RAM-blings as Colonial Athletic Association champ VCU heads into this weekend’s conference tournament:

* The Rams have been hanging on down the stretch, struggling to beat lower-tier teams in the conference. They need to pick it up if they don’t want to be eliminated early in the conference tournament. Most disturbing is the high shooting percentage opponents have registered in the past eight games. Six of the eight — including the past four — have shot 50 percent or better. In the locker room after VCU survived Georgia State 72-70 Saturday, “The first thing I told ’em was we need to play better,” guard Jesse Pellot-Rosa said. “We can’t go in and play like this.”

* Did VCU (16-2) have an easier path than runner-up Old Dominion (15-3) to the conference title? Absolutely. The Rams played No. 3 Hofstra and No. 4 Drexel once each, splitting those games on the road. No. 2 Old Dominion played Hofstra and Drexel twice each, winning three of the four. You can argue that the unbalanced schedule is unfair to somebody every year. That’s just the luck of the draw when you’ve got 12 teams playing 18 conference games. VCU plays its five permanent partners — ODU, James Madison, William and Mary, UNC Wilmington and Georgia State — twice each year, then plays two other teams twice. That pair rotates every two years. The Rams double up with Northeastern and Drexel in four years. Anybody got a crystal ball to determine who will be the strong and weak teams in the league then?

* Pellot-Rosa made the alert play of the year against Georgia State. Michael Anderson was fouled with 4 seconds left and the Rams clinging to a 68-67 lead. He made his first foul shot. His second, though, bounced to the left of the lane. Georgia State, with no timeouts, had deployed three rebounders and stationed two men in the front court. The Panthers had only one man stationed on the side to which the ball caromed. He was in the low block.
Pellot-Rosa wasn’t even in the lane. He was standing outside the 3-point line. When the ball came his way, he grabbed it, went straight to the basket and was fouled. He made both the basket and the foul shot, which put VCU ahead by five. That made Leonard Mendez’s 3-pointer at the buzzer moot.
“I have confidence in my teammates,” Pellot-Rosa said. “But I had a feeling he was going to miss that one. I just inched in. The ball took a great bounce.”

* VCU coach Anthony Grant: “I’m proud of what these guys have been able to accomplish. This is a team a lot of people didn’t give a chance to do what they’ve done. They not only won the league, but they set a record for most [conference wins].
“It means a lot for our entire team, especially for the seniors to go out and win a championship.”

Ramblings after VCU’s 78-68 victory at UNC Wilmington Wednesday:

* VCU coach Anthony Grant saw UNCW forward Todd Hendley in the media room after Wednesday’s game. They embraced and then chatted for a bit. Grant has known Hendley since Hendley was in high school and attended basketball camps at the University of Florida. Grant was an assistant there for 10 years. Asked about the clutch ability of Rams’ point guard Eric Maynor, Grant talked about Hendley as well. He had 13 of his 15 points in the second half. “[Eric’s] got a great will to win,” Grant said. “He’s a big-time competitor. What’s impressive to me is Todd Hendley. His will to win, his competitiveness, it’s something to sit on the other bench and admire the way he goes after it. Maynor’s got those qualities.”

* The victory ended a 10-year winless streak for VCU at Wilmington’s Trask Coliseum. Seniors Jesse Pellot-Rosa and B.A. Walker hadn’t won there in three tries. “We were mainly worried about trying to keep ourselves in position for first place, control our own destiny,” Pellot-Rosa said. “As far as me and B.A. not getting a win here, that was gratifying, too.”

* Pellot-Rosa joined the 1,000 point club with an 18-point night. He had 999 going in. Walker’s 14 points gave him 1,387 and moved him past Bernard Harris and into 11th place on the career list. Tyron McCoy holds the 10th spot with 1,456 points.

* Trask has been acknowledged by coaches as the toughest place to play in the CAA, but it wasn’t a very hostile atmosphere for the Rams. The crowd was listed as 5,233. The number of fannies in the seats wasn’t even half that.

* Grant on VCU’s defense, which drew his wrath after UNCW shot 61.9 percent in the first half: “I thought, for the most part, Wilmington’s effort was better than ours, especially in the first half. As a coach, our guys have to understand these opportunities don’t come by every day. We’ve got to start to take advantage of that and cherish these moments. I’ve been fortunate that I’ve been part of several teams that played for championships. As a basketball team right now, I’d be lying if I said that we are cherishing and taking advantage of the opportunity we have before us.”

* More Grant: “In the first half, everything we expected [from the scouting report] to happen, happened. And we were unwilling or unable to do anything about it. As a coach, that’s alarming.”

* Maynor, assessing why VCU has lulls on defense: “We do it well in spurts. Sometimes it’s about helping each other. Sometimes people don’t know their assignments.”

By Tim Pearrell

Ramblings on a rather warm train on the way to cold Philadelphia:
* Should VCU be ranked? Not unless the Rams beat Drexel at Drexel. VCU was ranked 33rd in this week’s polls, which probably is about right given that the Rams’ schedule hasn’t included a lot of tough teams. VCU (17-3) doesn’t have that eye-opening victory over a big-name nonconference opponent. That raises the how-good-are-they question among national voters who haven’t seen the Rams play. Beating Old Dominion (13-7), George Mason (11-8) at Mason, and Drexel (15-4) at Drexel should legitimize VCU’s record.
* Will the Colonial Athletic Association get more than one bid to the NCAA tournament? Given that two teams went last year, and one (Mason) went to the Final Four, you would have to think the committee will dole out two bids based on last year alone.
Three bids? The conference’s RPI is a little troubling to see that happening. The CAA was rated 13th among conferences by Collegiate Basketball News. Drexel, with wins over Villanova and Syracuse, is 41st. Hofstra is 64th, VCU 74th, ODU 90th and George Mason 97th.
The CAA is 0-9 against the ACC, 4-7 against the Big East, 0-1 against the Big Ten, 1-2 against the Big 12, 6-5 against the Atlantic 10 and 4-0 against Conference USA.
BracketBuster matchups that will be announced Monday should help some in the RPI department.
* There is a clear divide in the conference among the top five teams (VCU, Hofstra, Drexel, ODU and Mason) and the other seven. Four teams get a bye in the first round of the conference tournament. That means somebody will get left out and be in the unenviable position of having to play on the first day.
* Point guard Eric Maynor showed another facet of his game Wednesday against George Mason. While Maynor had a tough shooting night (2-8) and was limited to eight points, he had 10 assists and 10 rebounds. Repeat, 10 rebounds. That’s almost unbelievable from a point guard. Maynor collects a lot of rebounds by drifting into the paint and alertly tracking the ball when his front-court mates block out.

* VCU used the same tactic other teams use against George Mason by double-teaming 6-7 forward Will Thomas anytime he got the ball in the low post. Thomas is so good around the basket you have to double him. But that leaves the perimeter open when Thomas passes the ball back out. Mason had a lot of open 3-pointers and couldn’t knock them down (5 of 17). That may not be the case next time.
* Watching 6-7, 190-pound Michael Anderson trying to body up on Mason’s 6-7, 260-pound Darryl Monroe was like watching the guy trying to hold the door against an angry mob. With Thomas on the bench with foul trouble, Monroe had a career-high 14 points in the first half. But he took just one shot in the second half, primarily because Thomas was back in the game and the Patriots run their offense through him. The Rams have trouble guarding big bodies.

Thoughts and notes as VCU prepares to take on UNC Wilmington and Old Dominion:

* Several of VCU’s players made a point of walking around the Siegel Center and acknowledging the fans after Saturday’s 85-77 victory over Towson. The game drew a crowd of 6,463. “Coach [Anthony Grant] huddled us up after the game and said we should show our appreciation,” VCU guard Jamal Shuler said. “They are our sixth man. They give us the energy we need.”

* How many points would Towson’s Gary Neal have scored had he not spent the first part of the game letting his teammates get involved? Neal didn’t score until the game was almost 12 minutes old. He then poured in 33 points in 28 minutes. In three games against VCU dating to last season, Neal has averaged 35 points. All were losses. The game he didn’t play in against the Rams—because of an injury—Towson won 59-57. 

* Is there a better point guard in the CAA than VCU sophomore Eric Maynor? He’s smart with the ball while being creative, which is tough to do. He breaks down defenses, hangs in the air until he finds somebody open, nails that trademark runner in the lane, scores, plays defense, stays out of foul trouble, hits foul shots and is tireless. Maynor is the one guy VCU can’t do without. He’s averaging 34.1 minutes.

* Grant got his first technical against William and Mary, then said after the game he was “probably out of line.” Maybe. But from a seat on press row, Grant had a beef. VCU’s Michael Anderson had position on a rebound, went after the ball and got called for a foul. Livid, Grant came several feet onto the floor. 

* VCU redshirt freshman T.J. Gwynn sported a new, closely cropped ‘do before going out and scoring 22 points against William and Mary last week. Gwynn had been going mostly with a braided look. “I just looked at it from an image point of view,” he said. “I don’t want to say it was a bad image. It just wasn’t for me.”

* It will be interesting to see how teams fare the second time around against VCU’s fullcourt pressure and traps. Towson had 22 turnovers in the first meeting but just 13 in the rematch. Many of those turnovers came in halfcourt sets.