Game Thread - VCU @RC Sat 2/14 6PM CBS Sports Network

SpiderTrue said:
Losing to your in-city rival always stings, especially when it can start to feel like this keeps happening. But if we’re being fair about THIS game, it wasn’t the disaster people are making it out to be.

The first half was rough but the way this team came out after halftime? That matters. They adjusted, played with urgency, and even outworked them for long stretches. Most importantly, they didn’t quit on the coach and neither did the crowd. If this locker room had tuned him out, that second half would’ve been a blowout. Instead, we were one or two plays away from stealing it at the end. I’m absolutely proud of the fight and fire displayed this evening and I hope you guys are too.
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It isn’t “starting to feel like this keeps happening”, it has been happening for literally 20 years.

Am I proud that the guys didnt fold at halftime? Sure. But the game is 40 minutes, no one puts asterisks on the record for the games we lost but were better in the second half.

To be clear, I’m not bagging on the players, although they own their portion of the loss. It’s fundamentally about not being prepared from the tip to play, whether that’s energy or scheme or skill, all of which ultimately goes back to the coach.
 
SpiderWill said:
No excuse for the 1st half and i'll eat my words--i really think we'd win.
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Out of curiosity, why? On the whole this season we’ve not played well in any game against decent competition (except perhaps Belmont and maybe GMU), and in many instances played poorly against weak competition.
 
SpiderTrue said:
Losing to your in-city rival always stings, especially when it can start to feel like this keeps happening. But if we’re being fair about THIS game, it wasn’t the disaster people are making it out to be.

The first half was rough but the way this team came out after halftime? That matters. They adjusted, played with urgency, and even outworked them for long stretches. Most importantly, they didn’t quit on the coach and neither did the crowd. If this locker room had tuned him out, that second half would’ve been a blowout. Instead, we were one or two plays away from stealing it at the end. I’m absolutely proud of the fight and fire displayed this evening and I hope you guys are too.
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the spread was 7.5 in favor of vcu so odds makers had this one pretty close. The only reason why people on the board were acting like we would lose by 20-25 is cause we have no faith in a guy we’ve seen underperform for the last 15 years. Stop with these morals victories. We got ran out of our own building again. We have no chance at any postseason play and we will be in the pillow fights. Keep praising a glorified coach who signed a 10 year extension and didn’t live up to it
 
SpiderTrue said:
Losing to your in-city rival always stings, especially when it can start to feel like this keeps happening. But if we’re being fair about THIS game, it wasn’t the disaster people are making it out to be.

The first half was rough but the way this team came out after halftime? That matters. They adjusted, played with urgency, and even outworked them for long stretches. Most importantly, they didn’t quit on the coach and neither did the crowd. If this locker room had tuned him out, that second half would’ve been a blowout. Instead, we were one or two plays away from stealing it at the end. I’m absolutely proud of the fight and fire displayed this evening and I hope you guys are too.
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If we are being fair and factual, we are now 4-9 and in 11th place in the A-10, and Loyola is the only team in our conference that has more losses than we do.

This game was absolutely a disaster. We were down by 20 at the half, and lost by 11. At home. We shot 35% overall and 23% from 3. Johnston shot well, but the other 9 guys went 13-41 and were 1-14 from 3. I watched the 2nd half. We had a nice 2nd half run and played well for 12 minutes, and then looked terrible on offense and defense down the stretch.

One or two plays away from stealing it? Well, that's a problem right there. We are playing VCU at home. Why should we have to steal anything? Because we were underdogs? That is the problem here. I think it's time we got a coach in here who can make us favorites against them. Shouldn't be that hard. They are not juggernauts, especially this year. They aren't even in the dance right now. Recruit better, spend NIL better, and, most importantly, coach better.

Proud of what? Showing some energy during a nice 12 minute 2nd half run? Sure, that was great..we played well and looked good....for all of 12 minutes. What about the other 28 minutes?
 
72Spider said:
Hearn mooney say he was thrilled about second half in his interview. Threw up in my mouth
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So frustrating. "Proud" after an 8 point loss to them in a game we never led, and "thrilled" after an 11 point loss to them in a game we never led. WTF!!! I am not asking to see him throw things and get violently upset, and am not asking for him to talk bad about our players, but my goodness, he just doesn't seem the least bit bothered about losing to them again.
 
SpiderTrue said:
Losing to your in-city rival always stings, especially when it can start to feel like this keeps happening. But if we’re being fair about THIS game, it wasn’t the disaster people are making it out to be.

The first half was rough but the way this team came out after halftime? That matters. They adjusted, played with urgency, and even outworked them for long stretches. Most importantly, they didn’t quit on the coach and neither did the crowd. If this locker room had tuned him out, that second half would’ve been a blowout. Instead, we were one or two plays away from stealing it at the end. I’m absolutely proud of the fight and fire displayed this evening and I hope you guys are too.
Click to expand...
Let’s also give him credit. He only had one technical foul at a ridiculous time to pick one up in a game, he never put more than five guys on the court at a time in this game, and didn’t take a timeout he didn’t have.

Those are improvements from prior VCU games, so he’s really showing something in year 21.
 
Aww DB still out there trolling. Will say, he identified a long time ago that Mooney was a rivalry wrecker. I do wonder if a small part of him would like us to be competitive again?
 
*23* said:
Aww DB still out there trolling. Will say, he identified a long time ago that Mooney was a rivalry wrecker. I do wonder if a small part of him would like us to be competitive again?
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Db is a good dude. Interacted with him on Twitter he knows what needs to happen for Richmond to get back to competitiveness
 
Here are my other observations from the game:

1. I saw fewer switches/mismatches on D
2. Johnston has got to shoot, he’s not a great facilitator
3. Johnston also couldn’t buy himself a bucket taking it to the rim, just some god awful finishing
4. Colin. Sweet, sweet Colin. Idk what you do with him. He is so tentative when he has the ball, it just feels like he’s playing like a robot. Dude, just be ready to shoot.
5. Argabright is fearless, I want him to get 30+ mins.
6. We purchase the worst concessions straws on the market.
 
He was thrilled about the second half, which also included being outscored by 9 in the last 3+ minutes. Also during the last 6m of a 2 point game, we got 1 FG, along with 3 FTs, 5 points total.

Also, zero FGs from the 16:12 mark of the first half to the 4:52 mark of the first half.

So I guess in addition to starting with more energy, we also need to finish with more direction.

The basement of moral victories and dumb/unused timeouts must be overflowing by now.

Grade: Incomplete.
 
72Spider said:
Ever since we beat St. Joe's to clinch a tie for the regular season title a few years ago, and celebrated like we had won the NCAA championship, the program has been in a total freefall.
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Since then we are:
Quad/wins/losses

Q1/1/7 (Belmont)
Q2/0/9
Q3/10/17
Q4/10/4

You usually need to be .500 in Q1&2 to approach the bubble. And all Q3&4 losses are considered bad.
 
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