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Anybody sized up our competition this year? Who will be our biggest challengers this year? Any predictions on the finishing order for the CAA?
CAA predictions
- Thread starter ramramthankyoumaam
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buckwheat
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i would say that nu and odu will be the two teams to beat this season. they both return virtually everyone, and have good senior leadership.
mason will be dangerous, as their young nucleus gets more experience. cam long is great, and i expect morrison, pearson, and cornelius will keep improving.
gsu will be very interesting to watch this year. i think joe dukes is poised to be outstanding. if rashanti harris is as good as advertised, this team could be good.
jmu is returning lots of talent. they will be tough.
charles jenkins and hofstra will be solid.
i think the rams definitely have top 4 potential. for this to happen, a guard or two will need to step up their games big time, and larry needs to stay out of foul trouble.
i say--
nu
odu
gmu
vcu
jmu
hofstra
but hey, wha'do i know.
mason will be dangerous, as their young nucleus gets more experience. cam long is great, and i expect morrison, pearson, and cornelius will keep improving.
gsu will be very interesting to watch this year. i think joe dukes is poised to be outstanding. if rashanti harris is as good as advertised, this team could be good.
jmu is returning lots of talent. they will be tough.
charles jenkins and hofstra will be solid.
i think the rams definitely have top 4 potential. for this to happen, a guard or two will need to step up their games big time, and larry needs to stay out of foul trouble.
i say--
nu
odu
gmu
vcu
jmu
hofstra
but hey, wha'do i know.
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as of now...
ODU
VCU
NU
GMU
JMU
HOF
the rest, who cares.....
VCU wins CAA tourny over GMU
ODU
VCU
NU
GMU
JMU
HOF
the rest, who cares.....
VCU wins CAA tourny over GMU
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Fourth??? Granted we'll have some inexperienced guard play but with the addition of Gavin and Skeen, don't you think we'll at least be scrapping for the 2 spot??? We'll have good depth at every position. I hope we have a better showing than 4th!!
buckwheat
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i've personally never seen skeen or gavin play, and quite honestly don't know what type of impact they'll have. hopefully they do well. i think our guys certainly could compete for second, and i won't be surprised if we do, but i don't see why anyone couldn't believe that we could possibly fall to fourth or fifth.
we just lost arguably the greatest player to ever play here. the impact he had on games over the last 3 seasons cannot be understated. like you said, vcu has some very inexperienced guards. the caa is a guard oriented league, and our backcourt is going to be facing some tough competition night in and night out. the freshman guards will struggle at times. that's just the nature of the beast. can rodriguez and rozzell step up their games, turn into the leaders, and embrace having the ball in their hands at clutch moments? can big larry keep out of foul trouble? if the answer to those questions is yes then, absolutely, this team could place second or third. if not, they could fall a few notches.
i hope so too. just giving my realistic opinion.
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Yes we have 3 new freshman coming in, but I would not say we have inexperienced guards compared to last year.
We lost one player in Maynor, but all our other guards are back with one more year of experience and Gavin has played a prior year of Div I and practiced for a year with the team. So as far as I'm concerned it is a wash compared to last year.
We lost one player in Maynor, but all our other guards are back with one more year of experience and Gavin has played a prior year of Div I and practiced for a year with the team. So as far as I'm concerned it is a wash compared to last year.
Wolfpack Ram
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ramathon74 said:
I agree ramathon74. Both Joey and Brandon are juniors with a lot of playing experience including the CAA Championship game and the NCAA game against UCLA. Let's also not forget that Grayson played on a national championship team last year that traveled all over the country. I would not consider him your typical freshman.
One other point. I hope people on these boards do not start playing the "we're young" card because we are not. We have 3 sophmores (including Gavin - redshirt sophmore) (excluding Hinton - walk on) and 3 freshmen. The other seven are juniors and seniors (5 & 2) and all of the juniors have a ton of experience.
Eric was one of VCU's all-time best guards in late-game situations. Eric's replacements will get better as they acquire some seasoning. I'm not going to get worried if we lose a couple early because of chemistry/end game guard play. I predict VCU will improve every game, finish in the top 4 and have a team no one wants to play in the tourney.
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I understand the enthusiasm considering this is a VCU board, but I'm a little surprised to see one of your posters put VCU ahead of NU. NU returns 4 out of 5 starters(losing only Eugene Speights), The other two losses are minimal at best(Allan Aragbaye and Erik Etherly).
I think Buckwheat hits the nail on the head. I wouldn't say VCU is young, I would argue there are simply too many unknowns to really be able to get a pulse on how good this team is going to be. I think there is a chance this team could finish top 2 but the reality is we don't know how good Skeen and Gavin are going to be in CAA play, and we're not entirely sure how this team is going to be playing post EME(Eric Maynor Era). No doubt Sanders will be an absolute beast to handle down, low but I think top 2 preseason is very optimistic.
I think Buckwheat hits the nail on the head. I wouldn't say VCU is young, I would argue there are simply too many unknowns to really be able to get a pulse on how good this team is going to be. I think there is a chance this team could finish top 2 but the reality is we don't know how good Skeen and Gavin are going to be in CAA play, and we're not entirely sure how this team is going to be playing post EME(Eric Maynor Era). No doubt Sanders will be an absolute beast to handle down, low but I think top 2 preseason is very optimistic.
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I absolutely cannot believe we will finish a mere fourth in the CAA this year. The team returns essentially intact, sans Maynor, with JRod easing over into his natural position. We are big, we are deep and we have some quality newcomers. If anyone thinks there will be a falloff from the Rams this year, they are dillusional. Let them think what they will. We were picked to be second last year and sixth AG's first year here. CAA fans always discount VCU while touting ther own and they are unapologetic about it. One reason so many of us are over here rather than CAAZone.com.
buckwheat
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delusional? really?
so i'm all of the sudden delusional because i happen to think there will likely be a fall off from last season, a season in which the rams won 24 games, the regular season title, tournament title, and played a thrilling first round tournament game against the most storied program ever? please do explain why i'm completely out of my mind for entertaining that thought.
another reason why we are here is to be able to express our opinions without it being a huge homer-fest, and not being called delusional by fellow fans simply because we believe the possibility exists that we may not have as magical a season as we did a year ago.
Ramdog
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Yep there is a chance VCU will not win the regular season title for an unprecedented 4th season in a row( shame on us 
) but I will wager they will be competitive and entertaining and in the mix come tourney time. May not win it but will have a say in who does. I don’t care what anybody else in the CAA says...nobody will want to be seeded opposite VCU in the CAA tourney played in Richmond.
) but I will wager they will be competitive and entertaining and in the mix come tourney time. May not win it but will have a say in who does. I don’t care what anybody else in the CAA says...nobody will want to be seeded opposite VCU in the CAA tourney played in Richmond.
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I'd like to think with our depth we'll be fighting at least for second place. That might be different if Skeen were available from day #1. With regard to the tournament it always seems to come down to how you are gelling and playing at that particular time of year. Northeastern was on top of the league for the early/mid part of the season then just seemed to tank late. Likewise W&M knocked us out in 2007-2008. Hopefully we'll get a mid season boost from the addition of Skeen, show the CAA teams a much different look than they will initially get without him in the lineup, and really be clicking come tourney time.
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buckwheat said:
Don't take it personally, I certainly wouldn't. I feel strongly that we have the potential to have a great year. In fact, I'll lay a wager on it. Monetary, avatar or public statement. You name it.