Pilchard
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- May 3, 2011
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Record: 2-5 #180. Best win: IUPUI (#199) by 8. Worst loss: Longwood (#314 by 5 - hard to believe, but an even worse loss than HBU). Last time out: 90-82 loss at Georgetown; the Spiders defense sucked as G'town scored 1.23 points per possession, and hit 44% from 3. Richmond only forced 8 TOs versus a turnover prone team. Richmond did shoot 46% from 3 (Frosh Jake Wojcik was 6-11 from deep), and 59% from 2. G'town was +8 on the boards. Richmond has also lost to Hampton (#228 by 20 at home), Loyola-Chicago (#77 by 16) and Wyoming (#197 by 2). The Spiders have played a soft schedule (#299), yet they are only 2-5. Not good.
Offense: This is the Spiders' strength -- #114. UR has an effective FG% of 56.3 (#28), and they are particularly strong inside the arc shooting 61% (#4) on 2 point shots, which is largely attributable to 6-10 265 C Grant Golden. Surprisingly, despite losing their PG (Jacob Gilyard may be back for the WF game) and their 2G to injuries, Richmond also does not turn the ball over a lot with a 16.2% TO% (#51). The majority of Richmond's offense comes from inside the arc (56.7%), as they don't go to the line much (13.5% of their offense comes from FTs - #335). Until the G'town game, Richmond did not shoot a lot of 3s (29.8% of their offense comes from 3s; they shoot a mediocre 32.9% from behind the arc). Richmond does not hit the offensive glass (#353 in offensive rebound %).
Defense: UR's is weak on D -- #264. Their interior defense (57% on 2 PT shots - #315) is lacking as Golden is their only size, and he is slow. They aren't great at defending behind the arc either -- 37% #269. Richmond also doesn't force many TOs on D (#213) in TOs per defensive possession. Richmond lost their best defender, Nick Sherod (scored 12 against WF last year) to an injury last Sunday; so Richmond is even worse on defense now.
Tempo: Richmond plays slow #288 in tempo averaging only 67.8 possessions per game.
Lineup: With Sherod and Gilyard out, Richmond has a very short bench. Against G'town, all 5 starters, including two frosh, played 31 or minutes. The UR bench was scoreless on Wednesday. With Gilyard (PG 5-9) out, Richmond started: Freshman Andre Gustavson (6-4 from Finland) at PG, Freshman Jake Wojcik -- see note below (6-4) at SG, Senior Julius Johnson (6-3) at SF, Nathan Cayo (6-7) at PF and Grant Golden (6-10) at C. All of Richmond starters can shoot the 3, but Golden has struggled from outside the arc so far this year (17%). With Gilyard out, Yale transfer Noah Yates (6-5) is the only UR player to come off the bench and play more than 6 minutes. He is not a scorer.
Bottom line: Richmond is struggling; Mooney is very unpopular among the Spider faithful. They have lost 4 straight, and have only played one team ranked in the top 100. If Gilyard remains out, they have no bench. Golden is a load. Fully expect Smart to foul out in less than 10 minutes, and Okeke lacks the height or skill to stop GG. Will be up to Sarr to at least force Golden to shoot over him. Will be shocked if Golden doesn't have a huge offensive game against WF. Hope we can make him work on defense, because that is his weakness (Doral shot 6 for 7 last year against UR). WF has actually shot the ball well from 3 this year (49.6% #44), and WF will get open looks tomorrow. Also, they have no one that can stop or even slow down Hoard. If Jaylen stays out of foul trouble, he should have a huge game. WF crushed Richmond last year 83-52. Manning's teams are 3-1 versus Richmond.
KP projects a 73-72 UR win. It will be close. The team that chokes the least in the last 5 minutes will win. Fully expect both teams to give the other numerous chances to win the game.
NOTE ON WF CONNECTION: Jake Wojcik's dad is Dave Wojcik - Dave Wojcik was an assistant at WF under Dino in 2010, and an assistant under Prosser at both Loyola (MD) and Xavier. Dave Wojcik was the HC at San Jose State from 2013-2017. Dave Wojcik abruptly resigned for "personal reasons" in the summer of 2017, but as the result of lawsuit filed by a former SJS player, it appears Wojcik left after he was accused of abusive, homophobic and racially discriminatory behavior: https://www.mercurynews.com/2017/09/26/black-basketball-player-sues-sjsu-coach-who-resigned-in-july/. Does not appear that Wojcik has worked in college basketball since that news came out.
Offense: This is the Spiders' strength -- #114. UR has an effective FG% of 56.3 (#28), and they are particularly strong inside the arc shooting 61% (#4) on 2 point shots, which is largely attributable to 6-10 265 C Grant Golden. Surprisingly, despite losing their PG (Jacob Gilyard may be back for the WF game) and their 2G to injuries, Richmond also does not turn the ball over a lot with a 16.2% TO% (#51). The majority of Richmond's offense comes from inside the arc (56.7%), as they don't go to the line much (13.5% of their offense comes from FTs - #335). Until the G'town game, Richmond did not shoot a lot of 3s (29.8% of their offense comes from 3s; they shoot a mediocre 32.9% from behind the arc). Richmond does not hit the offensive glass (#353 in offensive rebound %).
Defense: UR's is weak on D -- #264. Their interior defense (57% on 2 PT shots - #315) is lacking as Golden is their only size, and he is slow. They aren't great at defending behind the arc either -- 37% #269. Richmond also doesn't force many TOs on D (#213) in TOs per defensive possession. Richmond lost their best defender, Nick Sherod (scored 12 against WF last year) to an injury last Sunday; so Richmond is even worse on defense now.
Tempo: Richmond plays slow #288 in tempo averaging only 67.8 possessions per game.
Lineup: With Sherod and Gilyard out, Richmond has a very short bench. Against G'town, all 5 starters, including two frosh, played 31 or minutes. The UR bench was scoreless on Wednesday. With Gilyard (PG 5-9) out, Richmond started: Freshman Andre Gustavson (6-4 from Finland) at PG, Freshman Jake Wojcik -- see note below (6-4) at SG, Senior Julius Johnson (6-3) at SF, Nathan Cayo (6-7) at PF and Grant Golden (6-10) at C. All of Richmond starters can shoot the 3, but Golden has struggled from outside the arc so far this year (17%). With Gilyard out, Yale transfer Noah Yates (6-5) is the only UR player to come off the bench and play more than 6 minutes. He is not a scorer.
Bottom line: Richmond is struggling; Mooney is very unpopular among the Spider faithful. They have lost 4 straight, and have only played one team ranked in the top 100. If Gilyard remains out, they have no bench. Golden is a load. Fully expect Smart to foul out in less than 10 minutes, and Okeke lacks the height or skill to stop GG. Will be up to Sarr to at least force Golden to shoot over him. Will be shocked if Golden doesn't have a huge offensive game against WF. Hope we can make him work on defense, because that is his weakness (Doral shot 6 for 7 last year against UR). WF has actually shot the ball well from 3 this year (49.6% #44), and WF will get open looks tomorrow. Also, they have no one that can stop or even slow down Hoard. If Jaylen stays out of foul trouble, he should have a huge game. WF crushed Richmond last year 83-52. Manning's teams are 3-1 versus Richmond.
KP projects a 73-72 UR win. It will be close. The team that chokes the least in the last 5 minutes will win. Fully expect both teams to give the other numerous chances to win the game.
NOTE ON WF CONNECTION: Jake Wojcik's dad is Dave Wojcik - Dave Wojcik was an assistant at WF under Dino in 2010, and an assistant under Prosser at both Loyola (MD) and Xavier. Dave Wojcik was the HC at San Jose State from 2013-2017. Dave Wojcik abruptly resigned for "personal reasons" in the summer of 2017, but as the result of lawsuit filed by a former SJS player, it appears Wojcik left after he was accused of abusive, homophobic and racially discriminatory behavior: https://www.mercurynews.com/2017/09/26/black-basketball-player-sues-sjsu-coach-who-resigned-in-july/. Does not appear that Wojcik has worked in college basketball since that news came out.
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