West Virginia Preview
- Thread starter plydogg
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Nick's absence really showing today. But if Mooney thinks Francis needs to shoot more to make up for it, will be long season. Look at Francis career shooting % , it's really not that good.
Crabtree calmly nails 2 free throws and a 3.
Please cut Frances’ minutes in half. He shoots us OUT of games. I would rather half of his shots go to Goose, Crab, or even Wilson. Just terrible!
Disappointing, but take heart Spider fans.
If WV wasn't unconscious in shooting in the first half, despite decent defense, it would have been a different game. Still may have lost, but not gotten smoked. We have a very, very good team despite this loss.
If WV wasn't unconscious in shooting in the first half, despite decent defense, it would have been a different game. Still may have lost, but not gotten smoked. We have a very, very good team despite this loss.
No defense and Gilyard and Golden were no shows.
Seriously. Why the hell was he sitting so long? Need to see more of him immediately.
This is what worried me the most going into the season. NS isnt our best player on either side of the ball, but to have him there as a safety was a luxury we no longer have and need to remedy unless Crabtree steps in. Teams had to respect him standing back from NBA range which gave our guards more ability to move inside and open passing lanes up. I do like Burton and he does some different things well and I think well be a much better team defensively, but I worry in games where we need a clutch 3 to either pull ahead or get back into the game. I don't see it being a problem against the A10 because we aren't going up against NBA guards with the front court size, but I wouldn't be shocked to see this result against another similar opponent if we get another shot. WVU does deserve a ton of credit today, I do think it was more of them playing well then us being horrendous, but we didn't help ourselves out much when they were hitting on all cylinders.
Francis 1-10 on 3pt shots, 1-5 free throws....didn't impress me last year, not impressing me this year. Crabtree 1-1 3pt. 2-2. We were being blown out after 15 minutes, why was Crabtree not put in until the last 2 minutes? Or Wilson? If someone is ice cold and it's already a blowout, shouldn't you put in two kids "we're very, very high on"?
Francis really is a problem when he plays like this. I do like his confidence and swagger and he’d still have to be our go to guy to go get us a big bucket and the end, but we need to scale his minutes back until he finds his stroke.
A big problem is that he doesn’t contribute much other than shooting. Very few assist (zero today against 3 turnovers), no steals etc. He also seems to let poor shooting impact his overall game. His defense is solid, but not great and he is simply not impactful other than as a scorer (and he is more scorer than shooter). Gilyard wasn’t great today, but had 6 assists (only 2 TO ) and 4 steals. When Blake doesn’t impact scoring, it’s a lot of minutes that aren’t impactful.
That’s said, he could have been great today and it wouldn’t have mattered quite frankly.
Not a bad scout to have:
wvusports.com
Ron Everhart - Men's Basketball Coach - West Virginia University Athletics
The Everhart File Personal Information Birthday January 11 Hometown Fairmont, W.Va. Education Virginia
wvusports.com
As an aside, I think Grant was just as big a problem today As Blake. Terrible with 6 Turnovers and I really didn’t like his effort on offense. Kinda disappeared with only 4 shots and I think that was mostly of his own doing and after the turnovers he seemed disinterested (intimidated?) in looking for his offense. What I really do t like is when he gets all pouty out there. He was much better about last year than prior to that but he is slipping back a little bit.
He did hang in there and do a solid job on the defensive glass!!
He did hang in there and do a solid job on the defensive glass!!
Hey, at least we only gave up 4 offensive rebounds and had 10 of our own.
Yes, I know they shot well and we didn't, but we still did really well on the boards...total boards were even considering how many more were on our misses.
We made some mistakes, but the first half was definitely more about WVU making a lot of hard shots that they hadn't been making all year...no idea where that came from. Second half was more even, but the game was really already decided so it's hard to take much from it other than getting some more run against another team.
Yes, I know they shot well and we didn't, but we still did really well on the boards...total boards were even considering how many more were on our misses.
We made some mistakes, but the first half was definitely more about WVU making a lot of hard shots that they hadn't been making all year...no idea where that came from. Second half was more even, but the game was really already decided so it's hard to take much from it other than getting some more run against another team.
Looking at the stats here ( I did watch the game too). If you had told me we would only give up 4 offensive rebounds and be even on the glass overall plus we would shoot 18 more free throws than they would and we’d have the same number of steals as them, I’d have been feeling like we would almost certainly win.
onvioulsy watching, I understand they shot it crazy well and flustered us with their aggressiveness, but so much of this game was so totally opposite what I would have expected. .
onvioulsy watching, I understand they shot it crazy well and flustered us with their aggressiveness, but so much of this game was so totally opposite what I would have expected. .
This is in the category of throw this one in the trash can and forget it immediately and move on to Vandy.
Relax, we'll be fine.
Relax, we'll be fine.
8legs1dream
Team Manager
pro: this was a game we were not expected to win anyway, so it was a nice "house money" game for us regardless
con: they bashed our brains in and made us their biggest win of the season.
I have a good feeling that we remain ranked even after this though. damn I was hoping to brag to my Richmond Community College coworkers tomorrow that we beat a team that they couldn't...now they will just talk about how we lost by more 🤬
con: they bashed our brains in and made us their biggest win of the season.
I have a good feeling that we remain ranked even after this though. damn I was hoping to brag to my Richmond Community College coworkers tomorrow that we beat a team that they couldn't...now they will just talk about how we lost by more 🤬
We need Blake. He shot 42%, 40%, and 36% from 3 his first 3 years, and was at 36% coming into today. He was off today, but we will need him to make 3s to go far this year. We badly miss Nick, and our 3 point guys need to keep shooting them and start making them.
Now he’s at 29% from 3 and 35% overall - 5 games in. When is appropriate to start worrying?
- West Virginia shot the ball better than they normally do. They played with confidence, and they were by far the better team today 1a) UR put up almost no resistance. This is part of what made WVa. so confident (it was easy for them to do whatever they wanted) 1b) Defense was almost non-existent on the 3—pointers as well. UR didn’t expect them to make the threes like they did, but you can’t let most college guards shoot at will 1c) UR didn’t challenge inside effectively – they just let them put it in. Again, way too easy, and it built the Mountaineer confidence and comfort level
- It seemed to me that UR’s game strategy was a failure. Of course I didn’t hear the official strategy, but what I saw was hard-core over focus on rebounding, accompanied by don’t get in foul trouble. The over emphasis on rebounding and “don’t foul” led to no pressure on the ball, not keeping the man with the ball in front of you (the ballhandler blew by the defenders or passed over them). They went to the rack frequently either scoring or dumping to open man underneath), and not challenging the 3 well.
- Almost no defensive resistance by UR (refer to # 2 above) led to the hot shooting. Making shots (hot shooting) leads to confidence, and confidence leads to a playing well
- Flip side, UR did a terrible job taking care of the ball. Way too many turnovers in 1st half especially, which gave West Virginia easy baskets. The length and athleticism of WVa. made it difficult for UR in this area most of the game
- Golden didn’t do enough for the Spiders to win. He started well in the first few minutes (I thought that he was going to have a good game), but almost completely disappeared the rest of the way. UR can’t beat West Virginia without him
- Gilyard and Francis both played poorly overall. The primary reason for this (we’ve seen it before) has to do mostly with size. West Virginia and most big-time schools have guards that are bigger, stronger, LONGER, and at least as athletic as the UR small guys. If a player is several inches bigger, and they have a long wingspan (reach), and they are AT LEAST as quick and fast, the smaller guy is likely to have a tough day. This is the down side of small guards. There can most certainly be an upside to small guards, but, we have seen the down side play out numerous times thru the years. When he can't out quick his man, It is hard for the smaller guy to get his shot off in rhythm, which typically makes you rush, which lowers the percentage and effectiveness. Small guard disadvantage was on full display in this game.
- Bench didn't do enough today. Can't beat West Virginia with this lack of contribution
I believe that the defensive game plan impacted the outcome. You are free to disagree. The good news is that this is just 1-game and 1-loss. It is not the end of what will be a very good season.
Excuse me Gilly had 4 steals and 6 assists, so he was an asset.
Gilyard needs to start eating into blakes shots. Gilly took 1 shot in the second half he needs to be more assertive and shoot more.
I thought our main problems today were:
--Shots not falling, especially for Blake and Jake.
--All those turnovers--where did those come from?
--Had we made a few more threes (early), a different game. Again, missing Sherrod (or even Wojick) who could come in and get hot with a few threes might have stemmed the tide a bit.
--Our defense, especially in the middle of the first half when they made their runs. Almost totally absent at that juncture.
I thought we could win if we made a higher % of our threes, and would be able to keep it close otherwise.
--Shots not falling, especially for Blake and Jake.
--All those turnovers--where did those come from?
--Had we made a few more threes (early), a different game. Again, missing Sherrod (or even Wojick) who could come in and get hot with a few threes might have stemmed the tide a bit.
--Our defense, especially in the middle of the first half when they made their runs. Almost totally absent at that juncture.
I thought we could win if we made a higher % of our threes, and would be able to keep it close otherwise.
I've said for two years that the guy never met a shot that he didn't like. He needs to shoot less. He will shoot you out of a game quicker than he will shoot you into one.
Blake and Grant play the way they did today, we lose. 1-10, but 1-5 free throws, and he’s our shooter, come on man.
Last year and this, he has the worst shooting percentage of our starters yet takes the most shots. Come on man, go by the data.
I doubt it. I keep hearing the “other sides” argument that his swagger is key. Sure didn’t save the day today. Experience and team play are supposed to be the strengths of this years team, not a one man show.
Why do we seem surprised that "Press" Virginia (aka WVU) forced us into turnovers. Huggins teams are historically among the best defensive teams. Our guards have handled pressure well before but the height and weight mis-match at those positions was obvious and is why our guards, as good as they are, are playing here rather than at P5 level. We have to shoot much better and not turn it over to play with the big boys.
Also, anybody ever heard of calling a time out when the other team is in the middle of something like a 16-1 run? Oh wait, we're only a minute and a half from an automatic time out .
I disagree about the guards part. When looking at our turnovers we need to take a closer look at who got them. Gilly handled the press good with only 2 turnovers and blake did meh with 3 but a few bad passes. Our turnovers came when grant had the ball. He had six turnovers...
Statistically maybe but our guard turnovers often led to break away dunks on the other end. Regardless, team turnovers were a clear problem that needs to be fixed. Fortunately not everybody is WVU, but opportunity missed.
You don’t achieve greatness in sports if the fans praise your bad performances.
If Nick had played, we would not have had Tyler’s rebounding and athleticism to match WV. Having Nick would
not have changed the outcome of this game, even though we would have made a few more threes but they would
have had more offensive rebounds.
I'm glad we didn't get killed on the boards, but with them rarely missing, they didn't have a whole lot of opportunity for offensive rebounds.
They still missed 26 shots and had an offensive rebounding percentage of only 17%, so we definitely did a good job there.
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