After a dominating performance at Fordham, the Rams welcome La Salle to the Siegel Center in the black and gold's A-10 home opener Wednesday night. Both teams have won their last three contests and despite La Salle's abysmal 3-10 overall record, both are looking to stay undefeated in conference play.
<h4>VCU (10-4)
LA SALLE (3-10)</h4>
<h4>A QUICK LOOK AT LA SALLE</h4>
11 Seasons after serving as an assistant under former La Salle head coach, Dr. John Giannini, Ashley Howard begins his head coaching career taking over for his old boss. Howard did assistant stints at Xavier, Villanova and his alma mater, Drexel, in between, but has started off his first gig as a head coach in his hometown against a rough schedule that has challenged the Explorers to say the least. Five of La Salle's losses have come to kenpom top-100 squads with three more coming against teams ranked 151 or higher. The Explorers were competitive against a few of those teams, hanging with crosstown rivals Temple and Villanova, but also suffered a bad home loss to crosstown rival, Drexel (kenpom No.263), as well as an embarrassing home loss to No.313 Lafayette.
This fairly inexperienced group led by fifth-year senior, Pookie Powell (18 ppg) has struggled in essentially all facets of the game outside of hitting free throws and turning teams over. La Salle ranks in the bottom-100 in both offensive and defensive effective field goal percentage and doesn't rebound well to help make up for that inefficiency. They play an uptempo style under Howard, but so far that's just resulted in a defense that ranks among the 50 worst in the country in points allowed per contest.
The Explorers go about eight deep, five players of that group getting decent minutes as underclassmen including 6'8 freshman, Jack Clark.
Clark missed the Explorers first seven contests (all losses), but has helped La Salle to a .500 record with that included an A-10 road upset of UMass. The Cheltenham, PA native gives La Salle a rare bit of efficiency as he's connected on 42.3% of his 26 threes to start his career.
Clark and Powell have only been active together this season during La Salle's last three contests, as well as junior guard Saul Phiri, a 6'4 guard averaging 14 points per game this season. The Explorers are a perfect 3-0 when that trio is on the floor.
The Explorers are 0-6 against teams with top-100 defenses, losing by an average margin of defeat of 10 points per game. Just two of those teams rank within the top-50 in adjusted defensive efficiency, that duo (Northwestern and Florida) defeating La Salle by an average margin of 15 points.
<h4>A QUICK LOOK AT VCU</h4>
VCU played a tough non-conference schedule that included seven top-100 contests and two more within the top-150, VCU winning five of that group including two outside of the Siegel Center including the Rams win over kenpom No.29, Texas. The Rams navigated that group with a lockdown defense that helped VCU climb to their current 10-win performance and No.44 NET ranking.
That schedule certainly prepared the Rams for their first A-10 game, a trip to the Bronx that resulted in a 25-point road win at Fordham. VCU struggled offensively in OOC play but did no such thing in their first A-10 game, posting a ridiculous effective field goal percentage of 74.4%.
VCU's ability to have shots fall anywhere close to the rate they fell at Fordham makes the Rams a scary opponent for A-10 teams. The black and gold rank sixth nationally on the season in adjusted defensive efficiency, but just 207th on the offensive end.
The improvement from deep from the likes of the previously efficient Marcus Evans and De'Riante Jenkins not only makes VCU a legit Atlantic 10 title contender, but easily the favorite in the league.
TALE OF THE TAPE[/HEADING=3]
<h4>VCU (10-4)
LA SALLE (3-10)</h4>
<h4>A QUICK LOOK AT LA SALLE</h4>
11 Seasons after serving as an assistant under former La Salle head coach, Dr. John Giannini, Ashley Howard begins his head coaching career taking over for his old boss. Howard did assistant stints at Xavier, Villanova and his alma mater, Drexel, in between, but has started off his first gig as a head coach in his hometown against a rough schedule that has challenged the Explorers to say the least. Five of La Salle's losses have come to kenpom top-100 squads with three more coming against teams ranked 151 or higher. The Explorers were competitive against a few of those teams, hanging with crosstown rivals Temple and Villanova, but also suffered a bad home loss to crosstown rival, Drexel (kenpom No.263), as well as an embarrassing home loss to No.313 Lafayette.
This fairly inexperienced group led by fifth-year senior, Pookie Powell (18 ppg) has struggled in essentially all facets of the game outside of hitting free throws and turning teams over. La Salle ranks in the bottom-100 in both offensive and defensive effective field goal percentage and doesn't rebound well to help make up for that inefficiency. They play an uptempo style under Howard, but so far that's just resulted in a defense that ranks among the 50 worst in the country in points allowed per contest.
The Explorers go about eight deep, five players of that group getting decent minutes as underclassmen including 6'8 freshman, Jack Clark.
Clark missed the Explorers first seven contests (all losses), but has helped La Salle to a .500 record with that included an A-10 road upset of UMass. The Cheltenham, PA native gives La Salle a rare bit of efficiency as he's connected on 42.3% of his 26 threes to start his career.
Clark and Powell have only been active together this season during La Salle's last three contests, as well as junior guard Saul Phiri, a 6'4 guard averaging 14 points per game this season. The Explorers are a perfect 3-0 when that trio is on the floor.
The Explorers are 0-6 against teams with top-100 defenses, losing by an average margin of defeat of 10 points per game. Just two of those teams rank within the top-50 in adjusted defensive efficiency, that duo (Northwestern and Florida) defeating La Salle by an average margin of 15 points.
<h4>A QUICK LOOK AT VCU</h4>
VCU played a tough non-conference schedule that included seven top-100 contests and two more within the top-150, VCU winning five of that group including two outside of the Siegel Center including the Rams win over kenpom No.29, Texas. The Rams navigated that group with a lockdown defense that helped VCU climb to their current 10-win performance and No.44 NET ranking.
That schedule certainly prepared the Rams for their first A-10 game, a trip to the Bronx that resulted in a 25-point road win at Fordham. VCU struggled offensively in OOC play but did no such thing in their first A-10 game, posting a ridiculous effective field goal percentage of 74.4%.
VCU's ability to have shots fall anywhere close to the rate they fell at Fordham makes the Rams a scary opponent for A-10 teams. The black and gold rank sixth nationally on the season in adjusted defensive efficiency, but just 207th on the offensive end.
The improvement from deep from the likes of the previously efficient Marcus Evans and De'Riante Jenkins not only makes VCU a legit Atlantic 10 title contender, but easily the favorite in the league.
