jf wrote:

We're down 23 with 4 minutes to go. VCU coach Rhoades starts slamming the table and egging on the fans to make noise.
What a bush league move. 
Hope we or basketball karma bits him in the ass that he is.
 

I didn't think VCU could find a bigger asshat than Will Wade and yet here we are.

Last edited by GW0509 (2/29/2020 6:07 pm)

It's crazy that our biggest win against VCU was a Mojo coached team in 2018.  Paraphrasing Pedro Martinez, VCU has been our daddy ever since they joined the A-10.

jf wrote:

Would have been decent to play our walkons a few seconds when down by 25 with one minute left, rather than just putting Adam in with 30 seconds.  And Adam makes a beyond half court shot. 
Glad JC hugs Rhoades and has a big chat after the humiliation.
 

While this was happening, the announcers said that Rhoades recruited JC when JC was in high school, they didn't mention the school though. I believe the announcers also said that Rhoades and JC coached together at VCU. Was anyone aware that Rhoades and JC had a long history with each other? 

Yes, heard it.
Doesn't that make it worse? Don't really recall ever seeing that--a coach rallying fans-- in a game that was already a blowout. What would be the point, other than to strut and show off victory against an
injury depleted team?

Agreed that was pretty classless lol

I'd say Anthony Grant actually.  He took VCU to the NCAAs, and he recruited the team that made a Final 4 Run.  And Grant was building on work done before him.  

Look at the Job Anthony Grant has done at Dayton vs what Shaka has done at Texas e.g.

On to the next one!

Really was hoping we weren’t playing on the first day of the  A10 tournament. Maybe few care. Maybe it’s of zero interest to the players, but I sure as hell wanted it.

However forget my bench mark as long as JC gets what he wants out of this year

Wasn't expecting a win, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed by the effort today, especially during the second half (pretty much a common theme in all VCU games we play). The second half fatigue and turnovers were more or less expected, but still a bit disappointing. I was hoping them having four guys out would at least have let us keep it competitive.

We did a good job breaking their press in the backcourt, but our biggest issue was not attacking the basket once we did. The times we have beaten VCU it is because guys like Pato or Terry have been aggressive. Maceo was the only one who seemed to get this (Jamison had a nice move once getting to the hoop, and a backdoor cut to him once out of a timeout was one of the few times it felt like we were running a play), but when he did drive it was when we had already reset in the halfcourt. Speaking of which, nearly every time we got the ball past halfcourt we would reset at the top of the key which is a losing strategy against VCU, especially when the threes aren't falling (we were settling for shots instead of finding good ones). We effectively worked hard to break their press, and then rewarded them by letting them get back into position defensively. What we were absolutely TERRIBLE at today was handling the trap which accounted for a good number of our turnovers. I said it in previous games, but running the shot clock down and making Armel make something out of nothing is not working. I was actually getting bad flashbacks of the Jair days where Armel was dribbling into a corner and then effectively had to work twice as hard to even get the ball away to another GW player. Again, I don't think it would kill us to pass the ball a lot more earlier in the shot clock and maybe find a quality shot earlier on before the clock expires. We by no means should have played at VCU's speed, but at times our pace is too cavalier and lacks any sense of purpose or ambition.

The fact Armel played 40 minutes (39.5 is basically 40 in my book) was inexcusable. It was clear in the first half alone that he didn't have it today. I know Amir and Shawn are sidelined with injuries I assume (the lack of reporting makes it a speculation), but this is the kind of game where when the team is down by 20+ (really 15+) you can still consider it a "win" if you give the guys off the bench more time and rest the starters for once. I didn't see our bench too closely (the lighting was somewhat dim) but does anyone know if Mezie was dressed for the game? Losing by 20 vs. 30 doesn't mean too much, at least to me (especially this year). Armel has played 40 minutes four games in a row. Poor guy. His usage is so high he hardly gets any possessions off (there might have been 5 plays at most where he even played off the ball).

JNJ seemed to disappear completely in the second half. He had that nice steal and dunk earlier on, but we had even him settle for threes which isn't a strength of his game right now. The one time we had him cut to the hoop was a good move, although he didn't end up making the shot. His body language didn't seem too positive in the second half, and we honestly could have had him more involved in the second half. I don't care if he turns the ball over - Armel on an empty tank was anyways. Let him play the point some (also good for the future) and give Armel a few minutes to catch his breath.

Nice to see Javier make a return today. I honestly thought he was out for the year, but again we never hear anything about injuries. His pass to Chase underneath late in the game for a layup was one of the few highlights in the game. Javier's return seemed to mean Ace is now no longer going to see meaningful action (I think he was a healthy scratch?), but it's really impossible to predict rotations this year. No player has started every game this year, and we've had 10+ different starting lineups.

Rhoades slamming the table late in the game honestly showed a lack of maturity, but the VCU fanbase was surprisingly dead even up by 20. Guess they aren't happy unless they are in the NCAA conversations, but I have to see the number of consecutive sellouts they have had is impressive and a credit to their fanbase.

Equally as classless was their walk-on (who had already made a basket a play earlier) take a shot in the final 30 seconds of the game with the team already up by 25. There might have been a few tenths of a second different between the game and shot clock, but the right thing to do in that situation is run the clock out and take a violation. Even if you don't do that, if your goal is to take a shot do it earlier on. He chose somehow the least classy move and waited until there were two seconds left to drive to the basket when most of our team had already stopped playing. Glad Adam made that halfcourt three in response right afterwards despite their attempt to not give us another shot at the end. Wish he had played more.

The number of missed layups was tough to see but it all goes back to fatigue. AT and Chase did do a good job on the boards though. I think this is our third straight game shooting 50% from the line. Our two 90% shooters, Jamison and Maceo, combined to go 2-7. It almost felt like there was a lid on the hoop at times. Defensively, I could live with daring them to shoot threes, although we lost Hyland, a 42% shooter, inexcusably open a few times, and go figure that Simms makes 4 threes and 5 of 8 shots against us after 12 of the past 13 games where he shot under 35% from the field. After halftime though we were just too slow staying with their guys and let them get deep into the lane far too easily (again fatigue), turning the game into a dunk contest. It will be nice (and refreshing) to have more depth next year. Not going to speculate with the season going on still, but I wouldn't be surprised if a few guys don't return next year. It was very clear that there was a talent disparity between our bench vs. theirs.

I just hope that in the future we are able to beat VCU more than just once every three years. At least we scored after halftime a lot earlier than we did last year.

Up next is senior night against Fordham. For team morale and especially our seniors, I hope we get back in the win column, although Fordham's defense is legit so it won't be easy. Hopefully the game isn't too close and we can actually allow Armel to exit to applause before the game ends for all he's given us this year. Armel, AT, and Juice (as well as walk-ons Adam and Luke) have definitely been through a lot and will hopefully get to go out with a win in the final home game!
 

jf wrote:

We're down 23 with 4 minutes to go. VCU coach Rhoades starts slamming the table and egging on the fans to make noise.
What a bush league move. 
Hope we or basketball karma bits him in the ass that he is.
 

 I thought the exact same thing when it happened.   Kind of a curious move.  Completely lacking in sportsmanship.

Still waiting for an answer on my Penny Elliott reference.

dmvpiranha wrote:

 but does anyone know if Mezie was dressed for the game? 
 

Mezie was dressed.  So was Ace.  Neither played.