And we are not good. The glorious high definition helps bring our talent differential to Dayton into full focus. Might be time for a change.
Watched my first UR game today on TV.
- Thread starter UR Fan 2
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If you attend the games in person, you can also spot the disparity in glorious HD. But only since the RC renovation.
I haven’t seen a whole lot of live play minus the HP game in person. Watched 1st half today. But a couple things I’d like to see & don’t really get why.
Can we not play Grace & Golden ever together? Our interior D is so bad it can only help. And Grace has proven he can hold his own. Why not give him some minutes with Golden. Think our O would be fine & give us another look. Plus maybe have him take fouls. And perhaps some teams won’t have a layup drill quite as often. The only guy on team that will give a hard foul is JJ.
Also continue to believe Gustavson should get more run but also more shots. Too many going to Yates & Wojcik. Of course that would mean Gus getting out of the Moon doghouse. I like Wojcik. Heady player who plays hard only a frosh & has nice stroke. But streaky & not shooting well enough imo. He basically plays whole game. Just think a little of his time & shots could go to Andre and develop him more.
Can we not play Grace & Golden ever together? Our interior D is so bad it can only help. And Grace has proven he can hold his own. Why not give him some minutes with Golden. Think our O would be fine & give us another look. Plus maybe have him take fouls. And perhaps some teams won’t have a layup drill quite as often. The only guy on team that will give a hard foul is JJ.
Also continue to believe Gustavson should get more run but also more shots. Too many going to Yates & Wojcik. Of course that would mean Gus getting out of the Moon doghouse. I like Wojcik. Heady player who plays hard only a frosh & has nice stroke. But streaky & not shooting well enough imo. He basically plays whole game. Just think a little of his time & shots could go to Andre and develop him more.
One thing that was noticeable today was the near absence of any kind of penetration. I like Wojcik but he shows no interest or capability to put the ball on the deck and go to the rack. Same for Yates. JJ will try but is not terribly skilled at it. Nate is the only guy who shows much capability.
I think Andre seems capable even though he draws charges. But he seems like the only other guy who can drive.
I think Andre seems capable even though he draws charges. But he seems like the only other guy who can drive.
I only saw the second half, but wondered why CM didn't try to go "big" since it was so obvious that the Flyers were going to lob inside. I think the answer is that CM is scared to try anything new even when the game is a lost cause.
I thought the same thing about Andre, but he can't play D and gets bad fouls. CM takes him out to teach him a lesson I suppose, but it doesn't seem to work. Again, seems to be part of the CM MO - no changes required.
As others pointed out in other threads, CM also played Gilyard the entire game. Since Jacob was the only one hitting 3s, maybe CM was hoping for a team record. Jacob did manage to tie the single game record - the one "positive" from the game.
Mooney refused to play TJ and ANO together.
He should have used the OOC season to get Andre ready to play since he’s the other one that has showed promise but he didn’t and won’t now that we’re halfway through the season.
He should have used the OOC season to get Andre ready to play since he’s the other one that has showed promise but he didn’t and won’t now that we’re halfway through the season.
Not just this game, but all the games. This is why any A10 team with a decent coach is going to play zone against the Spiders. Per CM in the post game, the answer against the zone is Cayo - if the first half when he got into foul trouble we didn't have an answer.....
Yes, not the first time I noticed it. Unclear if we don’t have the talent to go inside or the game plan.
If you watched the game you would have noticed a severe talent differential between us and Dayton. I will always support our players, will always cheer for them, but this team is going to be the less talented team in almost every game the rest of the year. No, it is not just coaching. We completely lack the athleticism to defend good teams/players, or penetrate a zone.
2011, I noticed this in the Longwood game, we were giving up length and athleticms at 3-4 positions. And Longwood is not Dayton. We are about 2 6'8" athletic guys inside to compete. This is not a knock on Golden, or Cayo even - but we just have not depth in there.
Take a look at Dana Tate on Wednesday. This is the kind of player we keep missing out on - we were listed in his final 5 with URI, BUT AGAIN lost out. This kid is a specimen, and has skill and bball IQ. URI was relevant when we were battling them, and we were not. Game over.
Take a look at Dana Tate on Wednesday. This is the kind of player we keep missing out on - we were listed in his final 5 with URI, BUT AGAIN lost out. This kid is a specimen, and has skill and bball IQ. URI was relevant when we were battling them, and we were not. Game over.
Yes, talent is a huge problem. Longwood had more talent than us. Dayton was way way more talented than us.
We have 3 A-10 level players, Cayo, Grant, and Gilyard. Woj and Gust might have some potential but they are not A-10 caliber yet. Woj is starting and playing 30 plus minutes. Johnson and Yates do not belong on an A-10 roster. One of them starts for us, the other is a top guy off the bench.
We might have the least talent in the league. Mooney is a bad coach but his pathetic recruiting is killing the program.
I think Mooney is afraid to play 2 bugs together because his awful recruiting results in him only having 2 bigs on the roster. What does he do when they are both tired? What if one gets in foul trouble. That’s a problem when you only recruit 1 big every 2 years.
Yes this has been a problem. No depth inside. Cayo has been good this year but is 6'7 and likely recruited as a wing. Same as last year, would have Grant and essentially 4 guards most of the time.
yeah, I've been believing that we have more talent than we do. no matter what we do at coach, this may not be a quick fix. we were out-manned against Dayton.
What's sad is that it took us 2 months of the season to figure out how much of a talent deficit that we really have. That's what the fraudulent OOC did to us.
We are fielding Gilyard, Golden and a mediocre Patriot league roster.
We are fielding Gilyard, Golden and a mediocre Patriot league roster.
There is definitely a dearth of A10 ready players on the roster, but there may be the needed amount of talent. What I mean is that the players we have are young and need strength and conditioning work to pass the A10 ready “eye test”. For example, Grant had a huge transformation between his true freshman and true sophomore years. It seems to me that the talent level of the players has slightly improved, but we have a youth problem because of all the “misses” and unfortunate circumstances we have had over the last few years (especially). All that being said, there is definitely not a quick fix in sight.
But this is how Mooney recruits. The recruits he gets reflect his style of play. Just launch a bunch of 3's.
What is our identity these days, what even is our style of play? What is Mooney recruiting for, does he even know anymore? Besides a "good feel for the game", what do we recruit for?
For his system that's worked in the past, you need: a skilled passing big (like Geriot and TJ), guys who can defend multiple positions, and great shooters. Do we have any of that? No and that's what I think is his biggest failure - he knows one way to play and hasn't recruited kids who are suited to play that way.
Let's just be real about our class last year. We had 3 guys leave the program unexpectedly at the end of the season (Buck, Khwan, and Friendshuh). Mooney had 3 slots to fill that he was not expecting to fill.
Within a span of like 2 week, we had signed 3 guys (Woj, Gust, Grace). No one was actively recruiting these guys, including us and then boom all of a sudden they are signed and on the team. So, we filled a third of our roster in like a 2 week span with guys we knew barely anything about.
Within a span of like 2 week, we had signed 3 guys (Woj, Gust, Grace). No one was actively recruiting these guys, including us and then boom all of a sudden they are signed and on the team. So, we filled a third of our roster in like a 2 week span with guys we knew barely anything about.
Go, my theory is that things are so bad the last couple years that even folks with a razor sharp memory (or wit like Dr. Kleff) are purposely tricking their minds to forget many games. And then they do not have the acumen to know when to stop and start the memories.
Just a theory.
Just a theory.
1/7/2019 - The Spider Sportsline
https://omny.fm/shows/the-spider-sportsline/1-7-2019-the-spider-sportsline
https://omny.fm/shows/the-spider-sportsline/1-7-2019-the-spider-sportsline
And these are arguably our best 3 freshman. Are you saying Mooney should only recruit players he has a limited time to evaluate?
I'm saying the fact that our coaching staff filled our class last year with guys they only had a cursory and very limited knowledge of is pretty scary. They were caught with their pants down last Spring.
No one in our freshman class is all that impressive. We might have some good bench players/maybe borderline starters come their junior/senior years, there does not appear to be any absolute duds as opposed to other Mooney classes, but also there are not any all A-10 players coming out of this class.
I’m not willing to write off Sal and Woj yet. I’ve really liked what I’ve seen from Sal (athletically and movement wise), and think gaining strength the next couple years could make him a really impressive player. Also, while Woj has been a very streaky shooter so far, I think that’s a product of him being a freshman, and would expect him to become more consistent. And someone who can hit the 3 consistently has the chance at being all A-10.
Yes a consistent 3 point shooter can help, it might have made the game closer. I still don't understand how we continue to bring in 'shooters' to fit our offense style and they get worse as the seasons go by. I will still contend that it may very well be a result of the strength coach's system. How does a whole group of supposed 3 point shooters go ice cold at the same time?
We miss more open 3 point shots than any team I have ever seen. Our offense almost always gets open looks, we just can't knock them down. The only conclusion I can draw from this is that other teams just have better shooters than we do. Mooney answer to nearly every loss is we need to shoot better. Well, what if we can't because this is who we are.
No.
The strength and conditioning coach is not ruining shooters. We’ve gone over this, how lifting weights does not make you a worse shooter.
I’m not sure we’ve brought in a whole lot of “shooters” that have gotten worse as the season goes by. Woj has been inconsistent, same with gilyard, same with Yates. What other “shooters” do we have on the roster? I think part of our issue is that we don’t have a group of great shooters (or at least not consistent ones yet).
Woj and Gilyard are young and inconsistent (hoping they become more consistent), Yates has be wildly inconsistent, JJ has always been streaky, from the little we’ve seen of Dre, he’s been inconsistent (or just better at driving), Grant isn’t an outside shooter (even if he oft thinks he is), Cayo isn’t an outside shooter, and Sal and Grace hven’t shown enough.
I think you can get on Mooney for not recruiting players that fit the system better, but at the moment we don’t have “a whole group of supposed 3 point shooters.” I would say we have 2 good 3 point shooters, who so far haven’t found consistency (which is normal for freshman and sophomores).
That being said, Gilyard did hit 8 last game on 50% shooting from 3. That’s pretty impressive.
Agree. The idea that Richmond is loaded with great 3-point shooters is a myth.
Every recruit we get is a great shooter who really has a great feel for the game.
I'm pretty sure that's the way Mooney has described everyone who has come into the program.
I'm pretty sure that's the way Mooney has described everyone who has come into the program.
Who's "we"? The coaches knew barely anything about? If that's what you mean, there is no chance this is accurate. If you mean "we" the fans on the message board, then OK.
As it turns out, I think Woj, Goose, and even Grace may turn out to be pretty decent players. Woj, if he stays for 4 years, will score 1000 points.
I used to watch every game. This year I have been less engaged. A buddy called and told me to tune in, which I did. I do like our players and my point in starting the post was not to lay blame. I just believe that at this point change might be good for everyone involved.
