Some quick hitters on an offseason Thursday:
Draft Day Cometh: VCU’s Troy Daniels may or may not hope to hear his name called in tonight’s NBA Draft. Daniels has worked out with a number of teams, reportedly performing well in his workouts. The idea of hearing your named called in the NBA Draft is a dream of every young baller, but Daniels may actually benefit more by not hearing his named called tonight. Basically, only first round draftees are guaranteed a roster spot, so going the evening without the temporary thrill of hearing his name would allow Troy the option of finding the best team for him. For what it’s worth, the Indiana Pacers contacted me, yes me, to talk Troy Daniels. Granted, they never followed through with the actual phone call, thus ending my career as an NBA scout before they ever got off the ground, but the fact that they even reached out to this Rams blogger makes me think there is a MAJOR interest in Indiana. My chips are on the Pacers as Troy’s best potential landing spot.
Big East staying at 10?: VCU’s named has been tossed around in a number of realignment scenarios, including as a new addition to the new-look Big East. With the hiring of new Big East commissioner, Val Ackerman, ESPN’s Andy Katz tweeted, “New Big East commish Val Ackerman said she likes 10. No discussion of expansion at all. Big East at 10.” Katz’s paraphrasing of her actual quote however was a bit misleading. What Ackerman actually said was, “Right now, we love 10. Ten is a great number. That’s what we have, and we have no immediate plans to go beyond it. To be honest, we have so much on our plate right now, expansion isn’t even on the radar screen with all of the other things we have to do to get the conference up and running.” Spin that how you will, but if you’re a VCU fan in the pro Big East crowd, you have to like Ackerman’s actual words a bit more than Katz’s game of telephone.
Graham in the Sweet 16: Rising junior, Treveon Graham, has advanced as one of the 16 finalists for this year’s Team USA World University Games team. Last year’s leading scorer for the Rams hopes to avoid the final four-man cut to make the final roster of the Bob McKillop coached team. Graham averaged 15.1 points and 5.8 rebounds in 27.6 minutes for the Rams last season. It’s the most points scored by a sophomore on Broad St. since Domonic Jones averaged 16.1 points in 34.8 minutes during the 2001-2002 season.
No word on practice facility: This one makes the post as a favor to my dad, who basically calls me about this every day (as if I actually know). VCU recently announced two major gifts to go toward the construction of the proposed state of the art practice facility that will be built adjacent to the West side of the Siegel Center, a $3 million contribution by MeadWestvaco followed by a $4 million gift from HDL Inc — the proposed facility will be in the $14-$16 range. The plan had been for construction to begin late spring or early summer, a range we are quickly drifting out of as no additional funding has been announced. So on behalf of my dad…any updates, VCU? And while we’re on the subject, here’s the link to help push that project along: http://vcuathletics.com/ramathleticfund
