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Around the A10 20-21 season


brianstl

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19 minutes ago, HoosierPal said:

Richmond

14 day pause due to Covid

3 practices before first game back

Lose at home  

Hmmm  

 

I had the same thought but I’m hoping that we won’t look as bad. We have a lot more depth, which could potentially offset a lack of conditioning, and can always play bully ball to win if the shots aren’t falling. Trying to stay optimistic at least. 

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On 1/18/2021 at 7:03 AM, brownindians said:

Maybe any and all A 10 play-off game should be played at Bonaventure.

Its safe, easy to sequester Teams and Staff, makes economic sense, lots of GOOD food. All the convenances of home.

Olean actually has electricity, cable TV,  Internet access and CellPhone service.

Have a Nice Day!

 

And drunk bus drivers. Don’t forget them. 

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10 hours ago, 3star_recruit said:

Almost every team has struggled in the their first game after a long pause. Preparation matters.  I expect a dog fight on Tuesday.

I know that's the popular narrative that it's really hard to come back from the layoffs, but Florida St and Georgia Tech came back from 2 week or longer layoffs and looked really good. I'm sure there are others.

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57 minutes ago, kshoe said:

I know that's the popular narrative that it's really hard to come back from the layoffs, but Florida St and Georgia Tech came back from 2 week or longer layoffs and looked really good. I'm sure there are others.

The common denominator is the team they both played in their return, Clemson.  Clemson has been absolutely brutal after their pause, getting blown out by 35 at home to Virginia in their first game back. They don't even look like the same team.

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11 hours ago, 3star_recruit said:

Almost every team has struggled in the their first game after a long pause. Preparation matters.  I expect a dog fight on Tuesday.

There is no reason our defense should falter.  Offense may take a while to get back into sync.  Fitness on both sides of the line likely will be an issue for a few games.   We will find out.

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29 minutes ago, 3star_recruit said:

The common denominator is the team they both played in their return, Clemson.  Clemson has been absolutely brutal after their pause, getting blown out by 35 at home to Virginia in their first game back. They don't even look like the same team.

Clemson was on pause for only 6 days, and had 11 days between games. Apparently only an assistant coach was positive, no players.   Just shows you how this virus can impact teams differently.

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Make no mistake, Tuesday game will be difficult for us.  #1) first game back after a month.  #2) Dayton just got embarrassed at VCU.  #3) Arch Baron 'rivalry.'  #4) We are ranked so we will be everyone's Super Bowl.  I experct some hiccups comign back; if we avoid them, how good are we then?  Let it play out.

Yesterday, as noted, Mason beat the Joeys again teice in three or so days.  Nothing to note other than what was said above.

La Salle beat Richmond which was a surprise although La Salle did also beat Dayton in Dayton earlier.  La Salle is a team of ten guys, all ranging between 6 feet and 6'8".  All ten play 15+ minutes and Ashley Howard counts on three or four of them to score ten points or more to have any chance to win.  Yesterday, they did that to Richmond as six guys all scored 10 or more.  The problem for La Salle is that they don't do it that consistently.  Richmond was who I say they are ... five guys and prayers.  They got 2 points off their bench in 25 minutes of play.  Gilyard and Francis were a combined 4-for-16 from three.  Gilyard closed with five points,  4 assists, 3 steals and four turnovers.  That is a flat tire as far as their being a five-man team is concerned.  I've seen enough of La Salle to know that if you punch they hard to start, they stay down.  Richmond didn't do that.

Look, Dayton is just not good this year.  They are basking in the glow of last year and when Crutcher pukes out a game like he did yesterday, Dayton really sucks.  Dayton scored 13 points in the first half yesterday.  Bones Hyland has 13 by himself for VCU.  Dwon 33 to 13, they just folded up sjop and played uninspired ball to get out of Richmond.  Their history is such that VCU is a place of horros for them but they just don't have the personnel and what they do have is limited.  The great Amzil was shut out --- IMHO he couldn't stay with VCU's athleticism.  Tshimanga is a brute --- effectively brtued right back by Douglas and Stockard.  Watson is a catch-n-shoot guy --- negated by VCU's overt speed.  Dayton's starting four, outside of Tshimnaga, shot 4-for-27 a whopping 14.8%!  They were 1-for-13 from three.  VCU concentrated on shutting down Crutcher and Watson and it worked like a charm.  Davidson didn't do this to Dayton because Davidson doesn't have the athletes.  As three-star always tells me ... it's about matchups.

Let's remember that VCU was coming off a 14 point half and dismantling at the Bonnies.  The second half was basically a trade-baskets-until-the-clock-expires exercise.  VCU is still predictable.  Hyland ended with 28 of 66 and the rest of the team saw no one score more than 7.  And this is two games now where two different announcers proclaimed this VCU team as "Bones' team."  Problem is that when Bones ain't hitting, he becomes a more selfish liability.  Just like Dayton, shut down the main man and the rest will follow.  VCU just has much better talent overall than Dayton right now.  

I finished my most enjoyable evening with more bad basketball, namely the Bonnies at the Dukes.  The best thing I can say about the Dukes is they gave them a game before losing 65 to 61.  The Dukes are in shambles.  The atmosphere is heated ... between Dambrot going off on the refs and michael Hughes going off on his teammates, it's pretty ugly.  Dunn-Martin plays the point because, well, they have no one else.  That hurts his shooting from deep.  He still launches and went 3-of-6 put it is more needed to stay afloat than as a surprise weapon.  Weathers still looks fat and out of shape.  Hughes roams the lane looking like an independent contractor in search of blocks.  Okani, Baker and Acuff and thin-skinny freshmen going at warp speed until they run out of gym floor.  I didn't see their Rhode Island game so hwo they won that I don't know.  But it does show they do have some fight in there.

The Bonnies are winning with defense and just enough shooting to compliment Lofton.  Jaren English-Holmes has cooled down considerably since hsi 38 point outburst against St. Joe's.  He's not good enough to lead the A10 in shooting.  Jalen Adaway didn't start because of the flu but played and it was a good thing.  He ended up with 12 and literally dominated down the stretch with offense and defense.  Apparently he's the second leading shooter in the A10 ... dunks do that for you right Obi?  Osunniyi didn't play much the first half what with two fouls and a stimulator on his back.  Jalen Shaw had a career seven point game in his absence.  Dom Welch added a quiet 14 but once again it's all Lofton down the stretch of a close game.  Welch made th eonly three threes for the Bonnies on anight they took 13.  Lofton is shooting  3-of-29 from deep so far.  I'd say this is the one guy you WANT to shoot from three in the A10.  

Most of the commentary I heard last night was how we are the class of the A10 but we need to start playing again soon.  If that was 50% of the comments, I disagreed with the other 50%.  No way this is a four or five bid league.  No way the Bonnies are really that good.  No way Weathers & Hughes are a terrific tandem.  No way Richmond's win over Kentucky means anything any more.  By the way .... LSU, NC State and Minnesota are all fading some.  We need to play and start dominating these guys.  

Based on what I've seen, it's us, VCU and the Bonnies.  Second tier is now Umass, Richmond and Davidson.  Third tier that could jump up and bite you is Dayton, Rhode Island, Mason and La Salle.  Shame on you if you let that happen.  Dead meat are Duquesne, Fordham, Geedubya and the Joeys.

Davidson at Umass today at noon.

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I agree that there’s gonna be some flatness and tired legs affecting our play. Travis is going to have to dive deeper into the bench for awhile. Hoosierfan, whose opinion I respect, said our D should pull us thru. In my opinion D takes more effort, both mentally and physically, than playing offense. You have to have the heart and mental toughness to play good D. To my way of thinking, playing good D takes more of a toll on the player’s durability than O. For those reasons,  I will be more interested in how our D performs than our O. 

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Davidson takes out Umass in Amherst.  Tre Mitchell left with a shoulder injury with about 3 to go.  Of all people, Nelson Boachie-Yiadin shut him down in the second half.  Umass seems to quit when facing adversity.  Final with two late 3s from Umass was 69 to 60.  Weeks and Pierre do the shooting for Umass but they are really challenged if Mitchell is cooled.  They don’t have a real second option unless the threes are falling.

Davidson schooled Umass in terms of patience, schemes and changing defenses. McKillop schooled McCall like he did us last year.  Grady and Lee showed up in the second half.  Game seemed to show how age and experience can easily counter better athleticism.  Boachie-Yiadom had a career day.  Mitchell got hurt twice so folks are starting to bang the Umass star.  Davidson can do that with Brajkovic, Jones, Boachie-Yiadom and Mennenga.  Brajkovic fouled out.  Drops Umass to 5 and 2 in league.

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This isn't a bad snapshot of the A10.  Anyone can adjust the Tier's as desired.  If you want to lose a Tier, move UMass up to Tier 2 and Duquesne down to Tier 4. 

For me, there are two questions TBD.  Who will get the Top 4 seeds in the tourney (assuming there is a tourney with all teams) and who might still be in the running for an At-Large bid to the NCAA.  For the Top 4 seeds, I'd certainly go with the Tier 1 teams and then flip multiple coins for the 4th.  Today UMass actually is tied for 3rd place in the standings, but standings are at best an inconclusive mess.  Rhody has played 9 league games (half of their season), SLU of course 0, and Richmond and GW 5.  Will seeding be by winning percentage?  It almost has to be.  Or not.

The selection criteria for the NCAA will remain a deep, closely held secret.  Will 'the eye test' be used?  Who will define the eye test?  Is 'they didn't play anyone' hold merit?  Even for those schools like SBU that had most of their OOC schedule wiped out?  If you use historic methods, the A10 is likely down to the three Tier 1 schools for At Large consideration but who really knows. 

The stretch run starts tomorrow.

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lets not forget the committee will be try their hardest to include normal automatic picks like duke and kansas and kentucky that are having mediocre years.   we will here more about the strength of the big 5 conferences this year than ever before as they justify letting all of the big ten, big 8, acc, big east and sec in the tourney.   this was the perfect year to truly let everyone in the tourney imo.  

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This year was all set up for Richmond to be in an at-large, they just had to win the games they were clearly favored to win. Instead they have Q4 losses to Hofstra and La Salle.  Brutal.  They'll go into next season with Tyler Burton, no big man through which to run their offense and a bench Mooney hasn't developed.  They may be a basement dweller next year.

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1 hour ago, 3star_recruit said:

This year was all set up for Richmond to be in an at-large, they just had to win the games they were clearly favored to win. Instead they have Q4 losses to Hofstra and La Salle.  Brutal.  They'll go into next season with Tyler Burton, no big man through which to run their offense and a bench Mooney hasn't developed.  They may be a basement dweller next year.

-I guess the FireChrisMooney site will be active again

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3 hours ago, billiken_roy said:

lets not forget the committee will be try their hardest to include normal automatic picks like duke and kansas and kentucky that are having mediocre years.   we will here more about the strength of the big 5 conferences this year than ever before as they justify letting all of the big ten, big 8, acc, big east and sec in the tourney.   this was the perfect year to truly let everyone in the tourney imo.  

You can add Michigan State and North Carolina to your list as well.

Current NET rankings which I suspect will change dramatically before then of the season:

19. Kansas

50. UNC

82. Kentucky

87. Michigan State

89. Duke

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Ford and May both said they anticipate a home game being added in the buy week after the Richmond game.  If the A10 is looking at the schools we paused on, Davidson has pretty much the same window as we do.  Other home teams we missed, St. B, UMass, and Duquesne all have mid week games scheduled in that period.  But you never know how the league might shake up the schedule.

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1 hour ago, HoosierPal said:

Ford and May both said they anticipate a home game being added in the buy week after the Richmond game.  If the A10 is looking at the schools we paused on, Davidson has pretty much the same window as we do.  Other home teams we missed, St. B, UMass, and Duquesne all have mid week games scheduled in that period.  But you never know how the league might shake up the schedule.

Of the seven games that have been cancelled, there is no reason to play any of those road games. No upside against bad opponents - only potential disaster. So among the four home games that were cancelled - adding Bonawelding and Davidson would be helpful. No reason to play the Dukes or UMass.

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