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

Not Gonna lie.... I wish I knew what the ADs were thinking in regards to this situation.

Obviously last year unless OB stepped down herself, nothing was going to happen because of the MBB Coaching change.... ok fine.

But what about this year?

Anyone who has watched any of the games this year so far.... knows we are lucky to even have 3 wins at this point. We had to come from behind to beat both UMES & Maine. We made Maine look like UConn in the first half against us. Against Howard, we tried everything in our power to blow that game.

Villanova.... we got blown out. It was was like coach did not have the team prepared or they just didnt show up at all.

We put up a good fight against Texas A&M.... but then against Colorado we just couldn't get anything going until it was way too late.... and UT-Arlington beat the snot out of us.

And then we face La Salle.... the team that beat us in the reg season finale last year.... and came from behind to beat us in the A10 tourney in OB's first game back. Well last night after the first quarter... it was La Salle who controlled the game all game again.

And we still gotta play JMU (this sunday) as well as, Temple, UGA & Penn state in OOC play. None of those games will be easy & we will clearly be the under dog in at least 3 if not all 4 of those games.


And who knows what we'll do in conference play.... my bet is a team like Richmond will have their way with us again for sure.

This March will be 5 years since we won the A10 Tournament. Since winning the A10 Tournament VCU is 1-4 in the A10 Tournament and has 1 postseason win (WNIT 2022), along with 2 seasons of missing the postseason entirely.

If we don't get our act together, don't win at least 1 or 2 A10 Tournament games, and miss out completely or go winless in the postseason again.... are we going to do anything to change this?

VCU wants their money, and wants to keep bumping the prices for Womens games & start charging for floor seats that largely go unused EVERY GAME..... yet the results are not there to warrant it.
 
I80
RowdyPkunk said:
Not Gonna lie.... I wish I knew what the ADs were thinking in regards to this situation.

Obviously last year unless OB stepped down herself, nothing was going to happen because of the MBB Coaching change.... ok fine.

But what about this year?

Anyone who has watched any of the games this year so far.... knows we are lucky to even have 3 wins at this point. We had to come from behind to beat both UMES & Maine. We made Maine look like UConn in the first half against us. Against Howard, we tried everything in our power to blow that game.

Villanova.... we got blown out. It was was like coach did not have the team prepared or they just didnt show up at all.

We put up a good fight against Texas A&M.... but then against Colorado we just couldn't get anything going until it was way too late.... and UT-Arlington beat the snot out of us.

And then we face La Salle.... the team that beat us in the reg season finale last year.... and came from behind to beat us in the A10 tourney in OB's first game back. Well last night after the first quarter... it was La Salle who controlled the game all game again.

And we still gotta play JMU (this sunday) as well as, Temple, UGA & Penn state in OOC play. None of those games will be easy & we will clearly be the under dog in at least 3 if not all 4 of those games.


And who knows what we'll do in conference play.... my bet is a team like Richmond will have their way with us again for sure.

This March will be 5 years since we won the A10 Tournament. Since winning the A10 Tournament VCU is 1-4 in the A10 Tournament and has 1 postseason win (WNIT 2022), along with 2 seasons of missing the postseason entirely.

If we don't get our act together, don't win at least 1 or 2 A10 Tournament games, and miss out completely or go winless in the postseason again.... are we going to do anything to change this?

VCU wants their money, and wants to keep bumping the prices for Womens games & start charging for floor seats that largely go unused EVERY GAME..... yet the results are not there to warrant it.
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You would certainly know better than I but from my perspective her head has not been in the program for a couple of years now. It's obvious there is a lack of player development, no ball security, poor shooting percentages, lack of local recruiting etc. Most of these issues are systemic. The one thing they did do pretty darn good was play defense and now that's questionable.
Time for a change!
 
RowdyPkunk said:
Not Gonna lie.... I wish I knew what the ADs were thinking in regards to this situation.

Obviously last year unless OB stepped down herself, nothing was going to happen because of the MBB Coaching change.... ok fine.

But what about this year?

Anyone who has watched any of the games this year so far.... knows we are lucky to even have 3 wins at this point. We had to come from behind to beat both UMES & Maine. We made Maine look like UConn in the first half against us. Against Howard, we tried everything in our power to blow that game.

Villanova.... we got blown out. It was was like coach did not have the team prepared or they just didnt show up at all.

We put up a good fight against Texas A&M.... but then against Colorado we just couldn't get anything going until it was way too late.... and UT-Arlington beat the snot out of us.

And then we face La Salle.... the team that beat us in the reg season finale last year.... and came from behind to beat us in the A10 tourney in OB's first game back. Well last night after the first quarter... it was La Salle who controlled the game all game again.

And we still gotta play JMU (this sunday) as well as, Temple, UGA & Penn state in OOC play. None of those games will be easy & we will clearly be the under dog in at least 3 if not all 4 of those games.


And who knows what we'll do in conference play.... my bet is a team like Richmond will have their way with us again for sure.

This March will be 5 years since we won the A10 Tournament. Since winning the A10 Tournament VCU is 1-4 in the A10 Tournament and has 1 postseason win (WNIT 2022), along with 2 seasons of missing the postseason entirely.

If we don't get our act together, don't win at least 1 or 2 A10 Tournament games, and miss out completely or go winless in the postseason again.... are we going to do anything to change this?

VCU wants their money, and wants to keep bumping the prices for Womens games & start charging for floor seats that largely go unused EVERY GAME..... yet the results are not there to warrant it.
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I haven't seen Mary Ann Asare in the box score for a few games. Is she hurt now?
 
Ramlove81 said:
I haven't seen Mary Ann Asare in the box score for a few games. Is she hurt now?
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Yup. I don't know anything official... other than she got hurt in the Colorado game right before thanksgiving.

I think I heard on the espn+ broadcast on one of the more recent games that she was "Day to Day"..... but has not played since the Colorado game on Nov 24
 
RowdyPkunk said:
Yup. I don't know anything official... other than she got hurt in the Colorado game right before thanksgiving.

I think I heard on the espn+ broadcast on one of the more recent games that she was "Day to Day"..... but has not played since the Colorado game on Nov 24
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Good news is maybe some other players will get some minutes and have a chance to develop, bad news is we were already struggling with her. Tough loss for the team.

Admittedly I've only watched about 10 minutes this season, but I look at our roster and there is talent there (particularly international players). There just doesn't appear to be a consistent plan of how to win games. That's one of the reasons I've only managed to watch 10 minutes (trying to watch more to be fair to the players though).
 
Ramlove81 said:
Good news is maybe some other players will get some minutes and have a chance to develop, bad news is we were already struggling with her. Tough loss for the team.

Admittedly I've only watched about 10 minutes this season, but I look at our roster and there is talent there (particularly international players). There just doesn't appear to be a consistent plan of how to win games. That's one of the reasons I've only managed to watch 10 minutes (trying to watch more to be fair to the players though).
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Outside of Mary-Anna.... Here are the players that I believe have talent based on what I've seen so far

Cyriah Griffin (Soph)
Daija Preston (Fresh)
Patricia Augustin (Fresh)
Lucia Sotelo (Jr.)..... when OB & co. actually use her properly she can be really good. The problem is if she misses 1 shot or turns the ball over once... they stop going to her. But the times they keep going to her, she gets her confidence & really shines for us.
Katarina Knezevic (Jr)..... started the year injured but has been really good most games since she was activated

Ty Williams (R- Sr.)... has had a couple decent games she appears to be finding a little bit of a groove.... but need to see more.
Ann Zachariah (R-Jr.)..... she shown glimpses but I need to see more

Lucy Ghaifan (jr) has had a couple good games, decent bench piece to give people breathers, but not a starter at the A10 level imo.

Isabel Whitelaw (so) Why does coach not utilize her more? She can def shoot the ball, has some height & range..... LET HER PLAY

Makennah White (Sr)- started of the year hurt, hasn't played much.... to me shes a complete unknown on our team.

The rest of them.... Tanya, Hawa, Laia.... not A10 level talent imo. Laia came outta HS WAY TO EARLY.

Thats juts my opinion.... but I think the biggest issue is coaching.
 
VCU is 3-7 on the season so far.... 0-1 in conference play.

O'boyle has been at the helm since 2014... not counting the 9 games O'Boyle did not coach last season to giving birth (VCU went 2-7 in those games).....

VCU is 184-157 under OB
99-72 in conference play
12-10 in the A10 Tournament (1 conference championship)
2-5 in Post season (5 seasons where we missed the post season altogether, plus 1 Covid season where there was no postseason)

0-3 in the last 3 A-10 Tournaments, including 2024 where we were the #2 seed.... and we lost in the first game of the A10 Tournament to the 10 seed.


This season currently is season #12 under O'Boyle.... of the 11 seasons prior to the current one... only 5 of them imo would be considered good seasons as a whole.

Season #2- we went 23-10, made our first trip to the conf semifinals (lost to Jonquel Jones & GW)... but overall that was a good season

Season #'s 5, 6 & 7 were good seasons as we went a combined 60-33, 36-11 in the A10... made 3 straight A-10 Finals & won the A10 in 2021.

And then season #10.... 2024 where we went 24-10, 15-3 in conf play...... tho we lost in the first game in the A10 Tournament to the 10 seed.

If you take out those 5 seasons.... OB is a combined: 77-104 (including this season), 38-52 in conference play.


VCU WBB is venturing in to Michael Shafer (former UR WBB coach) or Chris Mooney (current MBB coach) territory.

Michael Shafer was the previous HC for UR from 2005 until 2019..... during that time he went 223-214 (103-107 in A10 play) with 6 WNIT appearances. They were the definition of Mediocrity and finally they had to make a change.... and look where UR WBB is now.

Well guess what..... VCU WBB is pretty much in the same boat at this point. We need a change sooner rather than later.
 
VCU Women's Basketball needs a program builder. OB is obviously not that. The issues that plague the program are systemic and unlikely to change under her leadership or lack thereof. These include lack of stability, lack of player development, inability to value the ball, issues with domestic recruiting, and shooting percentages. It goes on and on. The one thing the staff was pretty good at, defense, now appears a thing of the past as well.
 
RowdyPkunk said:
Outside of Mary-Anna.... Here are the players that I believe have talent based on what I've seen so far

Cyriah Griffin (Soph)
Daija Preston (Fresh)
Patricia Augustin (Fresh)
Lucia Sotelo (Jr.)..... when OB & co. actually use her properly she can be really good. The problem is if she misses 1 shot or turns the ball over once... they stop going to her. But the times they keep going to her, she gets her confidence & really shines for us.
Katarina Knezevic (Jr)..... started the year injured but has been really good most games since she was activated

Ty Williams (R- Sr.)... has had a couple decent games she appears to be finding a little bit of a groove.... but need to see more.
Ann Zachariah (R-Jr.)..... she shown glimpses but I need to see more

Lucy Ghaifan (jr) has had a couple good games, decent bench piece to give people breathers, but not a starter at the A10 level imo.

Isabel Whitelaw (so) Why does coach not utilize her more? She can def shoot the ball, has some height & range..... LET HER PLAY

Makennah White (Sr)- started of the year hurt, hasn't played much.... to me shes a complete unknown on our team.

The rest of them.... Tanya, Hawa, Laia.... not A10 level talent imo. Laia came outta HS WAY TO EARLY.

Thats juts my opinion.... but I think the biggest issue is coaching.
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Yeah, like I said, there doesn't seem to be a real plan of how to win games. Yes, that's coaching!

I just watched as much of the replay of the Penn St. game as I could stand. I could really get behind the players on this team, but... it is so frustrating to watch.
Yeah, Sotelo is a good player, but she got what 6 minutes vs. Penn St., holy donkey poop, she could have made a difference in this game. I like Knezevic a lot, #12 looked pretty good, don't know her name though.
We would be playing well, at least going basket for basket with them, then the players that were helping us do that were taken out, not to be seen again until we were too far behind for it to matter. It's been that way ever since O'Boyle got here really. Her player rotations are just painful to watch.
 
Ramlove81 said:
Yeah, like I said, there doesn't seem to be a real plan of how to win games. Yes, that's coaching!
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anyone know when her contract expires - what I read is she got a 2-year extension to her original contract in 2021 through 25-26 season

she had a good year a few years back and don't see any articles talking about an additional extension at that time (usually coaches strike extension deals after good seasons )
 
Ramlove81 said:
Yeah, like I said, there doesn't seem to be a real plan of how to win games. Yes, that's coaching!

I just watched as much of the replay of the Penn St. game as I could stand. I could really get behind the players on this team, but... it is so frustrating to watch.
Yeah, Sotelo is a good player, but she got what 6 minutes vs. Penn St., holy donkey poop, she could have made a difference in this game. I like Knezevic a lot, #12 looked pretty good, don't know her name though.
We would be playing well, at least going basket for basket with them, then the players that were helping us do that were taken out, not to be seen again until we were too far behind for it to matter. It's been that way ever since O'Boyle got here really. Her player rotations are just painful to watch.
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Yup it has been that way since day one. I remember coming into her first year I was excited to see what we would do after the finish to the previous year under Stollings ended where we almost upset #1 Dayton in the A10 tournament at the coliseum. (Still livid about the officiating that game)

But we had a GREAT and aggressive Young core of players…. Isis Thorpe, Keira Robinson, Jeezy Finney-Smith, Ashlee Mitchell, Chad Clay, and Ashley Pegram among others….. and from day one she really messed everything up in terms of roster management.

The last year under Stollings, Keira Isis and Jeezy were all consistent deep threats from 3 pt range. She told 2 of the 2 to stop shooting 3s and forced them to change how they played. Jeezy lost a lot of her playing time and ended up transferring home to play for Hampton to finish out her career.

Shes never been good at developing post players, nor has she ever been good at building a players confidence or bringing out the best in them. Matter of fact a lot of players have ended up doing better once they left.

See Elze from last year…. See Kseniya from 2021-22.

See Timaya Lewis Eutsey at Marshall, Alexis Black at Fordham… the list goes on.

share the ball said:
anyone know when her contract expires - what I read is she got a 2-year extension to her original contract in 2021 through 25-26 season

she had a good year a few years back and don't see any articles talking about an additional extension at that time (usually coaches strike extension deals after good seasons )
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The contract ends after this season unless they add more time which would be…. Something (putting it nicely) if they did.
 
Where the He11 do I even start?????

After starting the year 3-1 (albeit a very shaky 3-1 start that could easily been 0-4).... we are now 4-11 (0-3 in the A10) after losing 10 out of our last 11 games.... currently dead last in the A10 (tied for last in the A10 with Loyola-Chicago, Fordham & Duquesne).

This is not the first time we've had a streak like this....
2024-25 season: From January 25th to the end of the season... we lost 9 out of 11 games.

2022-23 season.... we started off the year losing 8 of our first 11 games..... then after winning 4 out of 7 games.... we lose 8 straight to end the season.

Yesterday we scored single digit points in 2 different quarters (1st & 3rd). The first quarter... the only person who scored was Mary-Anna... who scored all 8 of our first quarter points.

I'm sorry but single digit quarters are unacceptable.... and we did it twice in 1 game!!!!!

Also.... wtf did we do differently in the 4th quarter..... that we outscored our entire game output up to that point? We scored 30 points in the 4th..... we scored 28 in the first 3 quarters combined!


There is talent on this team... I've seen better games out of Knezevic (#34), Preston (#8), Augustin (#12)..... I've seen Sotelo had breakout games, I've seen Cyriah Griffin had strong performances...... I saw Tkachenko (#14) do her darndest to keep us in the game against Penn State...... but where were they yesterday?

Yesterday, we just kept chucking up shots with 20 on the shot clock..... why? Yesterday we just kept standing their dribbling with the ball until the official started counting cause a defender was on us & we weren't moving on offense.

This is not an attack on any player..... the talent potential is there.... as we saw in the 4th quarter yesterday..... but it was WAY TOO LITTLE..... WAY TOO LATE.

This is an obvious coaching issue. And I'll be honest.... while I don't think it will happen..... the way we've been playing..... I could honestly see us going winless in the A10 this year.
 
RowdyPkunk said:
Where the He11 do I even start?????

After starting the year 3-1 (albeit a very shaky 3-1 start that could easily been 0-4).... we are now 4-11 (0-3 in the A10) after losing 10 out of our last 11 games.... currently dead last in the A10 (tied for last in the A10 with Loyola-Chicago, Fordham & Duquesne).

This is not the first time we've had a streak like this....
2024-25 season: From January 25th to the end of the season... we lost 9 out of 11 games.

2022-23 season.... we started off the year losing 8 of our first 11 games..... then after winning 4 out of 7 games.... we lose 8 straight to end the season.

Yesterday we scored single digit points in 2 different quarters (1st & 3rd). The first quarter... the only person who scored was Mary-Anna... who scored all 8 of our first quarter points.

I'm sorry but single digit quarters are unacceptable.... and we did it twice in 1 game!!!!!

Also.... wtf did we do differently in the 4th quarter..... that we outscored our entire game output up to that point? We scored 30 points in the 4th..... we scored 28 in the first 3 quarters combined!


There is talent on this team... I've seen better games out of Knezevic (#34), Preston (#8), Augustin (#12)..... I've seen Sotelo had breakout games, I've seen Cyriah Griffin had strong performances...... I saw Tkachenko (#14) do her darndest to keep us in the game against Penn State...... but where were they yesterday?

Yesterday, we just kept chucking up shots with 20 on the shot clock..... why? Yesterday we just kept standing their dribbling with the ball until the official started counting cause a defender was on us & we weren't moving on offense.

This is not an attack on any player..... the talent potential is there.... as we saw in the 4th quarter yesterday..... but it was WAY TOO LITTLE..... WAY TOO LATE.

This is an obvious coaching issue. And I'll be honest.... while I don't think it will happen..... the way we've been playing..... I could honestly see us going winless in the A10 this year.
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thanks for the update and no doubt we will be in a coach search in a few months - I recognize how much you support our women's team so I know it is painful for you

I don't think we will be shut out of the wins column given the bottom of the a10 is not very talented and you are right their is plenty of talent with the Rams that we should not be on a 1-10 streak

might make sense to announce her contract will not be extended after it expires this season and start the process now if Ed M hasn't already lined up the next HC
 
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