Tag Archives: Richmond Spiders

Tempo-Free Halftime: St. Louis

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I wasn’t able to follow most of last night’s game, but here’s how the tempo-free halftime stats would have looked.

In 31 possessions:

UR: 0.71 PPP, 34.62 eFG%, 16.67 OReb%, 19.28 TO%, 19.23 FTR

St. Louis: 1 PPP, 50 eFG%, 35.71 OReb%, 22.5 TO%, 23.08 FTR

Dr. Spider and I were busy earlier, so we didn’t check the score online until just over four minutes to go in the second half. Spiders were down 4. I went to richmondspiders.com to get the audio of the end. By the time I got Bob Black coming through the speakers, UR trailed by 11. Kind of the season in a microcosm.

Cooper’s Dream

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I interrupt your regularly scheduled basketball programming for a brief football moment:

Yesterday the Patriot League announced it was adding scholarships for football beginning with athletes entering in Fall 2013.

Spider fans will remember the Patriot League as that place dear ol’ President Cooper wanted to move the football team to back in 2005 (or was it Fall of 2004?). The move was ridiculed and ultimately (and thankfully) avoided. (Cut to Eric Ward celebrating national title.) It was a clear downgrade and surrender at the time, one the proud Spider program wasn’t willing to make.

Now? Things have changed.

The PL will be on equal footing competitively with the CAA. Plus, more than the CAA and even more than the A10, the Patriot League is comprised of schools the most similar to UR: Georgetown (FB only), Holy Cross, Lehigh, Bucknell, Lafayette, et al. They are small, private, prestigious academic institutions in the northeast. Don’t confuse this with me advocating for a switch, it’s just true.

First, congratulations to the Patriot League schools. This approval has been a long time coming. Scholarships will help all of them become more competitive for top talent and improve the profile of the league from a competition standpoint. UR just got another handful of recruiting rivals.

But wait, there’s more.

I still don’t think the conference shuffle is done. CUSA and the Mountain West are merging. The Big East is still teetering (Memphis or no). UR needs to keep its head on the swivel a bit longer.

What the PL move does for Richmond is provides another option. UR’s future goals are different from JMU’s, Delaware’s or even ODU’s. CAAFB has already lost URI and UMass. ODU is in and Georgia State is coming. The league is changing, and in a way that may eventually become untenable for the Spiders. The league is expanding geographically and financially (in terms of investment required). The new schools are big and ambitious. UR is ambitious, yes, but also must deal with the reality of its size limitations. Again, football is driving all of this movement and UR is a hoops first school.

The PL is now a much more palatable alternative to CAAFB for Spider football fans if a change needs to be made. Richmond could keep full scholarships, maintain a high level of play, keep access to the FCS tournament and do so in a more compact league footprint with more like-minded schools. (And yes, W&M would also fit in with the PL for those worried about the rivalry. In fact, UR and W&M would make an easy expansion pair for football, but that’s getting WAY ahead of ourselves.)

This rumination may well all be for nothing. Conferences may settle down and future shifts may be more tweaks than re-imaginings. The PL’s upgrade may mean nothing more than a few more good OOC scheduling options. Or more major upheaval may only be another year or two away. If that’s the case, and the face of the CAAFB (or even Atlantic 10) were to dramatically change, it’s nice to know that UR has another palatable option for football, another potential card on the table. Contingencies are good.

In the meantime, good luck to Coach Rocco and staff recruiting next year. Things just got a little more complicated.

And now back to talking myself into a Spider win at SLU tomorrow….

Tempo-Free Halftime: George Washington

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In 28 possessions:

UR: 1 PPP, 42.59 eFG%, 31.25 OReb%, 14.23 TO%, 22.22 FTR

GW: 0.96 PPP, 63.16 eFG%, 10 OReb%, 24.9 TO%, 26.32 FTR

A halftime lead! Need DWill back in the game, he’s got a real advantage inside. Love Sparrow’s aggressiveness again. GW’s not doing themselves any favors by slowing the pace down quite this much- I’ll take it.

Welcome Aboard, Capt. Sparrow!

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Somewhere in the middle of the second half against La Salle it dawned on me. I’ve seen this guy before.

He’s 2010 Francis Martel!

I think it was somewhere around the superman dive for the loose ball.

Derrick Williams carried the the Spiders to the key win, but it was Wayne Sparrow who provided the missing spark. Since his minutes have been on the sharp rise the last few games (10+ mins. in four of the last five games), Sparrow has injected some life, energy and athleticism that had been missing from the rotation. He’s started to fill the microwave roll off the bench Martel excelled in the past two years. And not a moment too late!

Sparrow’s started to do more than just bring energy though. His 5% offensive rebound rate trails only FCM himself, DWill and Garrett this season and his steal percentage over four nearly doubles second best Lindsay’s. Those’re the hustle plays and stats the Spiders have been craving. Throw in a more promising jump shot (did you see the bounces he was getting off the rim? skillful), and there’s hope for next year and now. He may not crack the starting lineup soon with Linsday, Anthony and Brothers all crowding the backcourt for another year, but Sparrow provides some needed height (if not girth) to the guard rotation.

The extra guard on the floor, largely in place of Duinker, also helps the defensive switching and disguises some of the communication breakdowns by adding more recovery speed. Key. The A10 has always been a guard league and this year it seems more and more teams are playing with 3 and 4 guard lineups (seemingly everyone but UMass), the Spiders need to match. They need to match because despite DWill’s improvement, and Ced’s skill, Richmond still lacks the talent and experience to really control the pace and flow of a guard-heavy game. Sparrow really helped against La Salle when the pace got quicker (69 possessions, third fastest this year to Iona and Duquesne)

Yes, Sparrow has still played less than 20% of the minutes this season. And yes, his numbers took a big jump after Wednesday’s 10-5 performance. Those stats are there to be had though in this defense and with the cold jump-shooting stretches the offense is experiencing.

It’s been a patience-testing start for Wayne Sparrow between last year’s redshirt and four DNPs this season, the last against UMass at the end of January. The time has come for Sparrow to start commandeering serious PT and fill the big shoes (if lanky frame) of FCM. His emergence has to give hope to Spider fans waiting out three more highly anticipated redshirts for next season.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I sense a strong finish coming on now in the still jumbled A10.

GW tomorrow looms as a big-time payback game. The game up in DC needs to be erased from memory. Playing without Lindsay the Spiders seemed lost and the game was a mess. With Lindsay back, and another athlete on the floor in Sparrow, should help UR better contain Tony Taylor and Lasan Kromah. A fifth league win will also push the Spiders right into the middle of the conference pack.

Just ride the waves.

Tempo-Free Halftime: La Salle

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In 35 possessions:

UR: 1.08 PPP, 46.43 eFG%, 29.41 OReb%, 17.03 TO%, 46.43 FTR

La Salle: 1.14 PPP, 50 eFG%, 17.65 OReb%, 17.03 TO%, 32.14 FTR

Much better! Pace is a little fast, but otherwise a much improved half. I liked the Sparrow-Anthony-Brothers-Robbins-Martel lineup. La Salle was killing it from 3 and the guard lineup seemed to help perimeter defense and switching. I feel a big half coming from Brothers. He’s so far beyond due….

Wanted: Defense

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So, how bad is it?

Dr. Spider and I kept cringing while watching the Duquesne game. It wasn’t just giving up runs to start each half. It wasn’t just the complete lack of rebounding, especially offensive boards. It wasn’t just the absence of Darrius Garrett and Darien Brothers.

Okay, it was those things too.

The team struggled to control the pace and flow of the game. The second half became progressively more brutal to watch. They struggled to stem the tide once the wheels started to get wobbly. There were no easy baskets or determination to execute offensively. The defense was all over the map.

I looked at the box score afterwards. Two months ago I never would have believed the Spiders could top 70 points in a game without a significant contribution from Brothers. Darien only had 4 of UR’s 72 points on Saturday. Again, I came back to the defense.

So let’s look at that defense a little more.

Gritty, hard-nosed and experienced defenders Ryan Butler, Kevin Smith and Dan Geriot are all gone. Harper’s size and versatility is gone. Derrick Williams has made leaps and bounds offensively, but he is still undersized trying to guard some big men. Kendall Anthony has KA’s speed, not his experience. Francis Martel is logging more minutes and has had trouble matching the defensive impact of a year ago. Josh Duinker has been exposed inside while playing twice as many minutes as last season.

Those are the eyeball thoughts. What do the numbers say?

What’s working: defensive 3PT% is nearly the same this year as last (30.2 to 30.6) and 3FG allowed percentage is actually lower this year; block percentage is 2% higher this year; assist rate allowed is lower this season (45.2 to 49.9); and, finally, opponent turnover percentage is higher this season. That’s something to build on.

What’s not working: opponent eFG% is two points higher; opponent offensive rebounding percentage rate is higher (a terrible combo with the higher eFG%); opponent free throw rate is higher.

Combine those numbers that aren’t working with a fast pace this season (~2 possessions), and it’s easier to see why UR’s defensive rating is nearly seven points higher. What’s more, the problem is clearly inside.

Even swinging one of those stats could make a big difference. With UR’s average conference game score this season 70-69.5 Spiders (thank you, Fordham blowout for keeping things in the black), an extra basket or a few extra free throws would be all it takes to secure an extra win or two.

And wouldn’t 9-7 feel a lot better than even 8-8?