Richmond Reflections From The Rind
TFG: We thought before the season that this team has a few guys capable of completely taking over games, and we saw just that Tuesday night. Onuaku was the first to establish himself with some thunderous jams in the early going. I wouldn’t want to be a backboard in a Big East arena, because those things really started to give. It’s fun to think about the idea of AO becoming the first SU player to both shatter a backboard AND bring the entire structure down in his career (hey, a guy can dream). One of the most frustrating things I notice when watching basketball, whether I’m rooting for the team or not, is seeing big guys go soft when they’re right under the basket, opting for layups off the glass instead of throwing it down. It’s great to see AO assert himself in dominant fashion, even converting a three-point play on a dunk. In the second half, AO seemed to take a backseat to the guards.
The way Devendorf completely took control of the game to start the second half was amazing. Eleven points in a row, and then he assisted Arinze on a dunk. SU looked very lethargic in the last eight minutes of the first half, and then someone just flipped the switch. Judging by the postgame quotes on suathletics.com, I think it was Boeheim. However, I won’t soon forget that Devo turned the ball over 7 times and had a case of happy feet yet again. It’ll be interesting to see how this unfortunate harassment investigation affects him as the various judicial processes run their courses.
Of course, Jonny was outstanding throughout, but some of his missed free throws toward the end had mr edging closer to the end of my seat than I would’ve liked. When the Spiders cut the Orange lead late, from 9 points to 4 in a span of one minute, and Flynn missed a couple free throws, I got flashbacks to last season. In Flynn, SU has another guy who can play 5-6 inches taller than he really is. The way he drove through traffic, especially on two of his dunk attempts really had me in awe, despite not converting them.
Harris had a quiet game by his standards. I would be disappointed that SU didn’t look his way more often, but I understand that at the time, they had to go with the hot hands of Flynn and Devo.
Ongenaet was Ongenaet, hustling on loose balls and on the glass, but I was surprised to look at the box score and see that he led the team in rebounds.
After a career game against LeMoyne, Andy was ice cold, going 0-7 from the field, including 0-5 from beyond the arc. I remember him going through hot and cold streaks in his sophomore season, so we may never know what to expect from him in any given game.
Defensively, the switch to man defense in the second half paid off tremendously, as Richmond’s threes suddenly stopped falling (1-12 in the second half vs. 7-12 in the first half). I still think some guys took plays off and got lazy once they went up by 11, so I’m still looking for a game where they put it all together on both ends. It’s still early, but at the same time I hope I’m not asking too much. I also hope the coaching staff brings up the fact that Oakland beat Oregon recently. This team needs motivation and with the tough big-name opponents coming next week, they can’t afford to look past the less reputable programs.
LVO: I think what really stood out for me was the lack of a rotation, especially in the second half. Flynn played 39 minutes! Where was the rest! He had moments where he just was not sharp and I thought he took the game on himself too much during the last 10 minutes. I seriously thought he would defer his offense, but he seemed to do just the opposite. I remember a sequence where he took the ball to the hoop, missed, got the rebound and instead of taking it back out and burning some more clock, he went ahead and tried to score on the put back! He has to have better awareness than he showed there. He also appeared to be gassed near the end which is why he probably missed those two late free throws. I will say I was impressed with his midrange bank shot that he created for himself. Nice to see that in his arsenal.
AO was beastly and should have scored 30 points, but we forgot about him after he started 5-5 in the early going. His throwdown off a miss late was a thing a beauty. He flung a Richmond defender off of him like a piece of lint. We can’t go through huge stretches without feeding the big fella. He is a load for even the best interior players.
Still JB went hard with his experienced guys. AO logged 30 minutes, Rick only 9. We only saw 8 guys see the floor. Kris Joseph continues to impress in my opinion. He had 4 boards in just 12 minutes and had a nice tip in. He seems to know his place in the offense. Paul seemed to have his minutes taken directly by Rautins. I think it may be too early to look for trends so I’ll try and not get too worried about how JB parceled out playing time. But it does seem like it will be hard for Mookie to see any significant playing time going forward.
I knew Richmond wasn’t going to shoot 7-11 from 3 in the second half. Kudos to the team for locking down on D. The man-to-man looked more active than the zone and there was really no inside threat for Richmond.
Going forward, I do have concerns about how we will play against bigger teams. We look much more perimeter-oriented, especially during key situations. I hope we don’t become too reliant on one on one penetration. The kickouts to Rautins and Devo haven’t worked well yet because neither is shooting well from beyond the arc. The good news is that the looks are there. When they start making them, this team could be scary offensively.
TFG: I agree that as long as they continue to get the open looks, they’re going to fall eventually. If Jonny keeps trying to do too much on offense, the staff will have to hammer the message home that there are tons more options at his disposal this year than there were last year. I remember reading some quotes saying that Flynn knew he had to pace himself last year because he was one of very few sources of offensive production. So why go all-out this year when there are so many more weapons? This is one of those “good” problems you hear about every so often in sports, but it’s still a problem if it continues. I think we’ll know more by Tuesday night.
