Bonnies @ VCU (Fri. 02/12/21 at 7:00 pm)

Bill Russell

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Prettaaaaay, prettaaaaaay big game.

ESPN2 at 7:00. Winn.

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Hard to overstate the importance of this game. We're still very much alive with a loss, but a Winn puts us in a position to play defense against the league standings and bid positioning. A loss puts us squarely meired in the muck with the other 3 and shrinks our margin for error the rest of the way. We are 1 spot ahead of them in Kenpom and 3 spots behind in the NET, and tied in the standings.

If our guys lost a road game by 16 which they led by 15 at the half, I'd be salivating at the chance for them to play that team at home. I can only imagine the amplification of that feeling for VCU's guys. As others have alluded to, our slow starts may be too much to overcome this time around if we find ourselves sunk like last time (and many other games).
 
Yep. VCU is going to have its hair on fire for this one. Hopefully, our guys are prepared for that this year. It hasn’t gone too well for us at Siegel, so instinct is prepping me for a stiff punch in the mouth.
 
Last month's rally against VCU was fueled by defense and the ability to get the ball into the lane while making the extra pass underneath their defense. Our defense will travel, but I suspect VCU will be a little better prepared on Friday by not overplaying as much on the perimeter. We'll need our Tuesday night shooting to to travel with us as well, and hope Kyle's 3pt shooting continues to trend towards his average.

Huge, huge, game on the national stage. Get off to a fast start and stay out of foul trouble!
 
Is this the biggest regular season game of the Schmidt era? A national televised Mid-February game with both at-large implications and heavy importance in regards to who takes the regular season title. Obviously, all the covid schedule issues complicate who finishes first as there are still 4 two loss teams with fewer wins, but a victory would put us three wins higher than anyone else in the league except for VCU who would be two down and we'd have swept.

Other contenders in my view:

2/16/18 - Nationally televised win over #14 URI to snap the nation's longest winning streak and solidify our at-large resume. Even after the win though, the A-10 regular season crown was out of reach.

3/2/16 - Posley goes for 47 in Rochester to seemingly lock up an NCAA bid and give Bona a shot a shared title (we'd get the help we needed from Dayton in the finale).

Probably slots between the two. Pretty awesome what's happened with the program in the past decade. Go Bona.
 
I think this is bigger than Rhody 2018. A win here and we also basically lock up an at large but also a stranglehold on an outright conference title. That game locked up an at large and the 2seed in A10's.
 
I think this is bigger than Rhody 2018. A win here and we also basically lock up an at large but also a stranglehold on an outright conference title. That game locked up an at large and the 2seed in A10's.

Agreed. The snub leaves a bad taste obviously, but I think it goes Joes in 16 (they ended up an an 8-seed and that *should* have locked in our at-large even more firmly than a win tonight would. But I guess not, because it didn't.), VCU 21, and then URI 18.

Hopefully, tonight's result goes the same way as the other two.
 
I know we missed FTs (Lofton 2-5!), were careless with the ball, got caught watching lovingly at rebounds as offensive rebounders soared past, so this is all sour grapes, but...

It’s so infuriating to me how VCU is handled generally. Their strategy is literally to foul so much that the refs can’t call them all, yet the game is irredeemably changed due to our foul trouble. They steal a win from us a few years back on the most bullshit administrative technical that Earth has seen thus far. That fucking inbounds charge against GW. The league moves the A-10s to Richmond. They give them an unscheduled home game against us (and I realize that was great for us and this was a huge missed opportunity). The league throws the juicy ‘coming off covid pause sacrificial lamb’ game against Richmond when we were owed a home game against them as well.

Fuck. And I’ll tell you what - I did NOT need to see Pav on the fucking brodcast when things seemed to be falling apart.
 
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Lofton FT inconsistencies are maddening! Totally agree with everything else you mention. Pav died. Massive coronary after deep throating an RC weiner in 2017. The man on TV tonight is an imposter.
 
This will be a long one. Not an overly positive one. Bear with me.

That one hurts. We're not dead in the water, but we're once again in a position where, realistically, our ceiling is a last 4 byes/last 4 in scenario coupled with winning out- or close to it, depending on who we end up with and how many games left we actually have. I've resided myself to not winning the A10.
That's already hard enough. Its damn near impossible to win 3 games in a row with a team who has an aversion to using its already appallingly thin bench.

I'm frustrated by a lot tonight. It's hard not to think using the bench more (last Saturday, also) couldn't have hurt. Even mixing up lineups can help. It's hard not to think that Roberts or Winston couldn't have come in handy for 10-20 minute plugs It's hard not to be pissed about those 2 bailing on their team early on, and what doing so might be holding us back from. It's hard not to be pissed at COVID for fucking this season up, especially to the extent that having more game experience and opportunities early on could have given them the push they needed to figure out a way to win a shit fest like tonight. I can't figure out if I find it encouraging or enraging that we came a rimmed out three away from OT in a game that we played like fucking shit in.

Kyle has rarely left room for critique by the final horn- even in slow starts he seems to always make up for it. He didn't tonight. Your first team all conference PG cant be only taking 6 shots and dishing out 3 assists. That's not an acceptable output in a game this big. He got rattled by Bones tonight, in every way. Holmes was downright bad tonight. Welch, God Bless him, at least he went for it out there. Tonight drives home that we truthfully wouldn't be improved much over last year if Adaway wasn't here. Also, what an incredible performance by Shoon defensively. We got beaten off the dribble like it was January 2020 all night. His 5 (!) blocks and general presence at other times bailed us out in incalculable ways. Also very pleased with the way he stepped up in the second half on offense.

We need to cut this shit out of getting T'd up and letting guys get in our heads. I get it , VCU's (and St Louis, and Duquesne, and etc) method of defense is foul so much they cant call all of it, but we clearly let that get to us We're not a young team anymore. Being rattled by that- both in terms of our temper and the way it affects we play- is no longer able to be chalked up to youth.

To quote Carmine Lupertazzi Jr. "Historically, historical changes have come out of war". All my bitching above aside, we've shown an ability to rise to the challenge in years past with our cliched backs against the wall. Hope we're up for it now.

Dont beat me up. This is just my manifestation of my unhealthy obsession with an Atlantic 10 basketball program.
 
This will be a long one. Not an overly positive one. Bear with me.

That one hurts. We're not dead in the water, but we're once again in a position where, realistically, our ceiling is a last 4 byes/last 4 in scenario coupled with winning out- or close to it, depending on who we end up with and how many games left we actually have. I've resided myself to not winning the A10.
That's already hard enough. Its damn near impossible to win 3 games in a row with a team who has an aversion to using its already appallingly thin bench.

I'm frustrated by a lot tonight. It's hard not to think using the bench more (last Saturday, also) couldn't have hurt. Even mixing up lineups can help. It's hard not to think that Roberts or Winston couldn't have come in handy for 10-20 minute plugs It's hard not to be pissed about those 2 bailing on their team early on, and what doing so might be holding us back from. It's hard not to be pissed at COVID for fucking this season up, especially to the extent that having more game experience and opportunities early on could have given them the push they needed to figure out a way to win a shit fest like tonight. I can't figure out if I find it encouraging or enraging that we came a rimmed out three away from OT in a game that we played like fucking shit in.

Kyle has rarely left room for critique by the final horn- even in slow starts he seems to always make up for it. He didn't tonight. Your first team all conference PG cant be only taking 6 shots and dishing out 3 assists. That's not an acceptable output in a game this big. He got rattled by Bones tonight, in every way. Holmes was downright bad tonight. Welch, God Bless him, at least he went for it out there. Tonight drives home that we truthfully wouldn't be improved much over last year if Adaway wasn't here. Also, what an incredible performance by Shoon defensively. We got beaten off the dribble like it was January 2020 all night. His 5 (!) blocks and general presence at other times bailed us out in incalculable ways. Also very pleased with the way he stepped up in the second half on offense.

We need to cut this shit out of getting T'd up and letting guys get in our heads. I get it , VCU's (and St Louis, and Duquesne, and etc) method of defense is foul so much they cant call all of it, but we clearly let that get to us We're not a young team anymore. Being rattled by that- both in terms of our temper and the way it affects we play- is no longer able to be chalked up to youth.

To quote Carmine Lupertazzi Jr. "Historically, historical changes have come out of war". All my bitching above aside, we've shown an ability to rise to the challenge in years past with our cliched backs against the wall. Hope we're up for it now.

Dont beat me up. This is just my manifestation of my unhealthy obsession with an Atlantic 10 basketball program.
I could not agree more with your comments on the game. We needed this game to solidify our hold on chances for winning the conference title. It was also important for this group to take the next step. I thought VCU succeeded in disrupting our style of play with their aggressive grabby defense. We are supposed to be the more experienced team. Much like we saw with SLU game this style of play tests the mettle of this team. They went 10 deep versus our 6. More fouls to give allows their style of play. Where we failed in my mind was ball protection and allowing VCU to get 9 more offensive rebounds along with too many easy baskets. For the second game in a row Lofton gets T. Can’t have it from our floor general. Holmes gets a T after nice 3 is another head scratcher. He looks to be out of synch. OO had another great game defensively but we need more offensively from him. I am not seeing growth in that part of his game. Team always gives effort but will need to play smarter down the stretch and into the tournament.
So now we have maybe 4 games left.
 
When did Lofton get a T? I disagree on Shoon, he played a good offensive game in teh 2nd half when he was able to get the ball in the low post. Had a nice spin layup and a turnaround jumper that got goaltended to go with a couple dunks.

A loss on the road to a team ranked as high as VCU is not a death sentence but it was definitely a missed opportunity to solidfy. Every bracket I see has us in that high 30s seed list range and I cant see us falling 10 spots like that. Boise St lost twice at Nevada and fell about 10-12 spots and I would say their resume isnt much different than ours. If we take on a bad loss then its time to panic.

The officiating had too much of an effect on the game. We were forced to go zone and that is when the offensive rebounds started happening. That is not a coincidence. If you would have told me the refs were calling a tight game I would have predicted a 10 point win. That was some shit we saw. Playing VCU on the road is hard enough without having extra shit thrown at you. We certainly could have played better but that was not a level playing field.
 
When did Lofton get a T? I disagree on Shoon, he played a good offensive game in teh 2nd half when he was able to get the ball in the low post. Had a nice spin layup and a turnaround jumper that got goaltended to go with a couple dunks.

A loss on the road to a team ranked as high as VCU is not a death sentence but it was definitely a missed opportunity to solidfy. Every bracket I see has us in that high 30s seed list range and I cant see us falling 10 spots like that. Boise St lost twice at Nevada and fell about 10-12 spots and I would say their resume isnt much different than ours. If we take on a bad loss then its time to panic.

The officiating had too much of an effect on the game. We were forced to go zone and that is when the offensive rebounds started happening. That is not a coincidence. If you would have told me the refs were calling a tight game I would have predicted a 10 point win. That was some shit we saw. Playing VCU on the road is hard enough without having extra shit thrown at you. We certainly could have played better but that was not a level playing field.
My bad on the Lofton T. The elbowing foul in 2nd half is a the trend of retaliation. Needs to play through this. Regarding OO I don’t see the growth offensively. Why doesn’t Schmidt run a few more plays for him? What shot has he developed in 3 years? His play defensively has been great.
 
My bad on the Lofton T. The elbowing foul in 2nd half is a the trend of retaliation. Needs to play through this. Regarding OO I don’t see the growth offensively. Why doesn’t Schmidt run a few more plays for him? What shot has he developed in 3 years? His play defensively has been great.
I gave you 2 examples in the above post. Why didnt he get the ball more in the 1st half?. They played at VCU pace and that was probably why.
 
We're not dead in the water, but we're once again in a position where, realistically, our ceiling is a last 4 byes/last 4 in scenario coupled with winning out- or close to it, depending on who we end up with and how many games left we actually have. I've resided myself to not winning the A10.
From my very uneducated opinion, 32 of the possible 36 seeds are pretty much set in stone barring a major collapse. I get we are still so far away from Selection Sunday, but the bubble is now starting to take shape.

Here are my at large locks for the tourney by conference. I assumed every first place team in the conference would get the auto bid. (ACC-UVA, BE-Nova, etc.) The bubble will change a ton in the next month, but a quick look.

ACC- FSU,VT,L'Ville,UNC, Clemson
BIG EAST - Creighton, Xavier, SJU, UCONN
SEC- Tenn, ARK, LSU, MIZZOU,FLA
B1G- Ill, OSU, WISC, Iowa, Purdue, Rutgers, UMN
BIG 12- WVU, OK, KU, UT, TTU, OKST
PAC12- UCLA, Colorado, Oregon
AAC - Wichita
WCC- BYU

The bubble looks like:
SDSU
Saint Louis
Richmond
Drake
Indiana
Loyola Chicago
Utah St.
Colorado State
Bona
Memphis
Stanford
Syracuse
Maryland
WKU
Seton Hall

Pick four. I honestly don't get the love for the Mountain West, but we shall see.

Indiana, Seton Hall, Bona and SDSU would be my pick.
 
I have done some research over the last couple weeks and have been doing my own bracket. Few things I disagree with
  • Wichita St is not close to in, not even on the radar
  • Oregon is no lock. They are in St Louis territory right now. If they get their act together they will get in but I would not lock them up right now
  • You have Loyola and Drake both on the bubble list, one of them should get the Auto bid.
  • St Johns isnt real close and UConn is out ina lot of brackets right now.
TBH, I think the MW deserves 4 but I can see one of them getting left out becaise they others beat them up. Much like the A10. 4 is possible but not likely. This is what I have come up with:
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The caveat with the last 4 byes is VCU and Utah St are seeded in between the last 4 in and last 4 byes but since they have the auto bids right now, they are not in that group. I didnt drop the Bonnies after last night but I feel others will. You can make the case they are in the last 4 byes list but they have a pretty strong resume compared to those teams too.

Here is my seed list if you are into that sort of thing:
1613235159066.png

I think I am low on Seton Hall and will look into moving them up after todays games. Also since the NCAA is annoucning the top 16 in a few minutes, that will help clarify some things like what they are prioritizing.
 

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Yeah Shoon definitely isn't to blame. Late in the first half I commented to my friend I was watching with that Shoon was flashing open in the lane off the designed plays, but it seemed they werent seeing him. They started to see him and feed him in the second half, and it paid off. All 11 of his points came in the second.

B03 is right that we played to their pace. I think both teams also played tentatively on offense for the better part of the first half. VCU snapped out of it a couple of minutes earlier than we did. Schmidt always harps on the closing minutes of the first and opening minutes of the second being crucial, and he's right- last night, that's where it bit us.

Now that my emotions have settled (and the light beers have passed), I'm feeling better about it, overall. But man, it's still a kick to the nuts knowing we let 2 Q1 road wins slip in a matter of 6 days.

Edit @3rdShayCripSet agree for the most part, but not sure on Witchita? They're pretty far off the bubble right now.
 
Guys, give me a break. I am not blaming OO for the loss. It would advantageous if we looked to get him the ball more.
 
WSU is considered first four out per CBS. I have to imagine one at large would be coming from the AAC, so you could sub them out for Memphis or whoever. The Shockers don't have too strong of a resume right now, so perhaps they are one bider this year.

When trying to figure out how many at larges are possible, I tend to lean towards the P5's getting more in than less. So with regards to St. Johns, Oregon and UConn, I feel like they will be in when it's all said and done - unless they collapse.
 
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