Get Ready For VCU Today

As VCU prepares to play Wichita State tonight in a second round NCAA Tournament game/BracketBuster rematch from last season, prepare yourself with a little bit of background on the Rams.  Here are links to four of my game stories on VCU, including two games from the exciting CAA Tournament.  Enjoy and good luck to VCU.

• George Mason - VCU CAA Tournament Semifinal
• Northeastern - VCU CAA Tournament Quarterfinal
• Recap of VCU vs. Delaware
• Recap of VCU vs. Hofstra 

Mason's Valiant Comeback Falls Short (Recap of George Mason-VCU CAA Semifinal)

The George Mason-VCU semifinal was the fifty sixth Division I game I had covered live this season.  It perhaps might be the most memorable one from start to finish.  I can probably say beyond a shadow of a doubt that no one expected the first nine minutes of the game.  But given the first nine minutes of the game, I can also say that likely no one expected the last thirty one minutes of the game either.

After Drexel had soundly defeated ODU in the warmup act, the headliner was a matchup between two CAA rivals with a long rivalry.  The Rams had knocked the Patriots out of the CAA Tournament the last two years.  Last year was the most memorable as VCU upset George Mason, the regular season champion, in the semifinals.  It's quite likely that win helped the Rams make the First Four. We all know what happened from there.

Now with a sold out crowd made up mostly of VCU fans, but with a large contingent of Mason fans as well, there was this third act. The Richmond Coliseum was loud.  And to add the cherry on top of an amazing atmosphere, the two best pep bands in the Colonial were taking turns getting their fans in a frenzy.

Mason won the tip, but immediately turned the ball over as Darius Theus stole the ball and hit a layup to put VCU up 2-0. This would become the common theme for the first nine minutes.  Another steal, another layup. 4-0 Rams. Then Troy Daniels buried a three to make it 7-0.  Another steal by Rob Brandenberg leads to his dunk. 9-0.  Burgess with three straight three pointers, the third resulting in him shaking his head down the court.  18-0 VCU.

After Mike Morrison turned the ball over again, which was George Mason's seventh turnover in not even six minutes, Daniels buried another three pointer.  Six minutes gone by, Rams up 21-0.  Timeout, Patriots.

The VCU fans in attendance that had been loud already, were now at the point of reaching all time record decibal levels of noise.  It was deafening.  Those of us that were sitting on press row, we were stunned.  VCU hit all five of their three point attempts.  Mason couldn't even get the ball down the court.

After the timeout, Brandenberg hit one of two free throws to put the Rams up 22-0.  The Patriots finally got their first two points on free throws by Sherrod Wright.  The twenty two point run had ended.  But VCU wasn't quite finished yet.

A Reddic layup was followed by another three pointer by Brandenberg.  Jonathan Arledge finally got Mason's first basket on a dunk. However, Treveon Graham followed with a three pointer for the Rams.  Two Theus free throws made the score 32-4 with a little more than nine minutes left.

That wasn't a misprint.  VCU was leading a twenty four win George Mason team 32-4 after nine minutes of action.  To put that in perspective, I had seen Iona score thirty one straight points against St Peter's exactly seven days before that.  As impressive as that was, this was more impressive. St Peter's was the ninth place team in the MAAC.  George Mason was the third place team in the CAA and basically the same team that made it to the round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament last season.

Only one word described how I felt sitting in my seat: Surreal.

It looked quite likely that VCU was going to break Georgia State's tournament setting record from Friday night for largest margin of victory in a CAA Tournament game, thirty five points (Georgia State defeated Hofstra 85-50 in the first round of the CAA Tournament that Friday).  The situation was desperate for George Mason and Patriots' coach Paul Hewitt desperately tried hockey line substitution changes to get his team into a groove.  It looked like the story had been set by the first nine minutes.

But someone forgot to tell George Mason that.

The Patriots' comeback started slowly.  Though they still committed a few more turnovers, Mason for the most part was able to get the ball up the court finally and hit some shots.  VCU though kept pace with them for the next six minutes and the lead was still twenty six, 46-20 with five minutes left in the half.

Then the Rams went cold from beyond the arc, missing their last five three point attempts.  This allowed the Patriots, led by Morrison and Arledge, to go on a 12-2 run to end the half.   It was now a "respectable" sixteen point deficit at the half, 48-32.

If George Mason was going to cut the lead further, they had to cut out the turnovers.  They had twelve turnovers in the first half, which led to seventeen points for VCU, which had only one turnover.  Thus the points off turnovers was in favor of the Rams 17-0.

The second half started out with Mason and VCU basically holding serve.  After six minutes, the Rams' lead was fifteen, 55-40.  The Patriots had not helped themselves, committing three more turnovers in that span.

But Hewitt made a change that ultimately helped Mason.  He had Andre Cornelius now lead the point, which brought them needed quickness against VCU.  Cornelius and Morrison combined to score all of Mason's points during their 12-4 run which cut the VCU deficit into half, 59-52 with about seven a half minutes left.  The George Mason fans roared in approval.

The Patriots' cut the lead a little further. After Morrison, who was dominant the last twenty five minutes of the game, hit two free throws, the Rams were now only ahead 64-58 with three minutes left. What had been a twenty eight point lead had whittled down to six. A lot of credit was due to the Patriots' second half defense, which held the Rams to twenty six percent shooting in the second half.

Mason had a chance to cut the lead further, but they missed four consecutive shots over two possessions. They couldn't cut the lead any further.  VCU scored eight of their last ten points on free throws.   The Rams would hold onto a 74-64 win.

Big Shot Burgess led VCU with twenty points, whild Daniels added seventeen.  They combined to shoot nine of seventeen from beyond the arc.  Brandenberg added fourteen points while Juvonte Reddic scored twelve points.  Morrison and Arledge each had doubles for George Mason.  Morrison had twenty points and eleven rebounds while Arledge had ten points and eleve rebounds. Cornelius added fifteen points.

After watching two terrific games in front of a raucous, sold out crowd over eleven thousand people, I was convinced that there would be a great championship game with what I thought was two definite NCAA tournament teams.   I wasn't able to stay for the championship game, because I had to get back to New York.  But I got to see it the next night.  It lived up to the billing.

Barbecue and VCU in Newark (Recap of VCU vs. Delaware)

Over the years, I have been fortunate to go to many college basketball venues.  Some, like the Webster Arena in Bridgeport, aren't conducive to college basketball games, especially when there are only two thousand people in the stands.  Others, like the Acierno Arena at the Bob Carpenter Center on the campus of the University of Delaware truly stand out.  And it's not just for the basketball experience that makes the Bob so enjoyable, it's also the culinary experience that makes me come back there year after year.

Yesterday, I picked up my partner in crime Tieff and made the all too familiar drive down the New Jersey Turnpike/I-95 to Newark, Delaware.  When we got to the Bob Carpenter Center at 2:00 P.M.,  I noticed that there were very few cars in the parking lot.  Turns out what I thought was a 2:00 P.M. game was a 4:00 PM game being televised on the CAA Network.  So we headed to a nearby McDonald's and then came back to the Bob at 3:00 PM.

A few years ago, when I went to my first Hofstra-Delaware game at the Bob, I learned the ways of the barbecue station.  When you walk into the Bob and head up the main set of stairs to the Acierno Arena, to your right is the Man vs. Food experience of CAA basketball.  Here lies a concessions area with a barbecue carving station.  For a reasonable price, you can have your choice of one large sandwich roll or two smaller sandwich rolls filled with either barbecue pork, roast turkey or roast beef, along with two delicious sides.

Normally, I have the barbecue pork on the large sandwich roll.   But my server convinced me to do the two smaller sandwich rolls, so this way I can have two different tasty choices.  I chose the barbecue pork with the additional sweet sauce and the barbecue beef, with the gravy.  They cut the beef and the turkey right there for you.  Then comes the two sides.  Nothing better than baked macaroni and cheese and german potato salad.  Ah, heaven.

Another nice thing about this concessions area is that there are large roundtables for you to sit and eat your barbecue cuisine.  Often you are sitting with other fans at the same table.  I remember a couple of years ago, Tieff and I sat with a family.  Their daughter was driving on I-95 to meet them there.  We had noticed a lot of highway patrols that day and told the mother about that.  She gave her daughter a call and advised her not to speed.  Hey, anything we can do for fellow basketball fans.

I never refer to the place the Fighting Blue Hens call as home the Acierno Arena.  It's always been the Bob to me and to many others.  It was the home of many America East Tournaments when Delaware was part of that conference.  Now it's just another one of the twelve regular season venues in the CAA.  The Fighting Blue Hens were home to the Rams of VCU in yesterday's contest.  Many VCU fans made the trip up from Richmond.  In fact in my row, it was mostly made up of  Rams' fans.  Have Final Four Appearance, will travel.

The Blue Hens and the Rams have both got out to 3-2 records in the CAA.  So the game was for a share of fourth place in the Colonial, which is important.  The top four teams in the conference get first round byes in the CAA Tournament.  And since the tournament has expanded to twelve teams in the 2005-06 season, no team that has not had a first round bye has won the CAA Tournament.

The game started out with VCU showing terrific ball movement on offense, but they didn't have much to show for it as they struggled for the field.  In the first half, VCU shot an abysmal one of nine from beyond the arc and shot twenty eight percent from the field.  Big Time Bradford Burgess was having a rough first half shooting one of seven from the field.  But he hit seven of eight free throws and still had ten points in the first twenty minutes.

But Delaware struggled even worse.  First, their offense doesn't seem to have many set plays. It really is based on Devon Saddler, the combo guard for the Blue Hens, creating plays off the dribble, whether it's a pass to Kyle Anderson, the Blue Hens long distance shooting guard or inside to Jamelle Hagins, or Saddler taking a shot himself.  They didn't know how to attack VCU's zone defense and not once did a Blue Hen big man go into the middle of the zone and try to hit a jumper.  Saddler had a run first half, shooting one of nine from the field.

The Blue Hens didn't score a point for nearly the first nine minutes.  But thanks to the Rams' shooting woes, they were only down 8-0.  Then just like that Saddler and Anderson hit three pointers and it was a game at 8-6 with ten and a half minutes left.

Then came the play of the game.  VCU's Juvante Reddic, a six foot nine sophomore forward, got the ball at the top of the key.  Reddic then in a blur, flew by his man and hit a layup and was fouled.  Our whole row was stunned in amazement.  Tieff and I had never seen someone that size drive the lane so fast.  It was incredible. Reddic hit the free throw to put VCU up 14-10.

The game was relatively close for the next several minutes.   Then around four and half minutes left in the half, VCU went on a 9-2 spurt led by Burgess, Reddic and a technical foul called on Delaware Head Coach Monte Ross.  The Rams were up 30-19.   Delaware scored four straight points to cut the deficit to 30-23 at the half.

At halftime, we made our way to the ice cream stand located behind our section.  It was hard ice cream and they had some terrific choices. I decided to have the "Twist and Scotch"; butterscotch ice cream with chocolate covered pretzels.  You could actually smell the ice cream and it was absolutely delicious.

The start of the second half saw Josh Brinkley go to work for the Blue Hens.  Twice Brinkley scored baskets on offensive rebounds and both times he was fouled.  He made both free throws and hit one of two free throws on an earler foul as he scored Delaware's first seven points.  Saddler followed with a layup and Delaware had cut VCU's lead to four, 36-32 with 15:50 left in the game.

The media timeout came at the perfect time for the Rams, as it allowed them to regroup. VCU then went on a 12-2 spurt over the next four minutes.  Treveon Graham and Briante Weber, two of the Rams' freshmen buried three pointers to give VCU a 48-34 lead.  

Saddler scored four of Delaware's next six points and cut the lead to eight, 48-40 with a little less than ten minutes left.  But it was as close as the Blue Hens would get the rest of the way.  Saddler's shooting woes continued as he was two of ten from the field in the second half and only scored ten points on the day.

Meanwhile, Burgess came alive late in the second half with two three pointers for the Rams.  When Reddic hit an emphatic dunk with two minutes left to put VCU up 65-50, all that was left was for Shaka Smart was to clear his bench. Late in the game, seldom used but highly recruited Rico McCarter tried to go for a slam with his team up twelve with twelve seconds left.  Hagins let it be known that was against basketball code by trying to block the shot but making sure he fouled McCarter hard.  McCarter got a statistic in the game, making one of two free throws to make the final score VCU 68 Delaware 55.

Despite being four of fourteen from the field, Burgess had eighteen points to lead VCU.  Reddic added eleven points, nine rebounds and one everlasting memory for me.  Four other Rams' players scored eight or nine points in the game.  For Delaware, Brinkley (thirteen points, 11 rebounds) nd Hagins (ten points and fourteen rebounds) each had double doubles and Saddler had his aforementioned ten points.

As Tieff and I made our way back to New York, it was another successful road trip.  Terrific barbecue, delicious ice cream and good college basketball.   Hoops and food.   You can't beat it.

VCU Passes the Eye Test (Recap of VCU vs. Hofstra)

"You talk about the eye test. This one doesn't pass the laugh test."

By now, everyone should know the story of the 2010-11 VCU Rams.  Finished fourth in the CAA, lost in the CAA Championship to Old Dominion.  One of the last teams to make it into the NCAA Tournament and were a member of "The First Four".  And of course, the recipient of the above insidious comment by Jay Bilas during ESPN's post NCAA selection show.

Well, as everyone knows VCU got the last laugh last season.  From "First Four" to "Final Four".  Along the way, VCU defeated teams from the PAC-10 (USC), the Big East (Georgetown), the Big Ten (Purdue, the ACC (Florida State) and the Big 12 (Kansas)  before bowing out to fellow mid major Butler in the national semifinals.

The question at the start of this season was what would the 2011-12 VCU Rams do for an encore. The only returning starter was "Big Time" Bradford Burgess.  However, the Rams had several key reserves from the Final Four team such as Rob Brandenberg, Darius Theus, Juvonte Reddic and D.J. Haley who now had to step up into starting roles.

At the beginning of the season, the Rams struggled.  They split their first six games.  Their last loss came at the hands of their former coach, Anthony Davis and his Alabama Crimson Tide. Since then, VCU has been on a roll, winning seven games in a row.  That included their first conference win of the season, a twenty three point win at home over UNCW, which had earlier yesterday beaten Delaware.

The Rams were taking on a Hofstra Pride team on a roll themselves, having won three straight games.  Their latest win was 82-75 over an Iona Gaels team that had received a lot of national publicity due to their once 10-2 record (now 10-3) and their prolific scoring ability.  Hofstra features Mike Moore, the CAA's leading scorer, who averages twenty one points per game and had scored eighty points in his last three games.

The game started out at a very high pace. Hofstra took an early 8-6 lead on a David Imes jumper. But VCU's Troy Daniels hit the first of his five three pointers to put the Rams out in front for the first time 9-8.  Both teams hit their shots early on as Hofstra hit seven of their first ten shots while VCU hit eight of their first twelve shots.  The Rams were up 19-17 with a little over twelve minutes left in the first half.

But VCU started slowly pulling away due to forcing Hofstra to turn the ball over and keeping Moore in check. Over the span of eight minutes, the Pride missed eight of their nine shots and turned the ball over three times. VCU fared only a  little better during that span,  shooting two of eleven from the field but also added a few free throws.  The Rams were up nine with a little over four minutes left thanks to another Daniels' three pointer until a Shemiye McLendon three cut the lead to six, 30-24 with four minutes left.

But the VCU staple of 2010-11, the three point shot, is also alive and well in 2011-12.   Daniels hit his fourth three pointer of the first half to put the Rams up 37-25 with 2:38 left.  VCU would end the half, leading by eleven, 41-30.   The numbers were pretty similar for both teams in field goals made, field goals attempted, rebounds, turnovers etc.

The difference was VCU was 5 of 11 from three, while Hofstra was 1 of 4.  Also, the Rams did a very good job limiting the Pride's two leading scorers, Moore and Lester. Both were struggling as Moore had six points and Lester had none, as the two combined to shoot 2 of 9 from the field.

Any hope that Hofstra fans had for a comeback was quickly dashed in the second half.  VCU came out and scored the first six points while the Pride had two turnovers in a little over thirty seconds.  The Rams were up 47-30 and Hofstra Coach Mo Cassara had no choice but to call timeout.

But the timeout didn't help matters for the Pride.  Hofstra would commit another four turnovers in the span of two and half minutes and a layup by Briante Weber put VCU up 54-34 with a little more than fifteen minutes left.  The game was over for all intensive purposes.

VCU thoroughly dissected Hofstra.  First, the Rams rotation is ten deep.  Coach Shaka Smart can send wave after wave of players at you, using his "Havoc" press system.  During a timeout in the second half, Smart did a hockey line change, taking all out all his starters for reserves.  As was somewhat noted before, they forced six Hofstra turnovers in the first five minutes of the second half.

Second, the Rams also thoroughly frustrated one of the better point guards in the CAA this season, Dwan McMillan, into his worst game of the season.  McMillan, who had nine assists against Iona, had five assists but also six turnovers before fouling out of the game in the second half.   Finally, Moore, who was shooting forty five percent from three this season, was only one of seven from beyond the arc on the night and four of fourteen overall.   Moore had to work very hard to score the fourteen points he had on the night.

Hofstra never got closer than thirteen points the rest of the way.  How good is VCU?  Well, late in the game, VCU fans on Twitter were asking when the Rams seldom used eleventh and twelfth players, scholarship players Reco McCarter and Heath Houston were going to play.  McCarter chose VCU over Wake Forest, Clemson and Virginia Tech, while Houston signed with VCU after originally being with Auburn.  And these are the last two guys on the bench!  This is what you usually see only in Power Six conference teams.  And sure enough, McCarter buried a three pointer for VCU's final points in a convincing 80-63 win over Hofstra.

Hofstra shot forty six percent from the field, which is certainly respectable and had just about the same number of made free throws (VCU was 19 of 24, while Hofstra was 18 of 22).  However, there were three differences; 1) VCU was 9 of 24 from three, while Hofstra was 3 of 12.  2) Points off turnovers - VCU 28, Hofstra 12 and 3) Bench scoring - VCU 44 Hofstra 21.

Even more impressive was that Burgess only had eight points for VCU.  Daniels led the way with fifteen points, all on three pointers.  Theus had fourteen,  Reddick had twelve and freshman Briante Weber had ten points.  Besides Moore, Hofstra was led by McLendon with thirteen, David Imes with ten points and Lester had ten points, all in the second half.

As I left the Mack Center last night with my older son Matthew and my friend Tieff, I really thought I saw in VCU a team capable of going to the Sweet Sixteen.  They are lightning quick, they can shoot, they can drive to the basket, they can defend and they are deep.  This team easily passed the eye test in my book.

Here's the really scary thought for VCU's CAA opponents.  Burgess is the only senior on this team.

Miscellaneous Notes and Thoughts

I gave my RSVP for the Hofstra Men's Basketball Season Ticket Holder Practice and Reception on October 27th.   Can't wait for my first taste of college basketball season.  Last year's Hofstra Fanfest gave me a good first look at a much improved David Imes.  Looking forward to see who will surprise me in my first look at Hofstra for the 2011-12 season.

Today, the ESPN/USA Today Preseason Coaches Poll was announced.  North Carolina was voted the #1 team in the poll with 30 out of 31 first place votes.  Kentucky was ranked second.  If you are looking for a  mid major team in the poll, well depending on how you view Xavier and Gonzaga as mid majors, the Musketeers were picked 15th and the Zags were picked 23rd.

What I found most humorous was that the top rated CAA team in the Coaches Poll was George Mason who received 12 votes while Drexel received only 2 votes.  Anyone with significant knowledge of the CAA (Mike Litos, Brian Mull, John Templon, hell even dumb old me) has picked Drexel to finish first.  This is due to the fact that Drexel returns four starters, while Mason has lost three starters; Cam Long to graduation, Luke Hancock transferring to Louisville and Andre Cornelius due to suspension.  Goes to show you how much the Preseason Coaches Poll is really worth in the grand scheme of things .

For a while, I was wondering what was going to occur first, my younger son Jonathan's fourth birthday (November 17) or the NCAA's ruling on granting Momo Jones a waiver to play for Iona this season.  Well, it finally happened today, as the NCAA granted Jones a waiver to play for the Gaels this season.  Needless to say this makes the Gaels the prohibitive favorite in the MAAC.  But more importantly, the Gaels with Jones, Michael Glover and Scott Machado could possibly be one of the best mid major teams in the country.   Better get your tickets now for games at the Hynes Center.  I see lots of sellouts up in New Rochelle this season.  By the way, circle November 28th on your calendar.  Iona is home vs. LIU in what promises to be a very high scoring game.

I know I didn't talk about this in my CAA preview, but if you held a gun to my head, my picks for All First Team CAA this season would be Bradford Burgess (VCU), Quinn McDowell (W&M), Samme Givens (Drexel), Kent Bazemore (ODU)  and Ryan Pearson (George Mason).   If Bazemore's foot doesn't heal properly, then pick one from the following; Devon Saddler (Delaware), Mike Moore (Hofstra) and Chris Fouch (Drexel).  

By the way, I am very upset at the CAA schedule makers this season.  How dare they have Hofstra playing at Delaware on a weeknight?!  I need my fill of Blue Hen Barbecue!!  I guess I will have to go to a different Delaware Saturday home game.  I am targeting January 14 when they host VCU.  VCU and barbecue.  That rhymes!

Speaking of Hofstra, there is a lovely road trip I plan to take Thanksgiving weekend up to Rhode Island to see the Pride play in the Legends Classic along with Rhode Island, Cleveland State and Boston University, three teams who also made the postseason last season.   It will be my first ever road trip alone with my six year old son, Matthew, the college basketball maven.  Father and son bonding while watching college basketball in Rhode Island.   Should be memorable.

Three weeks from tomorrow is Hofstra's first home game vs. LIU.   It's just around the corner.  Thank god!