VCU Preview

BG heads from New York to Richmond to take on the VCU Rams.

The Rams are a very famous mid-major program.  They made that famous run from the play-ins to the final four a few years back, and have been a consistent fixture in the NCAAs even after moving to the A-10.  They have a rocking gym and a pretty good home court advantage BG will have to deal with.

Their coach is now Mike Rhoades, who was Shaka Smart's assistant back in the golden days.  They are not expected to be as good this year, though time will tell.  The pre-season media poll in the A-10 had them picked to finish 7th.

They are 2-0 to date.  They have had two games against lower ranked teams--Garder-Webb and Hampton--and beat them both 69-57, which is just weird.  Last year, they were 18-15 and lost 2 starters from that team.

To date, they are scoring a point per possession (which is average right now) and allowing only .97 per possession, which is really good.  Forcing turnovers was always their hallmark and they are still good, getting them on 26% of possessions.  Unfortunately, they are committing them at the same rate.  They have been very difficult to shoot against and average with their own shots.  They get to the line a lot, though they have made only 61% of their FTs.

Individually, the first thing to know is that VCU plays a lot of pressure and a lot of guys.  They have 12 players averaging 9 minutes a game or more.  Their leading scorers all average all points a game.  Isaac Vann scores 11.5 on 9 of 24 shooting and 6 rebounds.  Marcus Evans is scoring 11 points but only in 14 minutes per game and shooting 6 of 13.  Marcus Santos-Silva scored 11 ppg in 17 minutes and shooting 10 of 14.

This will be an intersting one.  On the road, this is a tough test, but it's not undoable if BG can continue to shoot well, which has been their major improvement to date.