Bonnies vs. VCU (Wed. 01/20/21 at 6:00 pm)

Very happy the conference made this happen. I'm sure the athletic department would have been all over the phones finding us an opponent. We'll need another bailout from the conference this weekend as Travis Ford will certainly weasel out of the game. Duquesne, Fordham and probably LaSalle are all options right now.
 
Didnt Ford say on the broadcast Fri night that they were planning to play again in the next 7-10 days? I am holding out hope it will happen as it would be the perfect time to play them and get a resume building win.

That said, we need to beat VCU first and I hope Pav and Tori have strokes as a result.
 
This one will be every bit as tough as URI if not worse. VCU has size. VCU goes 9 or 10 deep, easily. The Bonnies will have to have someone, anyone, break out and shoot the ball. It is going to be hard to come by points inside, but if you can drive, a collapsing defense should mean an open shooter. You have to improve on 12% though. In fantasyland, Tori strokes out as Dom rips 3's like it's 2019 Barclays. Or Pav eats her and has a heart attack.
 
VCU might not be full HAVOC anymore but they rank 1st in the country in steal percentage per Kenpom. And 31% of their possessions are in transition (shot attempt in the first 10 seconds of the shot clock). They have an effective fg% of 58% in transition compared to roughly 51% in half court offense. So stopping them from getting transition points still is extremely important.

About 27% of the Bonnies possessions come in transition however we are slightly worse in transition than we are in the half court 46%eFG in transition, and 48%eFG in the half court.

We have only beat VCU twice since they joined the A10, the Posley buzzer beater and Stockard's out of body experience 21pts/14rebs. The last two VCU matchups have been some of the worst basketball I've ever watched in person and I was at Bonas during the Solomon era. In both those games VCU built a commanding lead early in the game. We didn't necessarily turn the ball over an extreme amount in either game but VCU turned missed shots/long rebounds into transition opportunities.

Hopefully the Bonnies start to make some shots otherwise we could be in for a long day.
 
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Good measuring stock for the Bonnies. Who knows how many shots we will have at quality wins before the season ends. This win would go a long way.

We need to make up for the two-straight blowout losses.
 
For the record, Jive, we also won in 2017 even though the record books dont show it. But that's a whole other can of worms not worth opening.

The last 2 years VCU has all but brought the sky down on our beloved Bona nation with the fallout following the losses. VCU has far exceeded my expectations of them thus far considering all that they lost from the last 2 years. I have no idea what to expect out of tomorrow night, given our disproportionate struggles with them recently. I hope we're up for it.
 
This Bona team has a little different feel than past years. I think we are going to go out and beat VCU. They are an up and down team who just lost to Rhode Island at home by 15, I think as long as Hyland doesnt go bananas and Shoon can stay in the game against their bigs (which he has done a really good job of this season) then I like our chances. Even if those things go against us, Holmes has been on fire and Lofton seemed to find something last game too.

Bonnies 67
VCU 62
 
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Does anyone know if Roberts is back and available for this game?

I feel like he could have a huge role in this matchup since VCU has been effective at getting the ball out of Lofton's hands.
At first I thought I heard he was out to due a death in the family, but to miss three games seems like a lot... couple that with the fact he's practicing with local kids back home doesn't look great.

We've gone from having a ton of depth to having absolutely nothing.
 
Besides the fact that they've embarrassed us the past few times out, this team has a certain aura of prowess with basketball talking heads, so beating them is doubly important. They are very good at ball theft, but they commit a lot of turnovers as well. My major fear is that Shoon or any of our starters gets into early foul trouble. Our bench does not match theirs, so we need the Ironman Five routine to be in play.
 
Does anyone know if Roberts is back and available for this game?

I feel like he could have a huge role in this matchup since VCU has been effective at getting the ball out of Lofton's hands.
A little bit after I asked this Mike Hogan asked Schmidt.



So not sure what is going on with Roberts. Until I saw this I assumed the delayed return was Covid policy related.
 
Yea that doesnt sound promising. Hes gotta be gone.
 
Yet another confounding study in the modern college basketball player psyche. This season doesn't count against one's eligibility, so why leave mid-season?

Roberts, who was supposed to sit for his year in residence this season, somehow expected to start, but didn't anticipate Lofton, Welch, and Holmes all being better. "Another toothpick," as Janice Soprano would say, in the era of instant gratification.
 
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Yet another confounding study in the modern college basketball player psyche. This season doesn't count against one's eligibility, so why leave mid-season?

Roberts, who was supposed to sit for his year in residence this season, somehow expected to start, but didn't anticipate Lofton, Welch, and Holmes all being better. "Another toothpick," as Janice Soprano would say, in the era of instant gratification.
Not particularly surprising - it seemed like his body language wasn't the greatest whenever he was out there. Perhaps inflated sense of ego - kid didn't do his homework and thought he could come to Bonaventure and immediately start because he averaged 13 pts on a 44% clip at Kent State. Either way, we have a good amount of depth at the 2 anyway - I have a hard time believing that Roberts would outperform AJ and even Creal this year given what I saw when he was on the court. Interesting that Scmidt gave him so much time though, he obviously saw something in Roberts. In line with the previous Soprano quote I would say one of my favorite Tony quotes applies here:

"Whatever her scam is, I'll be five thousand dollars lighter before she rain-dances back to the commune."

Hope Anthony enjoys the lesser conference he'll find himself in next year.
 
I'm not going to say they're better off without him or Winston. Of course having those 2 guys come in off the bench makes them deeper, more threatening, and better suited. Both would have taken some lumps, and both would have also turned in some head-turning performances when it wasn't expected. To quote Wyck Thayer of Seinfeld, "And now. Not".

End of the day, the depth hurts, but fuck it if both of those 2 guys quit after such short, and frankly, unimpressive stints. This will come back to bite them one of these nights where they truly need a spark or a change of pace. But what can you do. Bright side is AJ will get his chance, for sure now. And, with 4 open ships and your top guys all being seniors, the reality of an immediate impact grad-tansfer type has never been more realistic than it is next year, I guess?

This has been far more common across the sport this year than in any other. I guess we'll see. Also, honest question- is Alpha really so bad that him being called on now and again isn't possible? Scholarship guy for 3 years, he's gotta be able to add something in a pinch, no?
 
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