VCU travels to Davidson Friday night for a matchup with considerable A-10 tournament seeding implications. A Rams win would finish VCU at an even .500 in conference play and within the top half of the conference as the No.7 seed. A loss and the Rams finish conference play with a losing record for the first time in ages and fall all the way to ninth in the conference standings, down there in the bottom half of the Atlantic 10, down below even a rebuilt UMass Minutemen team that is the 10th least experienced team in the country.
Tonight is huge.
<h4>VCU (18-12, 8-9)
DAVIDSON (15-14, 9-8)</h4>
<h4>A QUICK LOOK AT DAVIDSON</h4>
VCU won their earlier matchup with the Wildcats at the Siegel Center, 73-62. The Rams held Davidson to just 39.1% shooting in the win, an impressive feat against the nation's 29th-ranked effective field goal percentage offense.
Davidson has been the deadliest three-point shooting team in A-10 play, finishing a conference-best 36.9% of their attempts. On the other side of the ball however, the Cats are giving up a fairly high percentage from range, at least as far as the A-10 is concerned, ranking tenth in the conference in three-point defense. And that's basically the story of this Davidson team: a potentially deadly offense with a defense that can get shredded at times, no better example of that than two games ago where the Wildcats gave up 96.4% shooting inside the arc to the Dayton Flyers who connected on 27 of their 28 attempts inside the arc.
Davidson has won their last six homes contests, defeating La Salle, Rhode Island, Fordham, George Mason and Saint Louis. Their last loss in Belk came back on January 14 when Bob McKillop's group was defeated 70-64 by the second place Richmond Spiders.
Four players are averaging double-digit scoring for the explosive Wildcat offense. The backcourt duo of Kellen Grady and Jon Axel Gudmundsson leads the group with sophomore center, Luka Brajkovic, chipping in 10.3 points with a very underwhelming 4.9 rebounds per contest  from the 6'10 big. Carter Collins rounds out that group at an even 10 points per game, with 6'7 freshman, Hyunjung Lee, acting as an explosive option off the bench. He hung 20 points on VCU in the last meeting between these two, connecting on three of his five attempts from distance.
Davidson doesn't turn teams over, but doesn't turn it over themselves. They struggle to rebound their own missed shots but eat up almost every miss on D.
The Cats love the three ball, taking 44.8% of their attempts from beyond the arc.
A QUICK LOOK AT VCU[/HEADING=3]
Tonight is huge.
<h4>VCU (18-12, 8-9)
DAVIDSON (15-14, 9-8)</h4>
<h4>A QUICK LOOK AT DAVIDSON</h4>
VCU won their earlier matchup with the Wildcats at the Siegel Center, 73-62. The Rams held Davidson to just 39.1% shooting in the win, an impressive feat against the nation's 29th-ranked effective field goal percentage offense.
Davidson has been the deadliest three-point shooting team in A-10 play, finishing a conference-best 36.9% of their attempts. On the other side of the ball however, the Cats are giving up a fairly high percentage from range, at least as far as the A-10 is concerned, ranking tenth in the conference in three-point defense. And that's basically the story of this Davidson team: a potentially deadly offense with a defense that can get shredded at times, no better example of that than two games ago where the Wildcats gave up 96.4% shooting inside the arc to the Dayton Flyers who connected on 27 of their 28 attempts inside the arc.
Davidson has won their last six homes contests, defeating La Salle, Rhode Island, Fordham, George Mason and Saint Louis. Their last loss in Belk came back on January 14 when Bob McKillop's group was defeated 70-64 by the second place Richmond Spiders.
Four players are averaging double-digit scoring for the explosive Wildcat offense. The backcourt duo of Kellen Grady and Jon Axel Gudmundsson leads the group with sophomore center, Luka Brajkovic, chipping in 10.3 points with a very underwhelming 4.9 rebounds per contest  from the 6'10 big. Carter Collins rounds out that group at an even 10 points per game, with 6'7 freshman, Hyunjung Lee, acting as an explosive option off the bench. He hung 20 points on VCU in the last meeting between these two, connecting on three of his five attempts from distance.
Davidson doesn't turn teams over, but doesn't turn it over themselves. They struggle to rebound their own missed shots but eat up almost every miss on D.
The Cats love the three ball, taking 44.8% of their attempts from beyond the arc.
A QUICK LOOK AT VCU[/HEADING=3]
The Rams are coming off a tough home loss to Duquesne, a game the black and gold led by double-digits with under 10 minutes to play. It was a tale of two halves in the loss. VCU limited the Dukes to just 26 first half points before surrendering 44 over the second stanza prior to the Dukes taking the contest into overtime where they would emerge victorious.
It was the Rams sixth loss over their last seven games and their seventh over their last nine.
VCU ranks eighth in offensive efficiency in the Atlantic 10 and fourth on D.
The Rams biggest weaknesses during conference action has been finishing "easy buckets" -- VCU ranking 11th in the A-10 in both two-point percentage and free throw percentage -- and defensive rebounding where they rank second to last in the conference.
Those shooting issues should come as no surprise based on the minutes allocated.
CONFERENCE TOTAL MINUTES PLAYED (2p% team ranking) [overall box +/- team ranking]
1. Santos-Silva (5th) [2nd]
2. Vann (9th) [9th]
3. Jenkins (8th) [1st]
4. Hyland (12th) [5th]
5. Simms (13th) [10th]
6. Curry (11th) [11th]
7. Evans (14th) [8th]
Long story short, many of VCU's least efficient players have logged a good majority of the minutes, typically due to VCU's staff's comfort with the experienced, a group that for all but two players, was considerably more efficient last season.
Injuries have obviously played a part in this season's struggles, but for the most part, experience has ruled the roster for the Rams in terms of minutes and during A-10 play and VCU has had to live with the results, which to this point is an 8-9 conference record.
TALE OF THE TAPE[/HEADING=3]
Scoring Offense: <span style="color: #ff0000;">DAV 72.7, VCU 70.9</span>
Scoring Defense: <span style="color: #339966;">VCU 64.8, DAV 67.6</span>
Effective Field Goal% Offense: <span style="color: #ff0000;">DAV 53.4%, VCU 49.5%</span>
Effective Field Goal% Defense: <span style="color: #339966;">VCU 47.9%, DAV 49.1%</span>
3-Point Field Goal%: <span style="color: #ff0000;">DAV 36.7%, VCU 34.4%</span>
3-Point Field Goal% Defense: <span style="color: #999999;">DAV 32.9%, VCU 33.5%</span>
2-Point Field Goal%: <span style="color: #ff0000;">DAV 52.1%, VCU 48.3%</span>
2-Point Field Goal% Defense: <span style="color: #339966;">VCU 46.7%, DAV 49%</span>
Rebounds per game: <span style="color: #999999;">VCU 33.8, UR 33.2</span>
Turnover% Offense: <span style="color: #ff0000;">DAV 16.5%, VCU 17.7%</span>
Turnover% Defense: <span style="color: #339966;">VCU 24.7%, DAV 17.2%</span>
VCU WINS IF[/HEADING=3]
For starters, VCU has to strap up defensively. If the Duquesne Dukes can drop 44 on VCU in a half, a hot Davidson can hit 54. The Rams have to bring it on the defensive end.
Offensively, in my opinion, patience is the key. Dayton hitting 27 of their 28 twos was about two things: 1) a bit of cherrypicking from Obi Toppin and 2) patience ...oh and 3) passing the ball.
The Flyers had 20 assists in the win, combining patience and a ton of passing to equal easy buckets. You don't need a lottery pick like Obi Toppin to take smart shots.
Kenpom: 70-67 VCU loss with a 39% chance of a Rams victory.
Game tips at 9PM at Belk Arena in Davidson, NC
Watch: ESPN2
Listen: <a href="https://www.iheart.com/live/fox-sports-910-richmond-2461/?autoplay=true&pname=1248&campid=header&cid=index.html">Fox Sports 910 AM & 98.5 FM</a>
Live Tweets: <a href="https://twitter.com/vcuramnation">@VCURamNation</a>
Scoring Offense: <span style="color: #ff0000;">DAV 72.7, VCU 70.9</span>
Scoring Defense: <span style="color: #339966;">VCU 64.8, DAV 67.6</span>
Effective Field Goal% Offense: <span style="color: #ff0000;">DAV 53.4%, VCU 49.5%</span>
Effective Field Goal% Defense: <span style="color: #339966;">VCU 47.9%, DAV 49.1%</span>
3-Point Field Goal%: <span style="color: #ff0000;">DAV 36.7%, VCU 34.4%</span>
3-Point Field Goal% Defense: <span style="color: #999999;">DAV 32.9%, VCU 33.5%</span>
2-Point Field Goal%: <span style="color: #ff0000;">DAV 52.1%, VCU 48.3%</span>
2-Point Field Goal% Defense: <span style="color: #339966;">VCU 46.7%, DAV 49%</span>
Rebounds per game: <span style="color: #999999;">VCU 33.8, UR 33.2</span>
Turnover% Offense: <span style="color: #ff0000;">DAV 16.5%, VCU 17.7%</span>
Turnover% Defense: <span style="color: #339966;">VCU 24.7%, DAV 17.2%</span>