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World B. Free

World B. Free

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Not seeing it over the past few weeks. If anything, I would say this team has regressed. I know individual guys are improving but as far as the TEAM goes, I'm not seeing it. Seems like this team has spurts of really good play followed by spurts where everyone looks lost on offense and a step slow on defense. Very weird/frustrating.

The second half yesterday was just another example of a lack of progress in my opinion. Tulane is not a good team at all and they could have easily won that game, which would have been a real shame b/c VCU has the talent and HAD the OPPORTUNITY to blow them out in the second half.

Not gonna be a hater on any of the kids or coaches. Not the point. I will always cheer like heck for my Rams and support the team and program in any way I can. Regardless of the outcome, I still think watching a game at the SC is a heck of a good time.

I guess I look at this situation the same way I look at the kids I teach who don't work up to their potential in class. It breaks your heart b/c you know they are capable of more, but you never quit on them or give up.

Just some Sunday morning rumblings. Thoughts?
 
Seems we can get focused and determined to play one half of basketball. Ready to see two great halves of VCU Basketball.
 
Good post. I think we'd be better if we didn't run the "havoc" style. I'd like to see us be a little more traditional - still pushing the pace at times, but not all game long. If Reddic can continue to develop we'll have a better inside game with he and Skeen than we do an outside game.
 
Rambunctious said:
Good post. I think we'd be better if we didn't run the "havoc" style. I'd like to see us be a little more traditional - still pushing the pace at times, but not all game long. If Reddic can continue to develop we'll have a better inside game with he and Skeen than we do an outside game.
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That being said, yesterday the press didn't hurt us at all yesterday like it has in every game previous. Although, we did have more turnovers than Tulane i believe.
 
Hmm, extended minutes for a lot of newer guys, and we get comments like World's.

This is just growing pains. I think that as we move forward, and the new players get more comfortable, things will improve. Early on we were just getting the older guys in sync. Now we are working on becoming a complete team.

Yesterday, when things were going good, and we had lots of players coming in and out, we looked the best I've seen this year. But it did get ragged in the second half. Players got tired, we had a couple get hurt, and the quality of play just went down generally. I think the pieces are all there, we just got to give it time.

And the best thing is, while we are doing it we are still 7-3. 8-)
 
vcubanana said:
Rambunctious said:
Good post. I think we'd be better if we didn't run the "havoc" style. I'd like to see us be a little more traditional - still pushing the pace at times, but not all game long. If Reddic can continue to develop we'll have a better inside game with he and Skeen than we do an outside game.
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That being said, yesterday the press didn't hurt us at all yesterday like it has in every game previous. Although, we did have more turnovers than Tulane i believe.
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But a lot of those turnovers were late in the game when we started falling apart.
 
fmrick said:
Hmm, extended minutes for a lot of newer guys, and we get comments like World's.

This is just growing pains. I think that as we move forward, and the new players get more comfortable, things will improve. Early on we were just getting the older guys in sync. Now we are working on becoming a complete team.

Yesterday, when things were going good, and we had lots of players coming in and out, we looked the best I've seen this year. But it did get ragged in the second half. Players got tired, we had a couple get hurt, and the quality of play just went down generally. I think the pieces are all there, we just got to give it time.

And the best thing is, while we are doing it we are still 7-3. 8-)
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You make a good point about the extended minutes for a lot of the newer guys and the possibility of growing pains. It definitely takes time for a team to become complete when the rotation is closer to 10 than 7 or 8. Probably explains the spurts of really good basketball followed by spurts of not so good play.

This is why this board can be so great sometimes. I came on here with an opinion and asked for thoughts and that is exactly what I got. Nobody flipping out and acting like my 2 year old when Yo Gaba Gaba gets turned off; just solid points made all around.

Deuces,

World B.
 
Well thought out post that was critical without name-calling and general hating, much appreciated. I disagree with the notion that we're regressing. Some aspects of our game have dissolved a bit, I'll agree with that and the stats are evidence of it. Still, as nerve-wracking as yesterdays game was, I was VERY impressed that everyone kept their poise when things were obviously not going their way. No one was frowning, or had their head down, or their hands on their knees, and when our upperclassmen kept making mistakes our younger guys did all they could to keep us going. Our team was used to having at least one NBA-bound player they could go to when things got hairy. We don't have that anymore. We were waiting for someone like Maynor or Sanders to come play with us at U of R, because no one on our team seemed up to the task (whether it was physically or being unprepared mentally).

We got frustrated yesterday, but we didn't give up and there's some progression in that. Seeing that many turnovers will scare the living daylights out of any fan though, and everyone needs to get on the same page because its pretty obvious when someone's out of position or thinking of the wrong play. I have faith that all our guys are smart enough to know what they did wrong and work on the mistakes they made.

Our leadership is in a strange state this year but it's not any different from the same circumstances of last year. Larry led by example about 75% of the time while T.J. Gwynn and Joey were the guys giving the talks and advice. J - Rod still gives the advice and pep talks when needed, you can see him doing it all the time. He will fill the leadership role perfectly once his ankle gets back to 100%, but it (understandably) limits him from leading by example when it's still a little fragile. Thankfully Brandon seems to have done well to led by example, but when he was sidelined against U of R you could see how much of a detrimental effect it had on our team.

We DO need more rebounds, but seeing Reddic have a prominent role in yesterday's game was promising. He, Theus, and maybe Brandenburg were the underclassmen that really made up for the mistakes of all the upperclassmen. Veal and Reddic are both still getting used to our system so I guess that's why their minutes are relatively limited. I'd love to see them get more time, but that's all the coaches decision and none of us know the players better than him and the staff. If you compare Skeen's game from when he first started playing for us last year to now there's a big improvement, and I would say it's because he really understands the players around him now and how they're instructed to play. Jamie hasn't even played a total season with us yet but has gelled incredibly well, and we can't expect the same of Veal. Once Veal and Reddic get their bearings set we will respectively have two great defensive and offensive partnerships for Skeen, but you can't teach the experience they need. It's not going to happen overnight, but Veal will become a good source of boards for us this season and Reddic has a great mentor in Skeen. After Skeen leaves, it looks like it'll be Veal and Reddic taking most of the minutes in the front court. After a season of training and playing with the team I'm sure they'll look a LOT more sharper than they are now, but I even feel the way they look now warrants them more minutes on the court THIS season. We've gotta get 4 of the 6 new guys on the same page as everyone else pretty rapidly because they look like they'll have big roles for us going forward. Time will tell in respect to that so it's hard to make any judgments now. Still, you can't get on the same page if the book's closed! Can Coach Smart summon his inner Maculy Caulkin and become the Pagemaster? Lol forgive me for that last one, I'm in a much better mood today than yesterday.
 
I still feel we win finish in Top 4 of the CAA. Then who knows, if our inside game steadily improves (start Reddic from here on out) its possible we can take 3 games in that building Downtown that is falling apart. Lord, I hope i'm wrong about earlier CBI prediction. Can we just get to CAA play already!
 
JacksonWard31 said:
Can we just get to CAA play already!
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Heck no. We have to win some more OOC, starting Tues.

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GO RAMS!
Beat Blazers!!
 
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