Taj79 Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 Anybody else get to see this game? Battle of A10's #1 and #2 teams in Richmond. No contest as VCU domintaed the Colonials from the 3-minute mark of the firs thalf until close. Final was 72 to 48. If they are indeed #2, they really suck on the road. And this team beat Wichita State. All I can say is "on any given Sunday ...." Geedubya enjoyed a 5-point lead early, at 7 to 2 just under 3 minutes in. Their last lead was at 19 to 17 at the 6:54 mark when Kethan Savage lost the ball on a cutsey behind the back dribble move leading a fast break, the ball rolled into the middle of the lane, and was scooped up by a flying Yuta Watanabe, and somehow miraclulously spun into the basket for a layup. Watanabe tallied TWO points on the night. More on him later. From there to close, GeeDubya stank the joint out. And it wasn't the pressure, it was plain stupidity, and horrible shooting. The Colonials shot 27% from the floor and this was helped by a whole bunch of layups and putbacks against late game VCU scrubs. A 6% (yes, that's right S-I-X) percent shooting percentage from three at 1-for-17. And not a lot of help with 69% at the line. What I found amazing was that VCU, with their clutching and grabbing and swiping style, was ONLY tagged for six first half fouls. JaQuan Lewis constantly had his hand on the ball carrier as did Briante Weber. How is that possible? GeeDubya is truly a four-man team what with those juniors. Their fifth is Watanbe but the rest -- Kopriva, Jorgenson and Griffen, are useless. Lonergan tried to give his two guards rest what with the tempo and all, but he had nothing from Jorgenson and Griffin. Fatigue took the legs out of GeeDubya, and if you shoot with the legs, you can see the drop in percentages. Garino had six of GeeDubya's firts nine points. He finished with 9 and went scoreless from 16:08 in the first half until he made a free throw with 5:30 or so left in the game. Larsen was completely negated. The only VCU starter in double figures was Alie-Cox at ten. Graham was noticably limping the whole game. But Terry Larrier and Lewis, with 15 and 13 each, carried the day. About Larrier it was said "this is the time of year when freshmen are no longer freshmen and start to get it." Okay, I am applying that rule of measurement to our guys. Larrier showed signs of being great. Alie-Cox threw down one dunk on a steal/fastbreak where he was step-by-step with Kethan Savage, elevated and threw it down as Savage flew behind him to attempt a swipe/block. Cox grabbed the rim momentarily, body kept moving until it was parallel to the floor, and then he dropped and belly-flopped on the floor, face down. The floor reported no injuries. Kopriva and Watanabe combined to go 1-for-13 not counting Yuta's luck layup. And Watanbe was bad .... he certainly demonstrated an inability to handle the VCU crowd and pressure. His first shot was an open three from the right wing. The camera angle was essentially right behind him, showing the shot arc to the basket. I've seen airballs before but this one was amazing ---- from the moment he let the shot go, and with the camera angle, you could tell the ball was a good two basketballs to the left of the rim. And it had the right distance so when it came down, it dropped on a defender's head. I have NEVER seen anyone outside of grade school shoot such a shot so poorly. If the statement on Larrier is true, then it should also apply to freshman Watanabe. Can't wait to see how our kids handle it next month at Siegel. Twelves guys played for VCU and I've seen their futrure as oh-so-bright still. Larrier we know. But fellow freshmen Justin Tillamn and Jonathon Williams also looked good. Their fourth freshman, Michael Gilmore, also got to play but he is more beanpole than anything else right. But that talent pool is certainly deep. With Burgess, Lewis, Cox and Johnson all returning next year -- team to beat once again. Tonight, I get Duquesne at Richmond. Thursday its the Bills with Dayton and Umass on another channel. I am loving my sports package. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gobillsgo Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 But did anyone shove any VCWho players? That would be grounds for imprisonment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SluSignGuy Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 I applaud the old man for no Sign Punk shots Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lquarles Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 Great post Taj79. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsmith19 Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 Tonight, I get Duquesne at Richmond. Thursday its the Bills with Dayton and Umass on another channel. I am loving my sports package. What is your sports package? Some kind of east coast regional thing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old guy Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 Agree, great post Taj, the long one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizziken Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 I know Watanabe had an awful game, but that dude is good. He's got a silky smooth shot, and already has above average perimeter skills for a 6'8'' guy. Plus, he's a decent rebounder. Once he puts on some muscle and gets used to the college game, he'll be a stud for GW. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slu72 Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 What is your sports package? Some kind of east coast regional thing? I don't know what Taj Mahal 79 has but I've got the sports premium w/ Uverse for $7/mo. You get a lot of college hoops and, specifically, a number of A10 games even here in Dixie. Taj may get more A10 games being an east coast elite Yankee. I'm getting all but about 4 Bills games this year. Last 3 years have been very very good for watching the Bills on TV. Whereas in previous years, you might get 2 a year down here unless you had direct TV and their sports package. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taj79 Posted January 28, 2015 Author Share Posted January 28, 2015 @hsmith --- Comcast Xfinity out of Baltimore region. I have the Xfinity Preferred Bundle and then Sports Enterttainment Pakcage for an additional $8.95 a month. The bundle and package gets me ..... NBC Sports Network, Golf Channel, Mid Atlantic Sports Network (MASN) 1 AND 2, ESPN, ESPN2, Comcast Sports Net 1 & 2, the major networks, Fox Sports One, the NFL Network, NFL Redzone, the SEC Network, 3+ channels of the Big Ten Network, Trackside, ESPN News & ESPN Classic & ESPNU, three more Fox College Sports Channels, CBS Sports Network, the Tennis Channel, MLB Network, One NHL Channel, one NBA TV channel, and a couple of obscure outdoor sports channels. I can watch a lot of college basketball this time of the year. I get Thursday's Mason game and if any Bills game makes Fox Sports Midwest, I get it here as well. Plus, the A10 network is routinely satellited in on MASN2 or Fox Sports New England. The only Billiken games I have not seen this year are Bradley, Rockhurst and Davidson. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taj79 Posted January 28, 2015 Author Share Posted January 28, 2015 @Sign Punk: you one of us now ... even more so .... read your PAYCHECK! GeeDubya last night was the definiton of "couldn't throw the ball in the ocean while standing on the pier." They looked like I felt at that 20-point debacle a few years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MusicCityBilliken Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 @hsmith --- Comcast Xfinity out of Baltimore region. I have the Xfinity Preferred Bundle and then Sports Enterttainment Pakcage for an additional $8.95 a month. The bundle and package gets me ..... NBC Sports Network, Golf Channel, Mid Atlantic Sports Network (MASN) 1 AND 2, ESPN, ESPN2, Comcast Sports Net 1 & 2, the major networks, Fox Sports One, the NFL Network, NFL Redzone, the SEC Network, 3+ channels of the Big Ten Network, Trackside, ESPN News & ESPN Classic & ESPNU, three more Fox College Sports Channels, CBS Sports Network, the Tennis Channel, MLB Network, One NHL Channel, one NBA TV channel, and a couple of obscure outdoor sports channels. I can watch a lot of college basketball this time of the year. I get Thursday's Mason game and if any Bills game makes Fox Sports Midwest, I get it here as well. Plus, the A10 network is routinely satellited in on MASN2 or Fox Sports New England. The only Billiken games I have not seen this year are Bradley, Rockhurst and Davidson. These sports paks are great. I have the Directv Sports Pak and get pretty much all the same. It seems from January till mid-March you have about 10 games on every night. Great if your a college hoop junkie. Many late nights I will fall asleep in front of the TV watching a Pac12 or West Coast Conference game Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianstl Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 Dayton and Davidson both are/were better than GW. I don't know where you are pulling this second best team in the conference stuff from. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chillinthemost Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 Dayton and Davidson both are/were better than GW. I don't know where you are pulling this second best team in the conference stuff from. most likely the standings, prior to last night Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Wiz Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 Dayton and Davidson both are/were better than GW. I don't know where you are pulling this second best team in the conference stuff from. I agree ...I have had Davidson and VCU as the 2 best for awhile..... Here is what the top of the A-10 looks like to me........... Davidson.....A VCU............A Dayton........A- RI................B+....NCAA bubble GW..............B+ Richmond ...B+ Generally, A- and higher= The Dance.....B+ and some B = NIT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taj79 Posted January 29, 2015 Author Share Posted January 29, 2015 @brian --- just throwing back the announcers' comments which were based on standings as noted by @chillinthemost. VCU was 6 and 0 coming in; GW and Dayton were 6 and 1. Standings say what the standings say. I respect the Wiz' rankings and all that but computer models and stat jamming don't take the product out on the court where sometimes momentum and karma come into play. As Herm says (parapharsed) "you still have to play the game." The home court can and will do a lot of things ---- are we really only two points below the #16 team in the country in VCU? Not all the time but the Fetz gave us a little advantage last week. Mason lost to Davidson by 5; we lost to them by 35. Does that mean Mason beats us by 30 tonight? Last year, VCU lost by ten at GW and then turned it around and beat them by 17 at their place. Let's see what happens on Valentine's Day when VCU goes to Foggy Bottom. I'm thinking GW wins. I said ours would be a different year based on essentially 10 newcomers. I also stil believe Dayton wil crumble with only six scholarship players. We shall see. Davidson, I admit, I know nothing about but let's remember all those smart guys (i.e. coaches and media) voted Davidson last in the preseason poll. They must feel like shite, eh? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slu72 Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 Well, Taj Mahal 79 just clinched it for me. I'm switching to Comcast. They got a good deal going right now and Uverse is hosing me. Amazing when us old guys used to get TV for free, granted not much to choose from, and suddenly find you're spending almost $200/mo for internet and TV. I've got a feeling the salad days for cable providers are coming to an end, as they will have to unbundle to compete with the online streamers. I'm sick of paying for the Food, Animal, Spanish, Country Swamp rats, and a lot of other crap that's in my grouping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsmith19 Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 I really hope the salad days are coming to an end. It is still absurd to me you can't just pay for the channels/games/teams you actually want to watch, and are instead forced to choose between these "package" things. I can't decide which system is more screwed up in terms of TV/streaming options--MLB or college basketball. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizziken Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 Well, Taj Mahal 79 just clinched it for me. I'm switching to Comcast. They got a good deal going right now and Uverse is hosing me. Amazing when us old guys used to get TV for free, granted not much to choose from, and suddenly find you're spending almost $200/mo for internet and TV. I've got a feeling the salad days for cable providers are coming to an end, as they will have to unbundle to compete with the online streamers. I'm sick of paying for the Food, Animal, Spanish, Country Swamp rats, and a lot of other crap that's in my grouping. Comcast is the worst cable company in the history of humanity. Their customer service is absolute garbage, their billing practices are a nightmare, and their service is just average. I didn't think it could get any worse than Charter or Time Warner, but I was wrong. Way wrong. Sure their sports package is okay, but it's honestly not worth the headache. I can't wait to get rid of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsmith19 Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwyjibo Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 I agree ...I have had Davidson and VCU as the 2 best for awhile..... Here is what the top of the A-10 looks like to me........... Davidson.....A VCU............A Dayton........A- RI................B+....NCAA bubble GW..............B+ Richmond ...B+ Generally, A- and higher= The Dance.....B+ and some B = NIT I have reminded you of this in the past and I am not sure why it does not sink in but that is NOT how NCAA selection works. To boil it down most simply the RPI matters (wins, losses, location) and any insights using margins of victory and efficiency mostly do not. You may think GW/RI/Richmond are similar teams but GW has a way way better tourney profile than Richmond (and Rhode Island too). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsmith19 Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 It's always interesting to me to line the Wiz's grades up next to the RPIs. He has liked Davidson and RI better than RPI does (and liked GW and UMass less) for a long time now. I still don't think there's any way Davidson wins the conference or even finishes in the top 2. It's getting harder and harder for me to see anyone beating VCU, but if anyone does it will pretty much have to be Dayton. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taj79 Posted January 29, 2015 Author Share Posted January 29, 2015 I have had nothing but pretty good relations with Comcast. I had a real b*tch of a time when the cable boxes switched over to the DVR type but after eating up about three or four of those trying to figure out what the problem was, it's been smooth ever since. It's like a restaurant review ..... some love it and some hate it. What can you do? I have Comcast, located in Philly, with the Orioles channel. I asked for the Phillies channel. How hard couldl t be. Not in my region. Damn. But I think you guys are right and the salad days comments are right on. @hsmith: I don't see VCU out of the woods just yet .... games that wil be interesting include them going to George Washington, at Richmond, and at Davidson. Their only matchup with Dayton is at Siegel and I think Dayton will run out of gas long before there. Last year they lost at GeeDubya by 10 but won at home by 17. They only beat Davidson by 6 at home earlier this year so going there will be interesting. Last year they only won at Richmond by 6 and Richmond was decimated with injuries by then and still gave them a game. And for a real strange outlier, I'll add La Salle. Teams with decent guard play can negate VCU and La Salle has a few. Don't think it will happen but it could and did as recently as 2012-13, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsmith19 Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 Davidson and GW have to make up two whole games in the standings just to tie. Even if VCU loses a couple, they would have to be perfect from here on out. And I just don't see VCU losing more than a couple, or GW/Davidson being perfect the rest of the way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Wiz Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 I have reminded you of this in the past and I am not sure why it does not sink in but that is NOT how NCAA selection works. To boil it down most simply the RPI matters (wins, losses, location) and any insights using margins of victory and efficiency mostly do not. You may think GW/RI/Richmond are similar teams but GW has a way way better tourney profile than Richmond (and Rhode Island too). I get it....I understand what I do is different than the RPI. And I further realize that is not how the NCAA picks their teams. Nonetheless, the grading system works. My system was never intended to pick tournament participants. But over the years, I noticed there was a correlation between my system and post season play. So a few years ago, I started tinkering with it to try and align it even more with post season play. While the revised post season grading system is only a few years old, there is a fairly high correlation now between teams that "make the grade" and teams make the tournament. While it is not perfect (whose system is ? ), it is better than a lot of the "so called experts". I tried to make something simple and without numbers so that you could tell at a glance whether teams are on track to make the tournaments. Basically, if you have an A- or above you are in the Big Dance and if you have a B+ (with some B's) you are headed to the NIT. If the season ended today, VCU, Davidson (both A) and Dayton (A- ) are Dancing....with GW, RI and Richmond (all 3 B+ ) headed to the NIT. Of course, the season doesn't end tonight. Any or all of the B+ teams could make the Dance. And Dayton could fall back to the NIT. So the best case scenario is 6 NCAA bids, the worst case is 2 NCAA bids with a few NIT bids. Most likely...4 NCAA bids with 2 NITs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cowboy Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 -Wiz, could you post your top 40 with their grades at some point over the next few days? it would be much appreciated, thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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