757billiken

No idea about planned pregame. Nothing in walking distance to the arena. In the past, I've been to The Tavern, Jack Browns, and Home Team Grill. The Tavern is where some U of R fans go before the game. Many red sweaters but solid food and beer. Closest option in my opinion. Jack Browns is great for beer, cheeseburgers, and fried oreos. Also went to Home Team Grill downtown. Similar to a Bdub's feel. More of a VCU place but solid beer and food as well. Farther drive though.

No. I don't have to like Anya because I liked French. Note the Blocks. That's the difference. French was also like 3 inches shorter. No interior defense in an athletic league. Guards get to the rim in the A-10 and every team has athletic big men except maybe Richmond and Davidson. They can be similar in FT % but that's it.

Two quick observations from watching the team huddles: 1 - It looks like the players don't even like each other 2 - Total lack of organization with assistant coaches and Schertz not really taking command. It never looks like he knows what to do. No matter how bad Ford was, he appeared to be in total command of team huddles. You could tell all the decisions were ultimately made by him. Schertz...not so much.

No. No silver lining. We suck. It's embarrasing. Anyone who actually knows bball knows that Schertz is over his head. Arguably got his best two ISU players to come. Have our all-time leading scorer and we still suck. Avila is fat and slow. Putting up 28 points against a mid-tier MVC team is his ceiling. Too slow to defend. Too unathletic to move on offense. Total Knollmeyer vibes athletic ability. No way he can dunk. I guess we're back to recruiting Soderberg era athleticism. At least Sodie's teams hustled and played their asses off. People say Pikaar will play more but CJS will only play his starting 5 like at ISU. That means Pikaar won't grow and progress. Anya was Brown's starting forward. Brown sucks and so does he. He can rebound but that's because other teams shoot and miss so much because of our pace, rebounds will exist. Kobe was a sort of role player at an okay WVU team. Hampton got the better WVU transfer. Swope is too small for the big games IMO. He'll show up for the MVC level games and will soon disappear in the A10. Thames is solid. LHJ was solid but for some reason this message board apparently secretly hated him. Solid role player in my book. It seems Ford's holdovers (GJ, Thames, and LHJ) were the only guys who didn't turn the ball over every other trip down the court. Maybe he actually taught players something afterall. I'm depressed. No way we get better this year or next. He can't recruit better players. How will he recruit better players after being in the bottom 4 of the A10? How will we improve players when he doesn't play more than the starters? Looking back through the Hire Schertz thread is enlightening. This was so predictable but many MBMs convinced themselves otherwise. ISU was a fluke last year. Long story short. No hope for this year or the future. We used to have an identity. "Bully Ball." No we just run a gimmick offsense. We're too effing SOFT. No toughness. Our toughest player is Jimerson and that says all you need to know about the state of the program. I've been a fan for over 25 years and this is the most apathetic I have felt. Even during Sodie's and Crews' years, I could find hope. I have none now. Cue the effing dolphin.

Sincere Parker to McNeese St. Sorry...posted on other topic....losing track on which damn topic to click on.

We had a freshman stretch 4 redshirt last year? Why the hell did he not see the court? Keep him. No idea why he didn't at least get a showing. Also interesting to see the practice setup under Ford. I wish we could watch more practices. A shame to see a few assistants have to step up in a few of the intrsquad games due to injuries.

I also admittedly did not watch much other than his transfer highlights on youtube....might be a stupid question, but can he dunk? High IQ for sure. Great passer. Decent shooter, but getting Adam Knollmeyer athleticism vibe. <insert trashcan vid> Also does the MVC lack athletic big men? His competition looked suspect. The A10 has athletes.

Rather have JMU coach than Schertz.

So we could lose to Drake again? Their best players are not good enough. I guess I may be on an island but Schertz is kind of a blah for me. His best players lost to Drake 2 out of 3 this year. We lost to Drake by a handful after leading by like 20 in the first half. I think we only had like 7 players for that game too, 4 being freshmen. I don't have the answer, but I fear Schertz might not be it. He's individually impressive and well-spoken but doing well at Lincoln Memorial and Indiana St doesn't necessarily translate to the A10 and better conferences.

Did the coaches show happen tonight?

I work at ODU. ODU seems to be in a similar position with a coaching search, except, Jeff Jones is stepping down himself. One of their fans made this coaching search bracket. Too many names but interesting. 64-Coach.pdf

I like Stef Van B's aggressive nature. He should be a brute. He acknowledged in an earlier interview that he knew his role as a back-up to be physical and not worry about fouls. He stated if he got more minutes, he would play more foul conscious. He actually boxes out and hustles non stop unlike Ezeriro (takes plays off) and Zhang (weaker on the boards). Do you remember how slow Ian Vouyoukas was fresh and soph years?? Way slower. I like the Euro kids and Zhang. I don't know how Magassa is ineligible. Doesn't his sister play at Rhode Island? Did they not have similar academic whatever in France? Where Ford struck out was not so much freshmen, but portal. Dalger -gone. Ezeriro - adds some but a liability on D and not as strong on boards as should be. Meadows - so-so, not aggressive enough.

Ok...whose wearing the "rather be at Chaifetz shirts"?

Zeb Jackson not playing according to VCU radio.

Good article on Stef Van Bussel by Stu. Stef seems to know his role. Love that he knows he should be a brute and be physical. I can't remember who keeps bashing our freshman, but I like SVB, Zhang, and Curcic. I can even live with Medley as a back up. I think a good comp would be McCall Jr. He's closer to MM Jr than Dwayne Polk, in my opinion.