After East Carolina beat VCU 93-90 in overtime Tuesday, some of the Pirates talked about the win being “up there” with upsets last year over N.C. State, George Mason and Houston.
      East Carolina’s Sam Hinnant called the Rams a “tournament team.” Pirates coach Mack McCarthy said when you look at the NCAA field at the end of the year, “there’s a good chance you’ll see VCU’s name in it, and this is going to be a pretty significant victory.”
      I don’t agree that VCU is a NCAA tournament team, at least not at this point.
      It’s only four games into the season, and there’s no reason for folks to panic. But the Rams need to improve in a lot of areas to get to that level.
      Their bread-and-butter fullcourt pressure didn’t really bother Rhode Island or ECU. In their half-court defense, the Rams have been in chase mode too much after getting beat by dribble penetration. And on some traps, VCU’s interior people have failed to give rotation help, leaving guys wide open under the basket for easy buckets.
      Blocking out on rebounds has been fair at best. That’s an area that will become even more important for a team that doesn’t have a lot of height. VCU is giving up an average of 14.3 offensive rebounds.
      Shooting runs hot and cold, and the Rams have not been good from the foul line (51 of 79, 64.6 percent). One reason may be that other than Eric Maynor (19 of 27), their better foul shooters – their guards—aren’t getting to the line enough. Ed Nixon has six attempts, Brandon Rozzell three and Joey Rodriguez one.
      Now for the encouraging news. VCU isn’t hitting on all cylinders, and the Rams could have won both the Rhode Island and East Carolina games. And you see spurts of what can happen when they put things together.
    And they’ve got Maynor.
     
    Some other thoughts and items:
      Larry Sanders had the kind of game against East Carolina that speaks about his potential. The 6-10 sophomore had 16 points (7 of 11), 14 rebounds and four blocks. He was aggressive when he got the ball around the basket and used those long arms to full advantage on the boards. He still commits some silly fouls and needs to be more selective when trying to block shots – he goes after everything, and his teammates sometimes don’t cover for him on the back side, leading to easy stickbacks – but some consistency will make him a dominant big man.
      VCU golf coach Matt Ball signed golfer Brian Langley, a junior from two-time defending state Group AA champ Blacksburg High. Langley is 6-5, 205 pounds. He has been as high as 46th in the American Junior Golf Association. Langley won the AJGA national title at the Knoxville (Tenn.) Junior Open during the summer, finished fourth in another AJGA national tournament and was a semifinalist in the Roanoke Valley Match Play Championships. “Brian is a big kid and obviously he has the power,” Ball said in a release. “But he also has great touch for a big man to go with it. He should give us significant depth as a young player, and he’s one who could really lead us in the future.”
      The Final Word: “Even a fish wouldn’t get into trouble if he’d keep his mouth shut.” – Not sure of the identity of the author, but this is on a sign in my house.

Posted by Tim Pearrell in • College Sports • Virginia Commonwealth University
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