VCU Preview
All right, just like against UConn in the NCAA tournament, we played a very good game against a talented VCU team as part of last year's ESPN Bracketbuster series.
Everything else stops right there. These are two very different teams that are playing each other tonight. VCU lost thier coach, Jeff Capel, to Oklahoma, and their best player, Nick George, to graduation. However, as we are seeing, their program has done an excellent job in hiring one of Billy Donovan's assistants, Anthony Grant, who has his team playing very well early in the season. Eric Maynor has filled in superbly for George, leading the team in scoring and assists, averaging 15.1 and 5.3, respectively.
VCU also starts two other guards, B.A. Walker and Jesse Pellot-Rosa, both of whom average over 14 points a game. What's more, all three players shoot over 40 percent from beyond the arc and the trio accounts for 41 of VCU's 46 three-pointers on the year.
Despite their ability to hit the 3, a friend who lives in Richmond, is a UR graduate, and follows both UR and VCU basketball tells me:
"They are now a full court pressing, up-tempo team since Anthony Grant took them over this year. They like to run, it is a completely different style than last year. If you can beat their press and make them play half court basketball they are very beatable.
They have about 5 good players but no outstanding players. Watch out for Eric Maynor and BA Walker, both guards.
Their claims to fame this year is that they beat Houston and started the Elon game on a 22 to 0 run."
For the record, VCU also lost to Xavier by 3, a team many predict to win the A10 this year.
Beating their press might be easier said than done, as VCU's defense has a total of 67 steals on the year-- an average of 9.6 per game-- many of which are probably a result of that press. VCU also has a turnover margin of +8 per game, so they appear to also do a nice job taking care of the basketball.
I feel a bit like Joe Morgan typing this, but Albany is really going to need Siggers to stay out of the foul trouble that he got himself into against Sacred Heart and Siena.
After ~12,000 attended the Albany-Siena game last Friday, I'm curious to see how both schools draw tonight. Crowds have been good this year and we'll need another one tonight.
Everything else stops right there. These are two very different teams that are playing each other tonight. VCU lost thier coach, Jeff Capel, to Oklahoma, and their best player, Nick George, to graduation. However, as we are seeing, their program has done an excellent job in hiring one of Billy Donovan's assistants, Anthony Grant, who has his team playing very well early in the season. Eric Maynor has filled in superbly for George, leading the team in scoring and assists, averaging 15.1 and 5.3, respectively.
VCU also starts two other guards, B.A. Walker and Jesse Pellot-Rosa, both of whom average over 14 points a game. What's more, all three players shoot over 40 percent from beyond the arc and the trio accounts for 41 of VCU's 46 three-pointers on the year.
Despite their ability to hit the 3, a friend who lives in Richmond, is a UR graduate, and follows both UR and VCU basketball tells me:
"They are now a full court pressing, up-tempo team since Anthony Grant took them over this year. They like to run, it is a completely different style than last year. If you can beat their press and make them play half court basketball they are very beatable.
They have about 5 good players but no outstanding players. Watch out for Eric Maynor and BA Walker, both guards.
Their claims to fame this year is that they beat Houston and started the Elon game on a 22 to 0 run."
For the record, VCU also lost to Xavier by 3, a team many predict to win the A10 this year.
Beating their press might be easier said than done, as VCU's defense has a total of 67 steals on the year-- an average of 9.6 per game-- many of which are probably a result of that press. VCU also has a turnover margin of +8 per game, so they appear to also do a nice job taking care of the basketball.
I feel a bit like Joe Morgan typing this, but Albany is really going to need Siggers to stay out of the foul trouble that he got himself into against Sacred Heart and Siena.
After ~12,000 attended the Albany-Siena game last Friday, I'm curious to see how both schools draw tonight. Crowds have been good this year and we'll need another one tonight.
posted by L3K at 6:47 AM
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