Last night Ram fans got their first look at this year's edition of the black and gold against an actual other team and while St. Mary's offered little in terms of competition, the matchup did give us a little insight as to what this year's Rams might look like. VCU torched the DIII opponent, 102-44, which, is hard to really find ANYTHING wrong with, but if you know me, you know I'm gonna try...so let's take out the red pen and do some grading!
Joe Bamisile: A+
The VCU grad senior begins is second season as a Ram and looked to be in a completely different league than his opponent, effortlessly dropping 26 points in just under 19 minutes on 10-12 shooting. The Chesterfield native was 6-8 from range and a perfect 4-4 inside the arc. His length and athleticism looked in a different world than St. Mary's and was an exciting reminder of just how explosive he can be. Bamisile plays with a joy (and lack of fear) that is just refreshing to watch. I think had he started his career at VCU he'd be thought of as one of the greats, but instead he'll have the potential to put together a great final season instead.
Overall guard play: A
Watching the game and seeing Bamisile's success, I couldn't help but wonder how badly the explosive Zeb Jackson would have torched St. Mary's, but just the same, VCU's VERY deep stable of guards showed how much firepower this Rams team will have. The black and gold were a guard-led team this past season with Jackson, Bamisile and Max Shulga, but have added a very promising freshman pair in Terrence Hill (13 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists last night) and Brandon Jennings, brought in a super talented transfer in Phillip Russell (10 points on 50% shooting and a team high +42 box plus/minus) and have an explosive shooter in Fats Billups. It appears on paper as deep and talented of a guard collection as I can EVER remember on a VCU team and arguably the most offensively skilled.
Frontcourt: C+
I think this is the biggest area for improvement on this year's team. Christian Fermin posted a solid 9-point (3-5 shooting), 6-rebound performance in just under 17 minutes of action, but overall against a team so small, I expected a bit more dominance from the front court. Freshman Luke Bamgboye and sophomore Michael Belle have huge motors and played extremely hard, but went a combined 2-8 against an extremely undersized St. Mary's frontcourt. Jack Clark looked super promising at the power forward position, posting a 10-point, 5-steal, 2-assists and 1-block night, but definitely played much more like a guard than perhaps I expected with such a size advantage in that matchup. Perhaps I'm being conservative with my C+ grade here, but just think there's a ton of room for improvement down low.
Crowd: F
The box score reported 4614 fans in attendance, but man...a lot of those had to be season ticket and pre-purchased no-shows. That was as sparse of a VCU mens basketball game as I can EVER remember at the Siegel Center. I think the combination of coaching turnover, NIL era, years of reseating/ticket price hikes and NIT appearance likely led up to that, but still, I was just shocked at how relatively empty that was for what we've gotten used to and yes, even for an exhibition game. Those that did show up seemed to start leaving shortly after halftime as well, I'm sure understandably for a Monday night, but it's still taking some getting used to have not having a consistently PACKED Siegel Center for this fan that got spoiled by an almost decade-long sellout streak.
Joe Bamisile: A+
The VCU grad senior begins is second season as a Ram and looked to be in a completely different league than his opponent, effortlessly dropping 26 points in just under 19 minutes on 10-12 shooting. The Chesterfield native was 6-8 from range and a perfect 4-4 inside the arc. His length and athleticism looked in a different world than St. Mary's and was an exciting reminder of just how explosive he can be. Bamisile plays with a joy (and lack of fear) that is just refreshing to watch. I think had he started his career at VCU he'd be thought of as one of the greats, but instead he'll have the potential to put together a great final season instead.
Overall guard play: A
Watching the game and seeing Bamisile's success, I couldn't help but wonder how badly the explosive Zeb Jackson would have torched St. Mary's, but just the same, VCU's VERY deep stable of guards showed how much firepower this Rams team will have. The black and gold were a guard-led team this past season with Jackson, Bamisile and Max Shulga, but have added a very promising freshman pair in Terrence Hill (13 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists last night) and Brandon Jennings, brought in a super talented transfer in Phillip Russell (10 points on 50% shooting and a team high +42 box plus/minus) and have an explosive shooter in Fats Billups. It appears on paper as deep and talented of a guard collection as I can EVER remember on a VCU team and arguably the most offensively skilled.
Frontcourt: C+
I think this is the biggest area for improvement on this year's team. Christian Fermin posted a solid 9-point (3-5 shooting), 6-rebound performance in just under 17 minutes of action, but overall against a team so small, I expected a bit more dominance from the front court. Freshman Luke Bamgboye and sophomore Michael Belle have huge motors and played extremely hard, but went a combined 2-8 against an extremely undersized St. Mary's frontcourt. Jack Clark looked super promising at the power forward position, posting a 10-point, 5-steal, 2-assists and 1-block night, but definitely played much more like a guard than perhaps I expected with such a size advantage in that matchup. Perhaps I'm being conservative with my C+ grade here, but just think there's a ton of room for improvement down low.
Crowd: F
The box score reported 4614 fans in attendance, but man...a lot of those had to be season ticket and pre-purchased no-shows. That was as sparse of a VCU mens basketball game as I can EVER remember at the Siegel Center. I think the combination of coaching turnover, NIL era, years of reseating/ticket price hikes and NIT appearance likely led up to that, but still, I was just shocked at how relatively empty that was for what we've gotten used to and yes, even for an exhibition game. Those that did show up seemed to start leaving shortly after halftime as well, I'm sure understandably for a Monday night, but it's still taking some getting used to have not having a consistently PACKED Siegel Center for this fan that got spoiled by an almost decade-long sellout streak.
