How are you feeling right now about the team and program?

buckwheat said:
“I never posted that I thought we had an at large chance after the Drexel loss.”

“Again, I don't think we have much of a chance at an at large never posted we did after Drexel debacle.”

-rammad90, February 25, 2011. On this very forum.

You didn't expect sh1t. There is more. Shall I keep going?

Please stop the revisionist history and please stop the condescending tone. I can keep bustin up if you want me to.
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The internet never forgets!
 
People forget folks keep receipts man lol.

Never mind Skeen even said he was eating lunch at Qdoba and left his food behind when he got the news.

The committee got absolutely obliterated for picking us. Did we have great wins? Yes. However we were in full tailspin going into the CAA tourney. It took a buzzer beater to beat Drexel then we shocked 25th Mason only weeks after getting bent over with no lube in Siegel. You could argue we were on the verge of one of the craziest comebacks if not the craziest in the final. No doubt seeing a senior built team make that charge got us in.
 
RamJamFan said:
We lost in Charleston to some good teams. Dayton is now O-2 against two top 10 teams in Maui, both of which (like us) they could have/should have beaten. I wonder if Dayton’s fan base has concluded this edition of Flyers isn’t very good? I doubt it. We have a lot of work to do before conf starts but we also have a lot to work with. The second guessing on why our coaching staff didn’t pursue front court depth in the offseason portal can’t be addressed now. They know something we don’t. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that our front court stays heathy, and incremental progress launches us into national relevancy. Go Rams.
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11/27/24

The Charleston tourney exposed the Rams (to some degree).

Games:
1) Seton Hall - given the circumstances, a bad loss to a very middling team (a rather ordinary Seton Hall unit - depleted from a yr ago). Squandered near-double-digit second half lead and, with 5 super-seniors leading the way, unable to execute even the most basic things down the stretch and in OT.
2) Nevada - bad loss given the circumstance that unfolded; veteran team squandered a 15-pt second half lead and unable to execute (both mentally and physically) when pressured (see #1 above)
3) Miami - good bounce-back to salvage something positive (a win) but, once again, experienced team looked very disjointed/unsure late (16 pt lead quickly cut to 6, jeopardizing the outcome).

Summary: In all three games (against decent but not great competition), when the opponent trailed in the second half and felt a true sense of urgency (like they might lose), they all "turned up the heat" at both ends and VCU consistently wilted (which speaks to both the mental and physical aspects of being the hunted (favorite), not the hunter).

Takeaway (deficiencies):
1) Basketball IQ - serious issues on display here (both players and coaching staff) - for some, a basic understanding of time, score, floor spacing, foul situation, possession arrow, teammate roles/strengths, shot selection, decision-making, clock and TO mgmt, late game strategy, situational substitutions, and so on; embarrassing for a senior-laden team and experienced coaching staff.
2) Interior Play - no commentary needed; quite obvious
3) Quality Depth - for now, this is essentially a 6-man team (starters + Zeb); Jennings/Belle/Bamgboye/Billups/Hill = show flashes (but choppy)
4) True Alpha - we don't have one (like a Treveon/Maynor/Bones)
5) Rim Protector/Enforcer - we don't have one (like an Alie-Cox/Sanders/Reddic)
6) Defensive Stopper - we don't have one (like a Weber/Kern/Curry/Burgess)
7) Toughness/Grit/Physicality - this is a "finesse" squad (and was clearly constructed as such)
 
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Great post GTA

You have to be concerned about the late game fade. This could attributed to several factors but in VCU's case I think it goes back to discipline, focus, and confidence. This is primarily a coaching deficiency although if you don't have the raw materials it is futile. I would expect with the seniors they have this would not be a factor. Bamisile seems to be an erratic loose cannon and maybe Clark is figuring out his role but I would have thought Shulga and Jackson would take over here and be rock solid late in games but I guess not. As the season progresses I expect we will see improvement in this. Odom is a much better coach than Rhoades and this is fixable.

Inside play: What inside play? This is another doughnut squad. Nice on the outside, big hole in the middle. Should Odom play Luke and Belle more than Clark and Fermin? At least with Belle you get good defense and some rebounds. As long as they don't learn from the others and throw up untimely and low percentage 3's this might be a good move.

As for depth, the youngsters look like they have the goods. Play them more even if it costs us a game or two. A lot of guys graduate after this year and the young ones need to be ready. Even if games are close please get them the minutes and find out if they have what it takes to succeed.

As for interior defense, grit, and a defensive stopper....you have answered your own question. We don't really have those yet (except maybe for Luke...nice block against Miami) so why not experiment more with the lineup early in the season? The only drawback is if the youngsters pan out they might leave in the portal at the end of the season.
 
88RAM said:
As for depth, the youngsters look like they have the goods. Play them more even if it costs us a game or two. A lot of guys graduate after this year and the young ones need to be ready. Even if games are close please get them the minutes and find out if they have what it takes to succeed.
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I get the idea here, but college basketball has become a year-to-year thing. You can't really plan much for the future. Jennings and Bamg have earned some time on the floor. Hill is still working on that.
 
rambunctiousrowdyram said:
People forget folks keep receipts man lol.

Never mind Skeen even said he was eating lunch at Qdoba and left his food behind when he got the news.

The committee got absolutely obliterated for picking us. Did we have great wins? Yes. However we were in full tailspin going into the CAA tourney. It took a buzzer beater to beat Drexel then we shocked 25th Mason only weeks after getting bent over with no lube in Siegel. You could argue we were on the verge of one of the craziest comebacks if not the craziest in the final. No doubt seeing a senior built team make that charge got us in.
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Yup, you nailed it. The team wasn't even watching the selection show together. One of the commentators repeatedly stated during the Kansas game that VCU "wasn't even supposed to be in this tournament".

Considering how often the story is told, it really blows my mind that people today claim that "oh, we expected a tournament bid"...uh, no, we didn't. You can even Google and find bracketology blogs and sites still up from then that either show VCU as not even on the bubble or being one of the "next four out".

Even after we were in the tournament, most of the talking heads did expect us to beat USC and Georgetown (the latter being in a practical death spiral having lost 4 of their last 5 games), but pretty much all of them had us getting curbstomped by Purdue.

As an aside, it's kind of funny that Purdue beat Saint Peter's in the first round that year...then 12 years later Saint Peter's got their revenge as a Cinderella to advance to the Elite Eight.
 
WillWeaverRVA said:
Considering how often the story is told, it really blows my mind that people today claim that "oh, we expected a tournament bid"...uh, no, we didn't. You can even Google and find bracketology blogs and sites still up from then that either show VCU as not even on the bubble or being one of the "next four out".
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Yeah I didn't think I was saying anything new or controversial in my original post, was a little confused at the pushback and suggestion that not only did we expect to be in, but we expected at least a sweet sixteen. Oh well.
 
WillWeaverRVA said:
Yup, you nailed it. The team wasn't even watching the selection show together. One of the commentators repeatedly stated during the Kansas game that VCU "wasn't even supposed to be in this tournament".

Considering how often the story is told, it really blows my mind that people today claim that "oh, we expected a tournament bid"...uh, no, we didn't. You can even Google and find bracketology blogs and sites still up from then that either show VCU as not even on the bubble or being one of the "next four out".

Even after we were in the tournament, most of the talking heads did expect us to beat USC and Georgetown (the latter being in a practical death spiral having lost 4 of their last 5 games), but pretty much all of them had us getting curbstomped by Purdue.

As an aside, it's kind of funny that Purdue beat Saint Peter's in the first round that year...then 12 years later Saint Peter's got their revenge as a Cinderella to advance to the Elite Eight.
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I watched the Selection Show before heading up to Vermont for some spring break skiing. I was hopeful because I followed Jerry Palm (I think it was him) who had us in. No one else did. My brother went to Colorado so we had a little fight about who "deserved" it more when they got sent to the NIT.

Won't say I expected us in but was hopeful. That said, I remember this Board and CAAZone basically all in agreement that we were out.

But I was wrong about Charleston last week.
 
We are good enough to build those leads and hopefully with some good film sessions learn from mistakes to close them out.
 
88RAM said:
Great post GTA

You have to be concerned about the late game fade. This could attributed to several factors but in VCU's case I think it goes back to discipline, focus, and confidence. This is primarily a coaching deficiency although if you don't have the raw materials it is futile. I would expect with the seniors they have this would not be a factor. Bamisile seems to be an erratic loose cannon and maybe Clark is figuring out his role but I would have thought Shulga and Jackson would take over here and be rock solid late in games but I guess not. As the season progresses I expect we will see improvement in this. Odom is a much better coach than Rhoades and this is fixable.
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I am always struck by comments by posters about coaching and how they arrive at their conclusions/observations about coaching - I will agree that coaches are ultimately responsible for results but very few of us ever really know what the coaches have told them to do and what specifically the coaches are teaching/instructing them to do in practices

all of us have heard coaches say they told the team/player exactly what to do but the player doesn't do it - is that a coaching deficiency or player deficiencey - and is part of gaining experience as a player making mistakes and learning from them

I have been a follower of VCU basketball for over 40 years - over that period, VCU has punched significantly above pay grade becasue we play hard and are coached well vs our opponents -

this year's team seems to be no different in that aspect - in their body of work they have played harder than their opponents - we have some losses (yeah at least one was very frustrating) but we have been in every game and not on the end of an a** kicking

GTA post seems to expect perfection when he talks about Basketball IQ from players and coaches - this team (like all teams) will learn and get better as the season progresses - the challenge is your improvement needs to outpace the improvement of your opponents and you need to be peaking in March with execution and confidence BUT a season is journey

the VCU team that went to the Final Four was 21-10 in the regular season - boy they must have been one of the lowest basketball IQ teams ever because they did not show up quite often (how did that work out eventually)

this 24-25 edition is still figuring it out - they have more scorers than a VCU team usually has, have played tough defense at times, shared the ball pretty well, but still need to figure out who should have the ball with 7 seconds left on the shot clock to give us best chance to score . I think we rely upon the 3-ball too much but that Is Odom's style - even on the nights we have shot poorly from deep the team has found ways to keep the score close or still win

This is a top 3 A-10 team barring injury

go Rams
 
Wolfpack Ram said:
VCU shot 72% from the free throw line against Seton Hall, 78% against Nevada and 73% against Miami. Free throws are not the problem with this VCU team. Fouling is a different issue. VCU gave up 16 points at the free throw line against Seton Hall, 15 points against Nevada and 16 points against Miami.
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Free throw percentage is not but we should definitely be getting to the line more and fouling less. Max draws a ton of fouls but other than him everyone else probably fouls more than they get fouled.
 
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