In perhaps the biggest name matchup on the home schedule this year, the VCU Rams men’s basketball team fell in overtime 85-80 to the Memphis Tigers.
The loss dropped the Rams to 4-5 on the season, the worst start to a season for the program since the 2004-05 season, when the Rams also opened the season 4-5. The loss also continues a recent slide, with four losses in the last five games.
After the game, redshirt freshman Fats Billups said the Rams are “this close” to hitting their stride.
Wednesday night also marked the first overtime game VCU has played since 2021, when the Rams lost in overtime to UConn during that year’s MTE tournament.
Close but no cigar
All told, VCU put up a strong performance on Wednesday, leading for more than 30 minutes of regulation off the strength of a 19-9 start to the game.
Powering that start was sophomore Tobi Lawal, who displayed his 49.5-inch vertical leaping ability with a variety of highlight reel worthy dunks. The Londoner led VCU with 16 points on the night to go with eight rebounds but fouled out with 20 seconds to play in regulation.
His presence ended up being missed in overtime, with an already shorthanded VCU squad facing foul trouble from other stars as Memphis pulled away in the extra frame.
Helping shoulder the load on offense was graduate student Max Shulga, who scored 14 points and led the team in assists (five) and steals (two) despite an inefficient night of shooting from the floor.
Joining Lawal and Shulga in double figures were Billups (13), Zeb Jackson (11) and Jason Nelson (10). Jackson filled the stat sheet with eight rebounds and four assists, while Nelson led the team in 3-point percentage and hit key shots that sparked scoring runs for the Rams.
Ultimately, Memphis outscored VCU 53-44 after halftime and survived a road trip to the Siegel Center to improve to 6-2 on the season. Memphis’s two leading scorers entering the game, David Jones and Jahvon Quinerly, scored 23 and 20 points respectively. Caleb Mills added 17 points of his own, while Malcolm Dandridge scored 10 points and grabbed seven rebounds before fouling out late.
The win snapped a two-game slide for the Tigers, who are coached by NBA All-Star Penny Hardaway. Hardaway and his team will complete a four-game road trip on Sunday against No. 21 Texas A&M.
VCU’s last four losses have come by a total of 16 points, with Wednesday’s five-point margin the largest of the quartet. The Rams led with 29 seconds to play following a Lawal layup, but free throws following Lawal’s disqualifying foul against Dandridge leveled the game and set up overtime.
Team leaders
With nine games – the majority of the non-conference schedule – in the rear-view mirror, here are your statistical leaders for VCU:
- Points: Max Shulga (15.8 points per game), followed by Zeb Jackson (14.4 ppg)
- Rebounds: Tobi Lawal (5.7 rebounds per game), followed by Zeb Jackson (5.6 rpg). The pair are separated by one total rebound on the season.
- Assists: Shulga (4.1 assists per game), followed by Jackson (4 assists per game). The pair are separated by one total assist per game.
- Steals: Jackson (1.3 steals per game), followed by Jason Nelson (1.1 spg).
- Blocks: Christian Fermin (2 blocks per game), followed by Lawal (0.8 bpg). Fermin ranks in the top 50 in the country in blocks per game.
Update on Bairstow, Bamisile
As has been often discussed, VCU has been without two players that were expected to be top contributors in the 2023-24 season when new head coach Ryan Odom constructed the roster during the summer.
In different ways, resolutions to the eligibility issues of Sean Bairstow and Joe Bamisile are imminent.
Bairstow sustained a fifth metatarsal Jones fracture on Oct. 18 and had surgery two days later on his right foot. At the time, VCU announced that he would miss 6-8 weeks to recover from the injury.
VCU’s next game – a 2 p.m. Sunday afternoon matchup with Alcorn State at the Siegel Center – will mark seven weeks and one day since VCU’s announcement.
Bairstow did not participate in warmups on Wednesday, although that was not unexpected. Many on social media and around the program have tentatively circled the upcoming Dec. 18 game against Temple as the most likely return date for Bairstow, who will be at the eight-week mark of his timeline by then.
Bairstow, who along with Shulga came with Odom from Utah State to VCU, started all 35 games for the Aggies last season. The Australian averaged 10.3 points per game to pair with 5.2 rebounds per contest, helping lead Utah State to the NCAA Tournament.
At the Black and Gold Game scrimmage in October, Bairstow scored 13 points and led all players with five assists.
During the same scrimmage, VCU fans got what turned out to be their one and only look at senior Joe Bamisile this season.
In a statement on Nov. 29, VCU Athletics announced that Bamisile’s appeal request for immediate eligibility was denied by the NCAA and that Bamisile will have to sit out this season.
VCU is Bamisile’s fourth team, with stops at Virginia Tech, George Washington and Oklahoma before returning to his hometown of Richmond to join the Rams.
The NCAA initially denied Bamisile’s waiver request in September, after which Bamisile posted on Instagram about his decision to transfer to VCU. In the post, he cited his father’s health and his struggles with anxiety as reasons why he “needed a new environment to address [his] mental health challenges.”
Bamisile continued, noting he told Odom that “I am attending VCU, because geographically it is the closest college to my home, one of the only schools in the country that had a degree plan that would allow me to graduate in 2024, and the team has a mental health specialist which whom I now meet frequently.”
In the Black and Gold Game scrimmage in October, Bamisile led all players with 17 points and visibly looked like the best player on the floor.
Now, fans will have to wait to see how Bamisile’s talent transfers to live games.
Up next: Alcorn State
Sunday’s game against Alcorn State represents a must-win for VCU, with the Braves in the midst of a six-game losing streak.
Due to a scheduling quirk, Alcorn State has not played since a 90-69 loss to No. 24 Clemson on Nov. 24 – 16 days before the matchup with the Rams.
Alcorn State’s sole victory of the season was a 70-62 win against Xavier University of Louisiana. Part of that is due to an exceptionally difficult non-conference schedule for the Braves, with games against Michigan State, TCU and Arkansas in the rear-view mirror and an upcoming road tilt against Maryland.
Senior forward Jeremiah Kendall leads the Braves with 15.7 points per game, with point guard Byron Joshua and shooting guard Jeremiah Gambrell joining Kendall in double figures. Gambrell, a senior from Texas, is the only player on the roster to start all eight games for the Braves.
Sunday’s game on paper looks like a get-right opportunity for the Rams, one that they need to capitalize on to build momentum before the Atlantic 10 conference schedule kicks into gear later this winter.
A note on Paul Webb
Paul Webb, a giant in Virginia basketball history who served as head coach at Old Dominion University and Randolph-Macon College, died Dec. 8. He was 94.
Although Webb did not have a direct connection to VCU, his presence in the sport for decades was felt across the commonwealth, most notably in the Hampton Roads region where he operated a basketball camp that has borne his name for decades and sees more than 1,000 campers annually.
Born in Petersburg and a graduate of Petersburg High School, Webb attended the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, where he played basketball and baseball. Following his graduation in 1951, Webb joined Highland Springs High School in Richmond as a physical education teacher and later became the school’s head basketball coach.
Webb became head coach at Randolph-Macon College in 1956, a role he would hold for nearly 20 years. While at Randolph-Macon, Webb won more than 300 games at the Division II level.
In 1975, Webb made the move to ODU and oversaw the program during its transition to the Division I level. In 10 years at the helm, Webb’s teams made the postseason nine times.
In 1981, Webb’s ODU team earned the most notable win of his career, upsetting No. 1 DePaul on the road. The win came one year after Webb interviewed for the head coaching vacancy at Duke University that was filled by Mike Krzyzewski. Last year, the Raleigh News and Observer revealed that Webb was a serious candidate for the role and that the university nearly selected him.
Webb’s death at his longtime Virginia Beach home came two years to the day after the death of his wife, Charlotte. The couple were married for more than 70 years.
Webb’s son Eddie, who himself was an assistant at VCU, said in a statement posted by ODU Athletics that “that was his plan.”
“He loved our mother so much,” Eddie Webb said.
Featured photo: VCU players sit on the bench during October’s Black and Gold Game scrimmage. (Jason Boleman/A10Talk)
