How are you feeling right now about the team and program?

I’ll give Martelli a solid 2 years before determining if the hire was bad. But I do have some significant concerns:

1-all those tough OOC games are supposed to prepare us for the tough conference slate.I’ve not seen any signs of “learning” from those losses and application.
2-In martelli’s postgame at Mason he said something to the effect of, “defense being #1 priority” if that is a #1 priority defensive effort we are in bigger trouble than we think going forward.
3-He wants us to be the fastest offense in the country. At Mason after the first 12 minutes we were walking the ball up the court. This continued the entire 2nd half. Which would be OK if we had a half court offense but if we do I can’t define it.
4-the plays coming out of timeouts, and inbounds plays have been horrible. We dribble way too much, rarely make the extra pass and have serious difficulty getting the ball in let alone run a good play to score the ball.
5-I have never seen a worse game plan for switches where you don't quickly adjust back or give a guard covering a big some help. Or even a more stringent hedge to avoid an open three or back cut before you recover.
6- yeah we beat Bonnie’s but they just lost to UR and Fordam. If something doesn’t change quickly we may find ourselves with a .500 in conference record and without a bye in A10.

Hate being a debbie downer and try not to succumb to the negativity but its starting to get hard given what is being delivered on the floor by this coaching staff and players.

We are VCU and this is unacceptable and requires action and change.
 
88RAM said:
A bit worried now.

Would grade Martelli at C+ right now. Nice guy but he seems to lack intensity and the team just doesn't have a great identity right now. The losses to St. Louis and GMU are concerning...winnable games that slip through your hands.
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Coaching has been an F, unless we want to give credit for retaining/attracting some talent.

I saw terrible rotation discipline today, we seem ok allowing the opposition to switch us into matchups they want. We rarely block out and we just let opponent’s bigs set up comfortably on the block.

Offence would be anemic if not for T Hill. Evans is a clear favoritism starter—has some nice features but so inconsistent and soft on the interior.

To me it was telling after Bona that the short rotation was not “the plan”—to me that is an embarassing admission for a coach to make, even if true. Players are regressing which is 100% on the coaches.

Frankly, the product is hard to watch and I’ve passed on more games this season than ever before. I want to be wrong on this and I hope they turn it around, but this staff doesn’t seem to have a plan or control of the team.
 
Bluey said:
Coaching has been an F, unless we want to give credit for retaining/attracting some talent.

I saw terrible rotation discipline today, we seem ok allowing the opposition to switch us into matchups they want. We rarely block out and we just let opponent’s bigs set up comfortably on the block.

Offence would be anemic if not for T Hill. Evans is a clear favoritism starter—has some nice features but so inconsistent and soft on the interior.

To me it was telling after Bona that the short rotation was not “the plan”—to me that is an embarassing admission for a coach to make, even if true. Players are regressing which is 100% on the coaches.

Frankly, the product is hard to watch and I’ve passed on more games this season than ever before. I want to be wrong on this and I hope they turn it around, but this staff doesn’t seem to have a plan or control of the team.
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The guy is 17 games into his coaching career at VCU. He does not have any bad losses at this point like other VCU coaches had. Cut him some slack! You posters are acting like he's in his 5th year of coaching at VCU. VCU has probably had the toughest A-10 schedule so far than any other A-10 team, and they are 2-2. Their only loss at home is to arguably the best team in the A-10 and VCU is 1-1 on the road. The next 6 games should be wins, which would put VCU at 17-6 overall and 8-2 in the A-10. How about letting the season play out. If they struggle in the next 6 games, then you can sound the alarms. The season is not over. Nor is A-10 conference play. VCU still has 14 regular season A-10 games to play. And so do the other A-10 schools. VCU still gets a shot at SLU and fmason has to come to the Stu. And then there's the H/H with Dayton. Lots of basketball yet to be played.
 
Wolfpack Ram said:
The guy is 17 games into his coaching career at VCU. He does not have any bad losses at this point like other VCU coaches had. Cut him some slack! You posters are acting like he's in his 5th year of coaching at VCU. VCU has probably had the toughest A-10 schedule so far than any other A-10 team, and they are 2-2. Their only loss at home is to arguably the best team in the A-10 and VCU is 1-1 on the road. The next 6 games should be wins, which would put VCU at 17-6 overall and 8-2 in the A-10. How about letting the season play out. If they struggle in the next 6 games, then you can sound the alarms. The season is not over. Nor is A-10 conference play. VCU still has 14 regular season A-10 games to play. And so do the other A-10 schools. VCU still gets a shot at SLU and fmason has to come to the Stu. And then there's the H/H with Dayton. Lots of basketball yet to be played.
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Watching the product on the floor through 17 games, I give it an F based on what I saw today and the last several games. No slack given for all the excuses—as it pertains to coaching the one reasonable expectation for the product on the floor is “progress” and we are not seeing it, we are seeing the opposite.

Can the grade change? Absolutely, just starting with progress would make a big difference.
 
Bluey said:
Watching the product on the floor through 17 games, I give it an F based on what I saw today and the last several games. No slack given for all the excuses—as it pertains to coaching the one reasonable expectation for the product on the floor is “progress” and we are not seeing it, we are seeing the opposite.

Can the grade change? Absolutely, just starting with progress would make a big difference.
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Ok, then explain in detail your "F" score and identify which games you consider "last several games". Are you talking A-10 play, which includes two of the top four teams in the A-10?
 
Wolfpack Ram said:
Ok, then explain in detail your "F" score and identify which games you consider "last several games". Are you talking A-10 play, which includes two of the top four teams in the A-10?
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Going back since returning from Atlantis. This team has regressed. Win or Lose, the discussions on the defense and offensive inconsistencies have steadily intensified. Yes, playing better teams reveals those issues in a brighter light, but the lack of progress is pretty apparent. When the same issues arise over and over, that is a coaching matter full stop. To date, i see it as an F, but it can change
 
Wolfpack Ram said:
Ok, then explain in detail your "F" score and identify which games you consider "last several games". Are you talking A-10 play, which includes two of the top four teams in the A-10?
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F is probably a bit much due to emotion, but he did explain in his post. Did you read it? Or did you emotionally respond :)

I really believe his first point is the biggest reason for the results. SLU exposed us. GMU just copied them. They showed we have no discipline on rotation and switching. If we don't fix this, even the bottom third of the a10 will look like tourney teams against us.
 
Wolfpack Ram said:
Ok, then explain in detail your "F" score and identify which games you consider "last several games". Are you talking A-10 play, which includes two of the top four teams in the A-10?
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I haven't seen as many games as you in person. This is my first one in 2 years.

My feeling is that the playing rotation has a lot of guys have hit a mid season wall and now struggling to sustain a physical focused play for 40 minutes.

Jennings, Lewis, Nowell, Hill, Belle etc etc have vastly expanded roles from previous roles have never played starter minutes for entire season. Its one thing to have one or two players in that position but not four or five.

It takes time to work thru the wall
 
Wolfpack Ram said:
The guy is 17 games into his coaching career at VCU. He does not have any bad losses at this point like other VCU coaches had. Cut him some slack! You posters are acting like he's in his 5th year of coaching at VCU. VCU has probably had the toughest A-10 schedule so far than any other A-10 team, and they are 2-2. Their only loss at home is to arguably the best team in the A-10 and VCU is 1-1 on the road. The next 6 games should be wins, which would put VCU at 17-6 overall and 8-2 in the A-10. How about letting the season play out. If they struggle in the next 6 games, then you can sound the alarms. The season is not over. Nor is A-10 conference play. VCU still has 14 regular season A-10 games to play. And so do the other A-10 schools. VCU still gets a shot at SLU and fmason has to come to the Stu. And then there's the H/H with Dayton. Lots of basketball yet to be played.
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I feel like people's demands for instant results have gotten worse with NIL.
 
We are following the path of every VCU team regardless of Coach.

We come out and look scrappy against top 50 teams, we think we're close to being really good but can't close them out, we lament our inability to win the big one and prepare to dominate the A10. Then we have regression, the defense can't stop anybody (Remember when GW beat us at home with Odom). We all goes this is the end, we suck again, fire whoever. Then somewhere along the ride we start finding our way, get a little streak going, we start saying this team reminds me of (insert). We win the conference or finish near the top and all of a sudden our talent meets giving af in the conference tourney, we either win and feel good until we suck again in the NCAA or lose and look strong in the NIT.
 
theghostofwiltchamberlain said:
We are following the path of every VCU team regardless of Coach.

We come out and look scrappy against top 50 teams, we think we're close to being really good but can't close them out, we lament our inability to win the big one and prepare to dominate the A10. Then we have regression, the defense can't stop anybody (Remember when GW beat us at home with Odom). We all goes this is the end, we suck again, fire whoever. Then somewhere along the ride we start finding our way, get a little streak going, we start saying this team reminds me of (insert). We win the conference or finish near the top and all of a sudden our talent meets giving af in the conference tourney, we either win and feel good until we suck again in the NCAA or lose and look strong in the NIT.
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EXACTLY. Wash, Rinse, Repeat!
 
I only saw the last 16 minutes of SLU game. I only remember one shot (a 3 that contributed to the final margin in the last minute) that was taken and made from outside the lane. Yes there were a couple blocks and knock aways. If that didn’t happen, it was a dunk or layup. Coach identified it in the post game.

I did not see today’s game, but tuned in to hear post game. All the commentators talked about was GMU’s points in the paint.

Either the Jimmies and Joes are incapable or the coach doesn’t know how to fix.
 
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