team a “senior team” is ignoring that it had two freshmen and a rs-SO playing a ton of minutes. It was “youthfully experienced”(?).

 

[Eight Legger]

Well the problem with that is that we're always going to be playing a freshman or a sophomore or both or two of one. We're never going to have a team of five seniors, and so the youthfulness excuse will always exist in some capacity, and some people will always choose to use it. So where does it end?

 

[MrTbone]

Well the problem with that is that we're always going to be playing a freshman or a sophomore or both or two of one. We're never going to have a team of five seniors, and so the youthfulness excuse will always exist in some capacity, and some people will always choose to use it. So where does it end?

Like I said, not defending it. Just pointing out that I never felt like we were in the hunt for a bid last year with our roster makeup. Year before we should have been with a very senior team and that worked out poorly as well. Experience may be less valuable than talent...

 

[Eight Legger]

Like I said, not defending it. Just pointing out that I never felt like we were in the hunt for a bid last year with our roster makeup. Year before we should have been with a very senior team and that worked out poorly as well. Experience may be less valuable than talent...

Yep, give me talent over experience every day of the week.

 

[urmite]

Like I said, not defending it. Just pointing out that I never felt like we were in the hunt for a bid last year with our roster makeup. Year before we should have been with a very senior team and that worked out poorly as well. Experience may be less valuable than talent...

Or maybe it works best with both?

 

[urfan1]

roster management is key to continued success

 

[spiderman]

Yep, give me talent over experience every day of the week.

at the top levels for sure, but every great UR team was loaded primarily with seniors and juniors.

 

[spiderwriter]

We should beat Duquesne fairly easily today, but I think we will lose. It's like a mild form of PTSD from years of disappointment.

 

[gospidersgo]

We should beat Duquesne fairly easily today, but I think we will lose. It's like a mild form of PTSD from years of disappointment.

I can honestly say that nothing from a blowout win to a blowout loss - or anything in between - would surprise me tonight.

 

[keefusb]

Best case, Sal will be a Darius Garrett-type player for us. Mark it.

 

[ThePhysician]

Can we give Grant enough rest to be able to go straight thru this week?