Natty

That's something that both VCU and SLU fans can get behind.

VCU fan here. Not here to troll, just hear to give credit where credit is due, and that credit goes to Tanner Lancona for landing a total 10 (have you seen his girl?). This forum apparently won't allow me to post the image, but just troll his Twitter feed for a second. Some A-10 "Player" of the Year type of stuff.

VCU troll here...just came over to say good luck. Despite you guys hating my team all season, I'll still be rooting for you all and the A-10 today. I also get this feeling SLU is "due" (anyone buy into that sorta thing?). Got this odd feeling that somehow you guys clip the Cardinals and get a rematch against WSU. Good luck, ya d'jerks.

Creighton loses 64.8% of their scoring next season. SLU loses 74.5%. If you want to assume they'll be garbage because of what they lose, well... go right ahead.

That's a cute video, one any Richmond or even St. Bonaventure fan could post. And it's true, VCU did not win an A-10 tournament in our first season in the conference. Yep, we had to settle for second place. But next time you jump on Youtube searching for bragging rights, take a peek at one of our many Final 4 videos....because odds are, you'll never have one of your own. I bet if you ask Rob or Juvonte to show you their Final 4 rings at this year's A-10 tournament...they just may.

Side note, that VCU team set an NCAA tournament record for made three-pointers and ranked in the top-100 in adjusted offensive efficiency (25th) and defensive efficiency (84th). VERY different teams.

That ain't happening.

Dude...I have not once said SLU isn't the best team in the conference, deserving of the top spot, any of that. I posted them in a schedule comparison of ALL the top seven teams in the conference so you can see just how tough each team has had it. You apparently jumped to the conclusion that SLU has had the easiest road of the group.

I put "layups" in quotes because those 18 shots were listed as "layups" on ESPN's play-by-play. I didn't watch the game with a scorebook checking how far every player was from the basket and how much each shot was contested. I also didn't say teams bigs have had nothing to do with our poor shooting. I think our poor shooting sucks. But despite our poor shooting VCU still has the second highest scoring offense in the league. I posted the schedules of the teams to show you just how all the top teams have faired against other top teams, where they won, how much they won by, etc. That stuff matters and is a great indicator of how teams may fair on the oppositions home court or on a neutral court. I never once said VCU was the best team in the conference, cause we aren't. What I did point out, is the Rams have been in every single road game in a BRUTAL conference schedule, including losing to your beloved SLU Billikens...by 2, in front of the biggest crowd your arena has ever hosted. If you won't admit that home court advantage has something to do with schedule results, and that that has in fact had an effect on this season's A-10 standings, then I question your hoops IQ as well.

VCU has an offensive strategy, problem is they aren't* executing. The Rams missed 18 "layups" last night and shot 45.5% from the free throw stripe. Those...are...killers. Good news is they still had a chance to tie the game with 10 seconds to play in front of yet another sellout road crowd. Look, I understand there are some fans on here who's job it is to talk crap to every opposing fan, but for those of you who are interested, in VCU's struggles, check the schedules. Here are how teams have faired against the top 7 teams in the league and I have included all losses as well. VCU Losses @ GW by 10 @SJU 7 @ SLU 2 @ UMass 5 Good Wins @ Dayton 14 v UofR 11 v GW 17 SJU Losses @UofR 15 v SLU 6 @umass 4 Good Wins @Dayton 3 v UMass 5 v VCU 7 UMass Losses @UofR 3 @BON 13 @SJU 5 v Mason 11 Good Wins v SJU 4 @ GW 6 v VCU 5 UofR Losses @SLU 20 @ VCU 11 v GW 8 @BON 14 Good Wins v Dayton 9 v UMass 3 v SJU 15 Dayton Losses v SLU 8 @UofR 9 v VCU 14 @URI 12 v SJU 3 Good Wins v GW 10 SLU Losses none Good Wins @ Dayton 8 v UofR 20 @ SJU 6 v VCU 2 Tough to win on the road in the A-10, and your chances of winning are greatly increased with a favorable schedule. VCU has been in every road game they've been in, they've just had the toughest schedule so far. Sure, you have to win those games, but the conference tournament won't be played on any teams home court, so I'm encouraged by the Rams having had a chance to probably win all but that GW game. (Side note: all of VCU's road losses have been in front of sellout crowds...which other team in the conference has had to deal with that?).

You guys have had a very favorable conference schedule, having played only four teams in the top "half" (top 7) of the conference (the rest of the top half of the conference have played at least six games against each other). Only two of those games were on the road and one of which was at Dayton, who currently sits in seventh in league play and has fallen at home to two other teams in the top half of the conference (SJU and VCU). Credit to SLU, you guys have won the games that have been on your schedule, but you also haven't faced anywhere close to the amount of adversity the rest of the top seven teams have.

Capacity this season with SRO is 7,741. And you say big deal, but your fans needed SLU to get ranked before they started caring. SLU v SEMO - 7,714 (season opener bump) SLU v Oral Roberts - 6,143 SLU v Bowling Green - 6,741 SLU v Rockhurst - 5,810 SLU v Wofford - 6,404 You get the point. Also, hard to talk $h!t when the only game you've sold out on the season is the one that features our team. So you're welcome for that.

....Emerson is coming to St. Louis. Guard your grills, tuck your chains in...

Ok, I'll play... Pray SLU sweeps VCU this season because you're about to graduate 72% of your scoring and no longer have a Hall of Fame coach recruiting guys. We lose 32% (meaning we return the most scoring at the top of the conference) and bring in the nation's 12th-ranked recruiting class that includes three top-100 players (all 6'7 or taller), including top-50 small forward, Terry Larrier. Hell, our lowest rated recruit of our four-man 2014 class is ranked higher than your best incoming player. Moral of the story: If SLU remains in the A-10 we will own you guys. If you move to the Big East you will join Butler at the bottom of the conference. Either way this is the end of an era at SLU, so better get all your smack talk and shots in now.

You must be the wittiest person in Saint Louis.

I'm assuming you're schtick is to be the crazy guy on the forum, but to address this one sentence in particular... The brilliance of VCU's system is that it creates a massive number of extra possessions, extra possessions that when taken advantage of should equal quality wins. For example: in last season's A-10 title game VCU had 16 more field goal attempts than SLU....16!!!! That's the major advantage the system creates. Problem is when you shoot 33.8% from the field it erases that advantage. But think about that, VCU shot 11% worse than SLU in last season's title game but lost by just 6 points. I'm not saying this as a VCU homer, I'm saying it as someone who stares at the numbers constantly (I run VCURamNation.com, so write game previews constantly, my head is basically up Kenpoms ass from November to March) and understands the beauty of what Shaka does. I'm saying that as a fan of the game of basketball. And that's not to say that it's the best system there is, it certainly has it's weaknesses (gives up some easy baskets), but teams CONSTANTLY say it's a gimmick yet VCU has been the top team in the country at turning teams over for the past three seasons (and the season before that they went to the Final 4). The line is, "well once people figure it out", yet, like I said, year three of being No.1 in the country at forcing turnovers. Clearly something is working. Are there going to be nights where the Rams don't turn the other team over? Of course. But that's not because the system is a gimmick, it's because these systems both our schools run are run by 18-22 year olds that aren't machines and where you can just press a button and they will perform perfectly every single night.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfA1LPEYMOk VCU fan here (obviously). This is clearly a tough matchup for us (as demonstrated by our last two games)...we've just had a real hard time being consistent on offense and as it's been mentioned on this forum, defending in the halfcourt (which has to be refreshing to a SLU team that hasn't had the easiest time putting the ball in the basket). I'm worried about Jett in particular getting into the lane, although I will say the Rams have done a good job at stopping key guys this year...it's usually the third-leading scorer types that end up having career highs against us. Problem is that becomes real difficult when you're playing a lineup that consists of not only Jett, Evans, McCall Jr and Loe. I will say this as a major positive for VCU: VCU's system is brilliant, thus making their ceiling I think a good bit higher than what we're seeing from the Rams so far. The Rams are 20-5 with a +10.5 scoring margin despite being one of the worst shooting teams in the land (232nd in effective field goal %), and one that surrenders 49.9% shooting inside the arc to opponents (220th nationally). I think that 2p% is always going to be inflated because the system does surrender some occasional easy baskets, but the offense is what still has time to improve (especially with the scorers VCU has), and IF it does, VCU honestly becomes a scary good team. Just last season virtually the same group was ranked 69th in EFG%, so once some of the insane amount of layups we miss start to fall (or free throws, which we rank 249th in), the Rams could be deadly. I say that not as a VCU fan but as a fan of the numbers. Anyway, I expect we'll be the underdog in this one and for good reason, but looking forward to a good game.

This may sound weird, but I think what killed our defense was YOUR defense. We can't set up our press if we can't score...and man, that's one of the worst first halves I've ever seen us have (credit to SLU). Treveon Graham is our top scorer on the season, and he was 4-16. He's usually our most consistent player (he and Reddic..and I think those guys are legit first-teamers). Rob Brandenberg is good, but has been streaky throughout his career at VCU...1-6 last night. Then you've got our seniors, PG Darius Theus and 3-point shooter Troy Daniels who combined for just 9 attempts. Credit that to SLU's D, but you know when your team is having a bad game, and your seniors aren't helping, that that gets you fuming a bit. I have faith in Shaka though to get us playing our best ball down the stretch. I'm telling you...we had some absolutely MISERABLE games our Final 4 season. Had a 40-17 first half at Richmond (most painful half ever). Last night was bad, but try getting waxed by your biggest rival in their gym...no fun, but ended up rallying to end the season in Houston. VCU will bounce back, so hopefully you guys can at least count on us for an RPI boost

Thank you. That's been pretty much our goal since the start of the season.

Still getting used to the A-10 teams, thanks for the heads up on the abbreviation. I think VCU will bounce back. Hell, we got blasted at home by George Mason in 2011 (20-point loss), then ended up beating them by 16 in the conference tournament before going on to the Final 4 that season. I think the younger version of me would freak out right now, but after seeing our Final 4 team look miserable, then regrouping to do what they did, I learned not to doubt Coach Smart. And personally, I don't think our defense is a gimmick. It's been very effective (tops in the nation in turnovers, steals %, etc), so the numbers are there to support it's effectiveness. Definitely wasn't on last night, but it's been on more times than not this season, and we're still 21-6 after losing to another 20 win team on the road, so I don't think Shaka will be scrapping his gameplan after a bad night on the road. As far as the naming of it, Shaka mentioned he wanted to "wreak havoc" on opposing teams psyche in his press conference when we hired him, then apparently recruiting guru Dave Telep somehow kicked that off as a brand, I forget how that happened, stories are out there. Either way, it's obviously big around here (sells a lot of t-shirts), and I think is good for recruiting (branding probably helps us a ton there, especially nationally), but obviously if you lose teams can throw it in your face. I'll take it. Got me a free trip to the Final 4 a few years ago, so I'm a havoc fan. I'll be real interested to see how the A-10 season shakes out. TONS of great games between these top teams to finish out the conference season. Personally I'd like to just get to a conference tournament for the first time in my life and not have to win it to advance. I think if both our teams handle business from here on out we'll be in that position. Good luck, and see you in Brooklyn.

Classy victory speech. I understand every fan base has their morons, and this guy is clearly one of yours. I think you'll find a lot of folks over at VCURamNation.com who knew this was going to be a tough game heading into it, and have a great deal of respect for St. Louis and what they've done this season playing with heavy hearts after the passing of Coach Majerus . Anyway, best of luck to you all from a VCU fan. You guys are on fire.