I would agree that the media has helped.....I also think that the program was stronger then than now ...However I think we are moving in the right direction...In my opinion if we are to be recognized as a basketball power like we once were we would need to get past the first round on a consistant basis....at least in to the round of 16 once or twice....BigE said:of course we are better known now...actually everybody who knows college BB knows us.
ESPN, MASN, and the other cable outlets have made college BB available to all corners of the country.
The fact that now they just use our initials speaks volumes.
Being more widely known is however different from having a more powerful BB program
Not to be confrontational but the schools that vcu played against at the time were good teams. (see metro)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_Conference .... The Sunbelt was not as impressive but still a good conference at the time...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Belt_Conference ......You can not discount the fact that they were ranked 11th because it is still based on all of the teams in the country including the North Caorlinas and Dukes that were out then and Virginia who was a powerhouse back then( believe it or not) They played quality competition year round....I dont know if you remember the defunct TDIT --Times Dispatch Invitational Tournament were they would play Richmond,VT, Virginia, ODU...When VCU beat NU ....NU was a very good team at the time....Now logically to me it would be harder to get into a field of 48 vs. now what is it 64 plus 1.....What JD said in his interview made a lot of sense as to why VCU was good...He got a lot of the inner city kids....http://www.ibiblio.org/craig/draft/1994 ... ml.....and back then most of the good ballers were comming out of the inner city......also VCU was smaller and the Colisem was not on campus so I think they did good to get a crowd of 2 to 3,000 with a school population of about 15,000 for a mostly commuter school....I understand that Maynor is the all-time leading scorer when he passed Kendrick Warren another inner city kid but to say that they were not get high caliber players because they did not go to UVA ...I dont know...How long Since The pre-JD Barnet departure era has it been since VCU had a player drafted...THAt could kind of tell you something right there...given the fact that VCU had less media exposure is a testament to how good they had to have been to be able to be ranked not win a confernce title and still get bids......Just something to think about....For some of you who are to young to remember VCU was in fact a known basketball intity they fell to the way-side just like what happend to once powerhouse UVA( circa Ralph Sampson Era).bighorn said:The victory over Duke is the primary difference between VCU-Then, and VCU-Now.
VCU's climb to No. 11 during the Barnett Era is highly misleading; the Rams were most efficient in those days at puttering along in slow lane, without spinning out. VCU was out-pointing light- and middleweights - not heavyweights - en route to that lofty perch in the rankings.
Also, consider VCU's four NCAA victories under Barnett were over Long Island, LaSalle, Northeastern and Marshall - not exactly national headline grabbers. The NCAA had a 48-team field at that time. The first four seeds received byes the opening round, so you didn't have these ludicrous 1-vs.-16, 2-vs.-15, like now.
Three other reasons why the program is in sounder footing in the 21st century:
Home attendance: Some of the oldtimers, with selected memory, forget that home attendance was generally poor, with just a few exceptions toward the end of J.D's. tenure. There were many 2-to-3,000 crowds at the Coliseum that didn't come close to filling the lower deck.
The recent sellouts (with actual competition for tickets), coupled with mushrooming spirit, provide a far more powerful recruitng base.
Academics: Nowadays, VCU recruits basketball players similar in GPA/SAT qualifications to those being sought by U.Va., Tech, etc. Much of the early-times success was based on recruiting athletes who would not be considered by more established schools.
TV: Used to be, only royalty came into your living rooms. Now, so many cable options have enabled the less-endowed schools to receiver a larger share of the package.
Bottom line:
The dethroning of Duke was the turning point - that's the game that spun heads, opened eyes, and won the attention of students/area citizens who previous had only marginal interest.
It has been said that the victory over the blue-blooded Blue Devils - representing the beheading of despised monarch - meant more to generating interest in VCU hoops than all the victories, put together, that the Rams had accumulated in so many previous decades.
RamBo said:I mean, geez.... look at BA Walker. He cam from no-where, but man was he ready when h got to VCU.
RamBo said:.....
However, i do not agree about the over-all competition. Sure- we weren't facing monsters day-in and day-out. But we were in a power-packed mid-major conference that was difficult- top to bottom. And for the record, IMO- no way was the Metro a better league than the Sunbelt of that era. I remember at one point in 85' when you had: VCU # 11, UAB #13 ( Gene Bartow), Western Kentucky # 17 (Clem Haskins), and you had Soth Flo (Barnes I think?), South Al, UNCC (Mullins), and ODU (Paul Webb) right there, knocking on the door of Top-20, and all receiving votes at one point or another. There was no Top-25 back then.
And you were stacked with players like Lamb & Duncan from VCU, Terry Catledge from USA, Kenny Gattison and others from ODU, Jeff Hodges & Junie Lewis also from South Al, Tellis Frank and a fantastic crew from Western KY, an incredible team (no names are coming into my head) with UAB, etc.
Although you had the obvious monster in Louisville, and Southern Miss and Tulane were pretty good at the time, no way would I stack the Metro up to the old Sunbelt from 79' - 85.' Again, JMO......
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