The Official Beat the Saint Mary's Gaels in Albany in the NCAA Tournament Thread

Mr X · Mar 18, 2023

NYCVCUfan said:
I apologize if I contributed to the Rams downfall yesterday. My talisman for their recent winning streak was to buy a pepperoni pie just before gametime. It seemed to have worked well but I was at work with meetings. DANG! Congrats Rams on Great season and look forward to next year!

We all need to do our part. Next year, order out. Working lunch.

Dr Joe · Mar 18, 2023

It wasn’t losing Ace the player that hurt us , it was our reaction to losing him. The team stopped doing what they do best which was sharing the ball and spreading the defense out. Instead each player wanted to step up and help their team by going one alone. Tough not to feel that way but it never works. That said, fantastic season, wonderful team with a ton of memories. No one , even me, expected us to pull together so well and be a team that we all wanted to see the next game. Congrats to everyone who was part of a great season.

vcumad · Mar 18, 2023

ssvcu90 said:
No less "grade school" than your pathetic attempt to insult me.

I had promised myself I would not continue this useless discussion with you, but I had a moment of clarity last night that helped me understand your arrogant, my opinion is fact, why does everyone hate me attitude. Your alter-ego is Biff from Back To The Future. I can now finalize our discussion by asking to to hop in your manure filled hot rod and act like a tree and leave. Best wishes until we meet again next season.

Mistachill · Mar 18, 2023

Dr Joe said:
It wasn’t losing Ace the player that hurt us , it was our reaction to losing him. The team stopped doing what they do best which was sharing the ball and spreading the defense out. Instead each player wanted to step up and help their team by going one alone. Tough not to feel that way but it never works. That said, fantastic season, wonderful team with a ton of memories. No one , even me, expected us to pull together so well and be a team that we all wanted to see the next game. Congrats to everyone who was part of a great season.

You think we were sharing the ball prior to the injury? No doubt the team was affected by the injury but we were struggling before he got hurt.

RamLover · Mar 18, 2023

Mistachill said:
You think we were sharing the ball prior to the injury? No doubt the team was affected by the injury but we were struggling before he got hurt.

So was SMC, though. It was only a 4 pt game when Ace left. Anything could have happened. We were down 11 to Dayton in the second half.

No doubt we were off. We’ll never know if he would have affected the outcome or not.

NYCVCUfan · Mar 18, 2023

Mr X said:
We all need to do our part. Next year, order out. Working lunch.

I know. And I have Ray's pizza just across the street. I should have run over and gotten a slice. I loved watching this team this year. As good as any I seen since my time on campus in the mid 70s. Kick ass next yr Rams!!!

Mistachill · Mar 18, 2023

RamLover said:
So was SMC, though. It was only a 4 pt game when Ace left. Anything could have happened. We were down 11 to Dayton in the second half.

No doubt we were off. We’ll never know if he would have affected the outcome or not.

Sure, anything could've happened. I just don't want this to be added to the growing list of excuses to explain away all of our losing performances. Especially since we never discredit our wins by saying "Dayton may have beat us if Camara doesn't get hurt."

RamLover · Mar 18, 2023

Mistachill said:
Sure, anything could've happened. I just don't want this to be added to the growing list of excuses to explain away all of our performances. Especially since we never discredit our wins by saying "Dayton may have beat us if Camara doesn't get hurt."

I mean, we could say that. It’s not discrediting or excuses. Just the way the cookie crumbles.

Dr Joe · Mar 18, 2023

Mistachill said:
You think we were sharing the ball prior to the injury? No doubt the team was affected by the injury but we were struggling before he got hurt.

What I think is we played better in the second half of almost every big game we played this season. I expected us to come together in the second half and really apply pressure in the last ten minutes. Once Ace was gone and our bigs were in foul trouble the degree of difficulty was too much. St Mary’s is a good team who play that line defense. We did not overcome the stacking and so it goes. Not for a lack of effort but not responding well to adversity.

rammad90 · Mar 18, 2023

Violet Ram said:
I think he has a reading disability. He did the same thing to me when I said I thought we weren't likely to get an at large a couple weeks ago. Stating objective facts seems to be misconstrued as "You HATE VCU".

You know people such as yourself need therapy. You have nothing intelligent or factual to add to rebut comments, therefore you are quick to stoop to name calling.

It is a fact, that both you and Heel have been very negative towards this program all year. Yet, when someone calls you on it, you both act as if that is not the case.

Why not have a bit of class and stop with the name calling? Use your facts to support you comments.

rammad90 · Mar 18, 2023

Mistachill said:
Sure, anything could've happened. I just don't want this to be added to the growing list of excuses to explain away all of our losing performances. Especially since we never discredit our wins by saying "Dayton may have beat us if Camara doesn't get hurt."

Did Camara get hurt or was he in foul trouble the entire game. Fwiw, I have stated to friends and family that we were luck that he wasnt on the court much because had he been and had he performed as he typically does against us we would have lost that game. No shame in making that statement.

I also think we all know that had a healthy Ace remained on the floor the outcome could have been different.

Ramlove81 · Mar 18, 2023

Mistachill said:
No one to blame but let's also not fall into the trap of using Ace's injury as an excuse either. We weren't playing well before his injury and would've needed a superman performance from him to pull this one out since NOBODY else on the floor stepped up for us.

Remember he has worn that S on his chest pretty well and won us a few games we wouldn't have with it. Even hurting pretty bad, he came back in and scored on our first possession with him back. Not saying we would have won, but we wouldn't have lost by 11, not even close.

Mistachill · Mar 18, 2023

Ramlove81 said:
Remember he has worn that S on his chest pretty well and won us a few games we wouldn't have with it. Even hurting pretty bad, he came back in and scored on our first possession with him back. Not saying we would have won, but we wouldn't have lost by 11, not even close.

Well, he was our best player on the court at the point of the injury but he wasn't exactly playing like superman.

ssvcu90 · Mar 18, 2023

vcumad said:
I had promised myself I would not continue this useless discussion with you, but I had a moment of clarity last night that helped me understand your arrogant, my opinion is fact, why does everyone hate me attitude. Your alter-ego is Biff from Back To The Future. I can now finalize our discussion by asking to to hop in your manure filled hot rod and act like a tree and leave. Best wishes until we meet again next season.

Biff from Back to the Future? Really? That even made me laugh as it is so far removed from reality it is amusing. That said, given your limitations, it is probably the best you can come up with, so I'll move along as well.

RowdyPkunk · Mar 18, 2023

So couple things in response to last nights game....

1. Y'all remember a while back when I made a post on another thread, saying how I wish we would find ways to get Lawal/Fermin more minutes in regular season in the event that we need one or both of them to play in the postseason.... well last night was a PRIME EXAMPLE OF WHY. Both Deloach & Johns got into foul trouble in the first half (tho Johns not til late)... and then got in foul trouble early on again the 2nd half.

Now I know, we also have Shriver who subs in for Johns or Deloach a lot.... but I feel like if Lawal & Fermin had more meaningful minutes in the regular season.... we could've utilized them more last night, especially against a bigger line up. We've seen flashes from Lawal, but he hasn't been given much playing time to really settle in and find his groove & make a noticeable impact. And Fermin even less so.

Also Banks..... where was he? Maybe if we used him, and ran a play to get him open for 3 & he makes it.... we can spread the defense which gives us better opportunity at the rim... but no, didn't happen.

2. As far as the Ace injury "costing us" (paraphrazing) the game.... give that excuse a rest. The team wasn't playing well when he was in the game. And yes when he got hurt and went out for a bit.... we were shocked/stunned... whatever you wanna call it. And it was all downhill from there. Kinda like 2019, A10 Tourney against Rhode Island..... Evans goes down.... and guess what, so did the rest of our team (despite the fact we were leading at half time of that game).

We rely too heavily on 1 or 2 players to "carry" the team. Now sure we have other players who can score.... we've had what.... 7 different leading scorers this year in a game. But when Johns or Baldwin were hurt, in foul trouble, off the court for long periods of time.... we were a noticeably different team ALL SEASON.... Same thing went Evans went down against Rhody in 2019.... totally different team.

And I'm sorry, that's a problem to me. Injuries happen, can happen at anytime, anywhere... and we certainly are no stranger to the injury bug hitting us (Weber, Evans, Watkins, McCallister, Billups.... just to name a few). When someone goes down, that next person needs to be ready to step up. And simply put... they're not.