http://www.conferenceusa.com/sports/m-ba...13aad.html



He scored a career-high 29 points Saturday against SMU, draining nine 3-pointers. The nine 3-pointers were a school record, a Moody Coliseum record, an SMU opponent record and tied the C-USA record for most 3-pointers in a conference game. His performance from the distance were the most by a C-USA player this season and tied for the second-most 3-pointers made off the bench by a Division I player this season. Richmond outscored SMU alone, 15-3 over a 2:34 stretch in the second half, making five straight 3-pointers.

Congrats to Akeem. He's really "come on" the last few games, or perhaps his minutes have increased significantly.

(02-25-2013 10:24 PM)oldtiger Wrote:  Congrats to Akeem. He's really "come on" the last few games, or perhaps his minutes have increased significantly.

Little bit of both, I see improvement in his game, seems to be more in the zone now. But, he is getting a lot more PT with Gaines and Bowden out with injuries. Even so, 9 3's in one game and out score the other team 15-3 over 2:34 period is getting it done.

Watching him against SMU was unreal. The thing about players who score almost exclusively on 3-pointers is they have a tendency to disappear. It's not like a tradition 20+ point performance where you hit some shots and drive to the basket drawing fouls.

Everyone in the building knows what Akeem is there for. The good thing is it takes him very little time and even less space to get his shot off. You can pressure him but he doesn't really seem to feel it. Short of putting someone like DJ Stephens on him you really just have to hope he is off because it is going to be hard to disrupt his shot.

(02-25-2013 10:24 PM)oldtiger Wrote:  Congrats to Akeem. He's really "come on" the last few games, or perhaps his minutes have increased significantly.

The latter. He's been killing it all year. He saved us from a loss to UNCG as early as the 3rd game with like a 15 point outburst in just a few minutes and followed up with 17 points in 19 minutes a few games later vs UNC. He had blown up in about half a dozen games already albeit in 15 minute games. Lebo found a way to keep him on the bench as our 9th man much like he kept Kemp on the bench last year even though he was one of the most productive players in CUSA. It only took two season ending injuries to finally show what Richmond really could do.

(02-25-2013 10:59 PM)TheEastisPurple Wrote:  Watching him against SMU was unreal. The thing about players who score almost exclusively on 3-pointers is they have a tendency to disappear. It's not like a tradition 20+ point performance where you hit some shots and drive to the basket drawing fouls.

Richmond is 11th in the nation in 3's made a game while only playing 17 minutes a game. He has played about half as much as most of the guys ahead of him some less than half. You wont find a more prolific 3 point shooter. Even Steph Curry and Redick didn't hit them at that kind of clip or percentage he has this year. So lets keep some perspective. Doesn't really matter if he's not driving if he's filling it up like that. Also when he's on the court even if he isn't scoring he has the defenses attention and opens it up for everyone else. He's litterly been shooting 25 footers at times and making them. I've never seen a guy stretch the defense like him.

(02-25-2013 11:13 PM)StillJonesing Wrote:  

(02-25-2013 10:59 PM)TheEastisPurple Wrote:  Watching him against SMU was unreal. The thing about players who score almost exclusively on 3-pointers is they have a tendency to disappear. It's not like a tradition 20+ point performance where you hit some shots and drive to the basket drawing fouls.

Richmond is 11th in the nation in 3's made a game while only playing 17 minutes a game. He has played about half as much as most of the guys ahead of him some less than half. You wont find a more prolific 3 point shooter. Even Steph Curry and Redick didn't hit them at that kind of clip or percentage he has this year. So lets keep some perspective. Doesn't really matter if he's not driving if he's filling it up like that. Also when he's on the court even if he isn't scoring he has the defenses attention and opens it up for everyone else. He's litterly been shooting 25 footers at times and making them. I've never seen a guy stretch the defense like him.

I'm not hating, watching him the last few games has been unbelievable. I'm with you on wondering why in the hell he was held out till basically the second half for at least the first half of the year and then still not getting much time.

It just goes against what I think of as a successful team. Usually you don't want to put up more 3's than 2s (as a team) but with someone as good as Richmond you just have to tell him to go out there and shoot it.

Still as good as he has been you have to think he is bound to have a bad game at sometime. When that happens I hope he/Lebo realize it and he doesn't put up 14 3s. You don't draw fouls on 3s. But yeah, so long as he is shooting around 50% have at it. He single handedly won the SMU game for us.

Shooting 32% from three point land is as good as shooting 50% from anywhere else. Just keep that in mind. He doesn't even have to shoot 45% to still be a big asset. Also he will command defenses attention regardless at this point they have to respect him out to NBA range, and that opens it up for others.

(02-25-2013 11:43 PM)StillJonesing Wrote:  Shooting 32% from three point land is as good as shooting 50% from anywhere else. Just keep that in mind. He doesn't even have to shoot 45% to still be a big asset. Also he will command defenses attention regardless at this point they have to respect him out to NBA range, and that opens it up for others.

Very true.

Never understood why Lebo had him riding pine as much as he did. Dude was lights out at URI for the most part, and we recruited him in HS for that exact reason. Maybe he was in some sort of doghouse with the coaches? Who knows.

Maybe he does not practice hard or well.

Regardless, congrats to Richmond, and I'm glad he's getting more minutes now!

Maybe he has a bad attitude or doesn't like to play defense. There's a lot that goes on in practices that most don't know about.

Or maybe Lebo's rotations have been just that bad. He had Kemp on the bench half the game last year too when he was one of the most productive players when he was playing. Richmond played more minutes on a 27 win NIT final 4 as a freshman and saved us in game 3 this year so it's not like he had a lot to prove in practice over the guys that were getting the minutes. It was clear what he could do very early on. If he had a bad attitude I don't blame the guy when he's the 9th man off the bench.

Maybe Lebo should just be canned then...