8. Richmond Spiders- Last year, the Spiders went 7-1 at home and 1-7 in away games in conference play. Okay...we can all conclude that winning one game on the road in the A-10 is unacceptable. These Spiders need to improve their away from home record in order to have a better season. This team needs to go at a minimum of 4-4 on the road to be in the mix for an NCAA birth. Richmod at the #5 spot may surprise some, but with home-and-home series games against St. Bonaventure and Fordham...chances are they improve their away record and possibly their overall record from last seasons 19 win club. If the pesky Spiders can get some quality wins outside of conference, they will have a notable resume come tournament time. This is a rock-solid Spider roster that consists of Senior forward Derrick Williams, Senior guard Cedrick Lindsay, Junior guard Kendall Anthony, and gifted Sophomore forward Alonzo Nelson-Ododa from Atlanta, Georgia. This year the University of Richmond program will be without the reliable guard Darien Brothers because of graduation, yet with a workforce of all-around players and a favorable schedule... Richmond could be one of the most improved teams in the A-10. The only question mark for this team would be guard play. The Spiders will have inexperienced guards managing the team. Moving forward, people should put their money on forward Derrick Williams to have a much improved Senior year after missing 8 conference games last year in which his teammates went a mediocre 5-4. Yes...5-4 doesn't sound bad, but who knows what could have happened in those 9 conference games. Mr. Williams might have bolstered his team to a 7-2 record throughout that 9 game stretch. Richmond should aim to go 11-5 or 10-6 in conference in order to show the tournament committee that they belong in the big dance come March. A record of 11-5 or 10-6 should place the Spiders near the #5 position in the A-10 standings. However, the loss of Darien Brothers might be too much to overcome. Richmond at the #8 position is more realistic.
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Optimistic GW at #7, Brotherless Richmond Spiders at #8.
7. George Washington Colonials- When someone
attempts to do pre-season rankings, they usually make one pick that is totally
wrong and this might be that pick for me. GW has experienced Senior big man
Isaiah Armwood leading this Colonial team, Indiana University transfer guard
Maurice Creek coming to the DC area with hopes of reviving his NCAA career and
improving the colonials, and Sophomore forward Patricio Garino returns after
his impressive Freshman season. The Colonials also return most of its role
players from last years roster. This team might come out of nowhere and come up
big in A-10 play and make a run at the NCAA Tournament. Nevertheless, from my
personal opinion people don't realize how big of a deal the loss of guard Lasan
Kromah to UCONN is. He was a great complementary piece in the backcourt to frontcourt big man Armwood. GW will definitely be missing him during the conference stretch. As well,
I personally think the injury prone Maurice Creek is not the answer to George
Washington's plans of winning a significant amount of games this year in the
A-10. Many GW fans are excited for this up coming season and they definitely
should be, but they shouldn't get too excited just yet.
8. Richmond Spiders- Last year, the Spiders went 7-1 at home and 1-7 in away games in conference play. Okay...we can all conclude that winning one game on the road in the A-10 is unacceptable. These Spiders need to improve their away from home record in order to have a better season. This team needs to go at a minimum of 4-4 on the road to be in the mix for an NCAA birth. Richmod at the #5 spot may surprise some, but with home-and-home series games against St. Bonaventure and Fordham...chances are they improve their away record and possibly their overall record from last seasons 19 win club. If the pesky Spiders can get some quality wins outside of conference, they will have a notable resume come tournament time. This is a rock-solid Spider roster that consists of Senior forward Derrick Williams, Senior guard Cedrick Lindsay, Junior guard Kendall Anthony, and gifted Sophomore forward Alonzo Nelson-Ododa from Atlanta, Georgia. This year the University of Richmond program will be without the reliable guard Darien Brothers because of graduation, yet with a workforce of all-around players and a favorable schedule... Richmond could be one of the most improved teams in the A-10. The only question mark for this team would be guard play. The Spiders will have inexperienced guards managing the team. Moving forward, people should put their money on forward Derrick Williams to have a much improved Senior year after missing 8 conference games last year in which his teammates went a mediocre 5-4. Yes...5-4 doesn't sound bad, but who knows what could have happened in those 9 conference games. Mr. Williams might have bolstered his team to a 7-2 record throughout that 9 game stretch. Richmond should aim to go 11-5 or 10-6 in conference in order to show the tournament committee that they belong in the big dance come March. A record of 11-5 or 10-6 should place the Spiders near the #5 position in the A-10 standings. However, the loss of Darien Brothers might be too much to overcome. Richmond at the #8 position is more realistic.
8. Richmond Spiders- Last year, the Spiders went 7-1 at home and 1-7 in away games in conference play. Okay...we can all conclude that winning one game on the road in the A-10 is unacceptable. These Spiders need to improve their away from home record in order to have a better season. This team needs to go at a minimum of 4-4 on the road to be in the mix for an NCAA birth. Richmod at the #5 spot may surprise some, but with home-and-home series games against St. Bonaventure and Fordham...chances are they improve their away record and possibly their overall record from last seasons 19 win club. If the pesky Spiders can get some quality wins outside of conference, they will have a notable resume come tournament time. This is a rock-solid Spider roster that consists of Senior forward Derrick Williams, Senior guard Cedrick Lindsay, Junior guard Kendall Anthony, and gifted Sophomore forward Alonzo Nelson-Ododa from Atlanta, Georgia. This year the University of Richmond program will be without the reliable guard Darien Brothers because of graduation, yet with a workforce of all-around players and a favorable schedule... Richmond could be one of the most improved teams in the A-10. The only question mark for this team would be guard play. The Spiders will have inexperienced guards managing the team. Moving forward, people should put their money on forward Derrick Williams to have a much improved Senior year after missing 8 conference games last year in which his teammates went a mediocre 5-4. Yes...5-4 doesn't sound bad, but who knows what could have happened in those 9 conference games. Mr. Williams might have bolstered his team to a 7-2 record throughout that 9 game stretch. Richmond should aim to go 11-5 or 10-6 in conference in order to show the tournament committee that they belong in the big dance come March. A record of 11-5 or 10-6 should place the Spiders near the #5 position in the A-10 standings. However, the loss of Darien Brothers might be too much to overcome. Richmond at the #8 position is more realistic.
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URI's three transfers (Biruta, Minnis, and Reischel) and ineligible big man (Onyekaba) practice all of last year with the team. The new recruits are already taking summer class and going on the team's summer exhibition trip to Europe. The team per Coach Hurley already had their first meeting (allowed due the summer trip). It will no be as if they have never played together when the season starts.
ReplyDeletePer Twitter 06-23-13
Dan Hurley @dhurley15
First team meeting with the 2013-14 squad. We are officially in PreSeason mode.
Great comments and thanks for putting up the Dan Hurley tweet, very cool and interesting. Of course I considered all those factors as you have just mentioned, but playing real college opponents is very very different than playing exhibition games in Europe, you never know how a team changes their play when the pressure is on to win games that count in conference. As i said in my article on Rhody..I might end up moving them up because I am extremely confident in Hurley's ability to coach. Additionally, if someone could get a squad to become a unit within a short period of time...it would be Hurley. We will see what happens.
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