2025-26 Expectations

New HC, pretty much a whole new team where everyone on the team falls under 1 of 3 categories... New to VCU, New to Phil Martelli Jr's system, or new to both.

Of the last 6 Head coaches in their first year at VCU....
Only 1 HC won the conference out right in the regular season- Grant (Wade fnished in a 3 way tie for 1st, but VCU was 2nd via tiebreakers)
Only 1 HC won the Conference Tournament- Grant
Only 2 Made the NCAA Tournament- Grant & Wade (both won a game in the Round of 64 as well those years)
4 of the 6 made at least some form of postseason (Grant, Shaka, Wade, Odom)
5 of the 6 made at least the Semi Finals of the Conference Tourney (Capel, Grant, Shaka, Wade, Odom)

Now of those 6, only Odom had to deal with the current landscape of College Sports in their first year..... with the Transfer Portal & NIL being what they are now.


Now, while there is a lot of new faces.... both from the player stand point & the coaching stand point..... I honestly feel really good about our chances this year as long as we can avoid any major injuries. Don't ask me why, I don't have any inside information..... just call it a hunch.
 
RowdyPkunk said:
New HC, pretty much a whole new team where everyone on the team falls under 1 of 3 categories... New to VCU, New to Phil Martelli Jr's system, or new to both.

Of the last 6 Head coaches in their first year at VCU....
Only 1 HC won the conference out right in the regular season- Grant (Wade fnished in a 3 way tie for 1st, but VCU was 2nd via tiebreakers)
Only 1 HC won the Conference Tournament- Grant
Only 2 Made the NCAA Tournament- Grant & Wade (both won a game in the Round of 64 as well those years)
4 of the 6 made at least some form of postseason (Grant, Shaka, Wade, Odom)
5 of the 6 made at least the Semi Finals of the Conference Tourney (Capel, Grant, Shaka, Wade, Odom)

Now of those 6, only Odom had to deal with the current landscape of College Sports in their first year..... with the Transfer Portal & NIL being what they are now.


Now, while there is a lot of new faces.... both from the player stand point & the coaching stand point..... I honestly feel really good about our chances this year as long as we can avoid any major injuries. Don't ask me why, I don't have any inside information..... just call it a hunch.
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I agree with your take. As to VCU's ability to win the outright regular season will once again depend on conference pairings. Not only ours but the rest of the teams. For the most part I believe the talent is sufficient to be successful (I am not going to debate the value of a seasoned PG or a Bruiser at the 5). I feel good about the makeup of the staff and I am encouraged by the little non basketball things they do together. Now for me, here is what will determine how far they go. How much chemistry and cohesiveness can they build by October. I have heard a couple of coaches and aa couple of players talking about building it through non basketball activities and I agree that is where it has to happen. My wife and I were talking last night after the OKC win. It is clear the current OKC team has chemistry on and off the court. The OKC with Durant, Westbrook, Harden, Ibaka, and Sefolosha probably had mor overall talent but the lack of chemistry kept them from being champions
 
Go undefeated, Win the A10 title, win the national title by 35, Calipari’s head explodes, Jon Rothstein states we shouldn’t be in the tourney even coming as conference champ/auto bid, Seth Davis claims our title proves college basketball is fair, Big 10/12 state college basketball isn’t fair & claims they are going off for their own March madness called Big March, UVA fans angrily yell about how they should have gotten our current coach, VT perm bans ever playing VCU again, Rhoades gets 💩 canned, baby petino gets rude awakening in BE, Ohio State implodes, Colorado hires Prime as its basketball coach mid season and he becomes first dual coach, and Harvard wins NIT/Gets WH invite/ tells WH to GFY
 
TampaKAP said:
I agree with your take. As to VCU's ability to win the outright regular season will once again depend on conference pairings. Not only ours but the rest of the teams. For the most part I believe the talent is sufficient to be successful (I am not going to debate the value of a seasoned PG or a Bruiser at the 5). I feel good about the makeup of the staff and I am encouraged by the little non basketball things they do together. Now for me, here is what will determine how far they go. How much chemistry and cohesiveness can they build by October. I have heard a couple of coaches and aa couple of players talking about building it through non basketball activities and I agree that is where it has to happen. My wife and I were talking last night after the OKC win. It is clear the current OKC team has chemistry on and off the court. The OKC with Durant, Westbrook, Harden, Ibaka, and Sefolosha probably had mor overall talent but the lack of chemistry kept them from being champions
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Yeah and I think the little things with the staff that will help A LOT are things like.....

You got guys who are very familiar with VCU, the campus, the gameday atmosphere in guys like B-Rozz, Brad (both of whom not graduated from VCU & were part of the Final 4 team, but are Richmond natives). Also Jimmy Martelli is VERY familiar with VCU & its surroundings from his time here under MR.

You also have Ryan Daly (Asst. Coach) who played in the A10, so he knows what the competition in general is like.... and Nick Schmidt (director of scouting & video) whose dad is Mark Schmidt at SBU.... so maybe hes got some behind the scenes knowledge on stuff his dad does. Who Knows.

And then of course PM Jr. who knows the A10 landscape a decent amount, but also has his dad in his back pocket who knows the A10 Landscape REALLY well.

And you got the players coming from Bryant who can help our returners & the new guys know what to expect from PMJr. & co.

We know guys like Brad & B-Rozz are def very hands on guys & connect with the players well & I suspect the rest of the guys do too.

The chemistry & cohesiveness obviously remains to be seen.... but I'm definitely feeling good based on what Ive seen/heard so far.
 
rambunctiousrowdyram said:
Go undefeated, Win the A10 title, win the national title by 35, Calipari’s head explodes, Jon Rothstein states we shouldn’t be in the tourney even coming as conference champ/auto bid, Seth Davis claims our title proves college basketball is fair, Big 10/12 state college basketball isn’t fair & claims they are going off for their own March madness called Big March, UVA fans angrily yell about how they should have gotten our current coach, VT perm bans ever playing VCU again, Rhoades gets 💩 canned, baby petino gets rude awakening in BE, Ohio State implodes, Colorado hires Prime as its basketball coach mid season and he becomes first dual coach, and Harvard wins NIT/Gets WH invite/ tells WH to GFY
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Who the he11 spiked your coffee or energy drink this morning :lol:
 
RowdyPkunk said:
New HC, pretty much a whole new team where everyone on the team falls under 1 of 3 categories... New to VCU, New to Phil Martelli Jr's system, or new to both.

Of the last 6 Head coaches in their first year at VCU....
Only 1 HC won the conference out right in the regular season- Grant (Wade fnished in a 3 way tie for 1st, but VCU was 2nd via tiebreakers)
Only 1 HC won the Conference Tournament- Grant
Only 2 Made the NCAA Tournament- Grant & Wade (both won a game in the Round of 64 as well those years)
4 of the 6 made at least some form of postseason (Grant, Shaka, Wade, Odom)
5 of the 6 made at least the Semi Finals of the Conference Tourney (Capel, Grant, Shaka, Wade, Odom)

Now of those 6, only Odom had to deal with the current landscape of College Sports in their first year..... with the Transfer Portal & NIL being what they are now.


Now, while there is a lot of new faces.... both from the player stand point & the coaching stand point..... I honestly feel really good about our chances this year as long as we can avoid any major injuries. Don't ask me why, I don't have any inside information..... just call it a hunch.
Click to expand...

Interesting that Rhoades didn't make the cut for any of the VCU accomplishments you listed above. Thank you Penn State!
 
rambunctiousrowdyram said:
Go undefeated, Win the A10 title, win the national title by 35, Calipari’s head explodes, Jon Rothstein states we shouldn’t be in the tourney even coming as conference champ/auto bid, Seth Davis claims our title proves college basketball is fair, Big 10/12 state college basketball isn’t fair & claims they are going off for their own March madness called Big March, UVA fans angrily yell about how they should have gotten our current coach, VT perm bans ever playing VCU again, Rhoades gets 💩 canned, baby petino gets rude awakening in BE, Ohio State implodes, Colorado hires Prime as its basketball coach mid season and he becomes first dual coach, and Harvard wins NIT/Gets WH invite/ tells WH to GFY
Click to expand...
Solid take. 👍
 
TampaKAP said:
I agree with your take. As to VCU's ability to win the outright regular season will once again depend on conference pairings. Not only ours but the rest of the teams. For the most part I believe the talent is sufficient to be successful (I am not going to debate the value of a seasoned PG or a Bruiser at the 5). I feel good about the makeup of the staff and I am encouraged by the little non basketball things they do together. Now for me, here is what will determine how far they go. How much chemistry and cohesiveness can they build by October. I have heard a couple of coaches and aa couple of players talking about building it through non basketball activities and I agree that is where it has to happen. My wife and I were talking last night after the OKC win. It is clear the current OKC team has chemistry on and off the court. The OKC with Durant, Westbrook, Harden, Ibaka, and Sefolosha probably had mor overall talent but the lack of chemistry kept them from being champions
Click to expand...

My guess is VCU is going to be handed one of the toughest conference schedules after winning both the regular season and A-10 Tournament last year. fmason will be in the same boat as VCU, and fur with probably get scheduled against Fordham for 3 H&H's. It will be interesting to see how fmason fares playing a much tougher conference schedule next year.
 
Wolfpack Ram said:
Interesting that Rhoades didn't make the cut for any of the VCU accomplishments you listed above. Thank you Penn State!
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I know at some point someone said we could've played in the postseason under MR in year 1, (probably CBI if I had to guess) but MR opted not to.... don't know if thats true or not.
 
rambunctiousrowdyram said:
Go undefeated, Win the A10 title, win the national title by 35, Calipari’s head explodes, Jon Rothstein states we shouldn’t be in the tourney even coming as conference champ/auto bid, Seth Davis claims our title proves college basketball is fair, Big 10/12 state college basketball isn’t fair & claims they are going off for their own March madness called Big March, UVA fans angrily yell about how they should have gotten our current coach, VT perm bans ever playing VCU again, Rhoades gets 💩 canned, baby petino gets rude awakening in BE, Ohio State implodes, Colorado hires Prime as its basketball coach mid season and he becomes first dual coach, and Harvard wins NIT/Gets WH invite/ tells WH to GFY
Click to expand...

Lisan al Gaib!
 
Wolfpack Ram said:
My guess is VCU is going to be handed one of the toughest conference schedules after winning both the regular season and A-10 Tournament last year. fmason will be in the same boat as VCU, and fur with probably get scheduled against Fordham for 3 H&H's. It will be interesting to see how fmason fares playing a much tougher conference schedule next year.
Click to expand...
I welcome the toughest in conference schedule possible. I am a proponent of flex scheduling where everyone plays everyone once and then the remaining games are based on the teams 2nd game being based on NET ranking
 
RamBoba said:
Lisan al Gaib!
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