Gopher+RamFan

Hopefully it's okay to post this, just seems like something y'all should know (if not, mods please remove): I know he was banned here towards the end of last season for his posts. As one of the few other VCU fans who comments here from time to time, I figured I'd let you know that LQuarles passed away a few weeks ago after a brief battle with cancer. He was 33. We interacted a lot online, but never met in person. By all accounts he was polarizing online (including our own board), but humble and kind in person. Of all the other A10 team boards, he seemed to post here the most.

Well.... here's the inside scoop: Men’s basketball quarantine, isolation in hotels points to COVID-19 policy inconsistencies - University of Richmond's Student Newspaper (thecollegianur.com) SLU was right to leave.

As far as I know, VCU is fine. Just played yesterday and traveling to Rhody on Wednesday. Please don't lump VCU's protocol system with the University of Richmond's apparent poor controls.

Your team physician appears to be Jamil Neme, M.D. or at least he's on twitter listing himself as such. He's an assistant Professor at SLU and recently "liked" a VCU fan's tweet that it was an issue within U of R. Take that for whatever it's worth. Edit: here's the tweet

Hit his shooting arm, directly on the shot - not the follow through?

Just pointing out that Will Wade was the one who recruited Melvin Johnson, Lewis, Allie-Cox to VCU as the lead recruiter under Smart. One of the main reason he was hired after Shaka left, was for continuance and familiarity with the players he recruited.

We've had: GrantWatch, ShakaWatch and now face WadeWatch. About a year earlier than expected, but we'll close the hatches and weather the storm. Valpo fans seem crazy, SLU is a good job in a major media market. Past few years have been rough, but any good coach believes they can turn things around quickly. It's about having all the other prerequisites in place.

I do feel bad that times are tough for you guys at SLU. Props to the 10-15 guys who made the trip and sat behind one of our baskets. They wore Epsilon Phi Epsilon shirts in solid blue and tried to stay into the game. At least you still have fans willing to travel, I was surprised they were there.

VCU signed the contract a few weeks ago for $20 Million over 10 years guaranteed. Georgetown signed a 10 year contract last month between $1-3 million a year "based on performance". Richmond and a couple of other A10 schools have agreements through Learfield, but have never publicized the amounts (I'm thinking most are below the GT/VCU level). Not sure what SLU would be receiving, but I have to think the market of Saint Louis helps there cause much more so than Richmond/Dayton.

He decided to stay. Our PG said that everyone will be staying who's currently on the roster (yes we were worried about Larrier). With Shaka gone, the ban on social media was lifted. It's nice to hear things straight from the source, and not have to rely on a random poster's "source". Our new coach helped recruit the rising senior and juniors, but had little to no contact with the sophomores and none with the decommitted recruits. We knew he'd have to prove himself to the sophomores and decommits, unfortunate about the recruiting class but oh well.

Since someone called out VCU fans for not posting (sorry Billikens is not a board I check everyday unless it's our game week with you), I'll respond. The current roster (rising sophomores through senior) will stay. The only de commit VCU is still in the hunt with, is #81 Kenny Williams. Before VCU received his commitment, he was pursued by UNC, Georgetown. They're back in the hunt, along with UVA and possibly Michigan. That band director's been with the program over at least 3 VCU coaches, he's not crying. That "fat horned guy" has been through (I think) 4 coaches. VCU has had a lot of band wagoners join since the Final Four, but our most prominent fans have been around a while. Don't misconstrue VCU's board meltdown (mostly new fans) as the norm. Many of us have been around for a while. When things turn around for SLU (or if you make a F4) you'll get the rush of some band wagoners with wild expectations. To be fair new VCU coach Will Wade set the expectations high by saying the goal was a F4 and championship during his presser.

Rhoades was previously a HC at DIII Randolph-Macon (north of Richmond). Rhoades has to take a lot of credit for the F4 in 2011. He convinced Shaka to run zone, and Rhoades ran most of the offense. If you watch tape of that run, you'd see an amazingly run offense - the likes of which we haven't seen in Richmond since. Last summer before his first season, Rhoades received a 3* commit and then just received a verbal from a 4* for 2016. Again these are great recruits for a school like Rice. He knows most of the current players and can recruit well. He'd be an upgrade at Xs and Os, but won't have the name brand and popularity with the media. VCU offered north of 2.5 mm/year to keep Shaka to come awfully close to match Texas' initial offer. He just thought he could be more successful at Texas.

Good game Bills. I commend you for keeping up on game threads, although this is a pretty rough season for you guys. Your young core seems to have some talent, if they can stay together and Crews doesn't mess them up, their upperclassmen years could be pretty entertaining. As always, impressed with Yarbrough and Batley (not sure if that's his name) who hit several good looking threes. I do understand losing Majerus was a pretty big deal, but it seems odd that the recruiting philosophy for SLU is to recruit a good class every 3-4 years. There doesn't seem to be a good mix of veteran leadership and talented underclassmen on these Billiken teams. Either talented upperclassmen with decent/mediocre underclassmen who get no play, or talented large freshman class with mediocre upperclassmen (besides Yacoubou this year). Crews' recruiting plan needs to change. Anyways, I commend most of you for keeping up with the team (I'm a Vikings/Twins/Timberwolves fan, so I know it's hard to keep the fanbase interested) - most on here are pretty respectful (except Bay Area, "VCWho" was funny when people actually didn't know who VCU was in CBB). Good luck the rest of the way, and in Brooklyn. BTW, I'm not too sure Ben Howland wouldn't come to SLU given the right $ and commitment from the institution.

If you look through my post history, I have never "trolled" this board. My name is not Mudkat, nor Iquarles - so your first paragraph does not refer to me. Neither Mudkat or Iquarles are my "friends", so I am not bothered by your name calling. They both ARE trolls. Anal about getting the correct story? IDK why you messed up, but I felt a need to correct it - since you put these previews before every SLU game, I thought I'd add the correction to better your analysis. I thought you may not know VCU as well as you think. I would always bow to an SLU fan's expertise on their own squad. Maybe you're a good BSer, but you said you "only changed 1 word" but based beating VCU on this entire sentence: "VCU weakness...They don't take care of the ball...all the emphasis is on steals....no one talks about how they are one of the worst in protecting the ball as they are 21st in the nation in TO's." That's not "changing" one word, that's an entire phrase predicated on the fact that VCU apparently turns the ball over too much. If you changed "worst" to "best", that entire sentence would make no sense. I'll leave this conversation now, as it's not helping anything. If you have any questions about VCU feel free to ask. I'll read through this board before our next game, and the A10 tourney. Looking forward to a good game.

Cause VCU turns the ball over a lot, right? I enjoy your previews of other match ups from the SLU perspective, but I can't take it as seriously if you cannot read the data correctly.

Where are you getting your numbers? http://www.ncaa.com/stats/basketball-men/d1/current/team/217 There is the current rankings for "Turnovers Per Game". As you can see, the rankings go from "least amount" of turnovers - to most. VCU is ranked 24th best, averaging 10.9 TO's per game. VCU is also the 3rd best in TO margin, with 7.1 - behind WVU and EKU. VCU has been beaten by teams that can shoot the 3, and take care of the ball. Those should be the keys to the game. VCU is better on offense (28th KenPom, up from 100+ last year). The defense is still respectable, at #37 in KenPom.

Please ban all of us. If VCU runs into a bad style matchup, we could win one game and be out of the tournament. SLU could run into favorable matchups, and hit the Elite Eight. I really don't want to come here after those two scenarios, and read all of you laughing at VCU fans. You just never know what might happen in the tournament.

SLU was better last year, don't think anyone will argue that. I didn't mean to make people think VCU is dynamite on offense - they're not. But they are much more adept to break down the defenses that last year were proven problems. The VCU @SLU game: VCU forced +4 TO's, shot 12% from 3, lost the rebounding battle, shot worse than SLU, had less assists, and 10 more fouls called on VCU. The VCU @UVA game: VCU forced +6 TO's, shot 36% from 3, shot 40% from the FT line, called for +6 more fouls etc... I highlight these two games because 1. Away games for VCU 2. Defenses that last year I would say our offense has no shot. Watching these two games, VCU didn't get out in transition offense much (very big difference between dead ball TO's and live ball). Forcing VCU into a half court offense usually favors the opponent. I just think VCU is doing just enough to overcome this problem, and are a bit more skilled (or coached up) to overcome it this year. UVA and especially SLU have matured players who have seen VCU's style of play (UVA played VCU in a closed scrimmage last year). I'm just seeing a more positive outlook for VCU against that style of play, as opposed to last year. Of course, VCU lost to the long and athletic FSU by 18 or so earlier in the year - and UMass beat us by 5. Maybe athletic teams are our new problems. Yes, Crews led SLU to the Atlantic 10 tournament championship which is commendable. But I was talking about the national tournament. These days perception is predicated on the NCAA tournament - and Shaka took 2*/3* recruits to the Final Four. People (myself included) will take 2nd or 3rd place in a Conference as long as we make a run in the tourney (I'm sure you guys would too). In the end, you guys love Crews, and we love Shaka. Both have their reasons, and both believe it. No use in me sticking around, just saying good luck in the tournament, and I just don't want to let MudKat represent VCU all the time. Wish I could be in Brooklyn but I'll be at my own Bachelor party!

I'm not going to defend MudKat here, because I don't think he even posts on our boards - and he seems like a troll on here to a degree. Since Shaka has been at VCU, the series is tied at 3-3 with SLU. Only 2 home games for VCU, 3 home games for SLU and a neutral site. VCU 2-0 at home, 1-2 road, 0-1 neutral. I know you said the last two years, but the schedule was unbalanced, and VCU is a different team at home. SLU was the better team last year, but I do believe VCU is the better team this year going into the tournament (we can actually break down zone defenses, pack line defenses, or great defenses, @UVA and you guys). We're not world beaters, but we've proven ourselves on the road - and the numbers show that (RPI, Ken Pom). To those saying that Crews coaches better than Shaka - just look at the results. VCU is a team that performs well in tournaments with quick turn arounds. Shaka led a team of 2 and 3 star recruits to the Final Four (I believe Skeen was a 4 star transfer, but underperformed greatly until his senior season). VCU has a couple four stars in its Sophomore and Freshman class, but this is still a program relying on 2* and 3* recruits, similar to SLU. If Crews was pulling in 4*, and Top 50 recruits for next season, Billikens fans would be just as proud and excited. If Crews can get through the next couple of seasons being successful, SLU's recruiting pipeline will increase and people will believe in his ability to coach with his own players. Took Shaka a couple years, and a firmly believe SLU can do the same thing. Best luck going forward, still a big Jordair Jett fan.

And you sold out your first game all year, to VCU. In all honesty, it was a "gold out" - VCU makes shirts for many home games (almost too many) but I won't be complaining for my free shirts.

VCU is the only team in the country this year to have faced 4 straight top 40 teams, 3/4 on the road. We're safely in the tournament, and battle tested, unlike previous years. All I can ask for.

I like this board, and have been nothing but respectful. I think you're the only poster here who just doesn't seems out of touch with modern basketball, and disrespectful of your opponent at the same time. VCU was the better team today, as was SLU when you beat us. For a mid-major, scheduling comes last as your program develops. VCWho has grown past that label and is now scheduling H+H'a with ACC teams. VCU beat the ACC champ, on the same floor that Syracuse was wiped clean with. I wish SLU had beaten Wichita St., but VCU clearly has the better wins (espeially @UVa)when you're comparing it with a WSU home loss. Good game today, like I posted two weeks ago- think it'll be a great game in Brooklyn. Wish I could be there, but I'll be at my own bachelor party. Good luck the rest of the way!

Nope, they've actually risen the prices for single game tickets and season tickets. Pushing out some fans. There are also more corporate seats. The thing that has changed, is a student claiming policy. If some students do not claim their tickets by a certain time, then the university will sell their tickets, which are already sold technically, with student tuition (mandatory athletics fees). Maybe you were talking about the Indianpolis Colts, when they were about to have a media blackout for their playoff game this year.

According to your school's website, you only had 6,404 in attendance against Wofford this year. So no, you would not.

VCU won the 2013 Naismith Award for best student section. We were preceded by Kansas. Can't fault fans for being proud. The SLU game is the 49th straight sellout, can't be down on our fan base for any reason.