lquarles

This is what I posted on our board in the thread about our strategy during Bones's absence: I'd start Ace, Jamir, Vince, Levi, Corey. Try to run a balanced offense, and value the ball more than any other game all season. I'd love scoring from all 5 starters, with Ace dishing out assists and drawing some fouls. Run a lot of pick and pop with Levi, helping to draw French out, then make them pay with backdoor cuts with some assists by Levi. Try to draw fouls from French, and foul him when he has the ball. Run a few set plays for Vince and Jamir to get them some open 3s. Bring Key/Josh Banks/Hason in as the "6th man". Ballhandling can be by committee, with Ace, Jamir, Vince, and Josh Banks getting a share of bringing the ball up. Josh played PG in AAU, and if he gets some meaningful minutes, he may surprise, as long as he lets the game come to him. Bring Ward off the bench, let him have a field day with Linnsen and whatever guards who decide to drive inside. Give MBJ more than 15 minutes off the bench, and he'll do good things. KEEP SOMEONE, ANYONE, ON GOODWIN. HECK, PUT ME IN, COACH! Now, more than ever, we can't afford to allow him to get a bunch of rebounds, and therefore give SLU a bunch of second chance opportunities. Those will kill us. Throw a handful of defensive looks at them. Man, 2-3/matchup zone, press, etc. Quickly switch to some zone if a couple of guards get in foul trouble. Force them to shoot a bunch of jumpers, especially anyone not named Perkins, and GET THOSE REBOUNDS! After our tough winning streak, we understandably played mentally tired and not into it against GMU, and our rebounding was absolutely terrible. Frankly, I don't care if we win or lose tomorrow, I just want to see how we respond without Bones, and hope to have him healthy for the A10/NCAA tourney.

I came here a few weeks ago, posting straight facts about your team, and got blasted as a troll and personally. Now maybe some will see that I was right. I'm not a troll. I can take off my VCU shades and be objective about other teams. Here are some things I said before: If we [VCU] play them, and shut down Goodwin like we did Crutcher, we will feast. I hate pressing and trapping URI, but I still think it's a good thing to do against SLU, until they show they can consistently beat it. Also, COVID can have lingering side effects, so keep an eye on that with your players, especially if they look more than just a little "rusty". I only mentioned Goodwin because of the reasons BIG BILL FAN stated. He gets after it, and VCU will need to not only defend him well, but know where he is at all times and keep a body on him, containing his hustle plays. But frankly, I'm worried more about French than any of your guards. Dayton is in SLU's head. From the outside world, great post. You weren't playing good defense before the COVID pause. Giving up 90 to Minnesota should've been the early red flag to anyone with eyes, but folks wanted to believe Minnesota was so good. All of this still applies, but the Dayton game simply exposed everything so obviously, that even Stevie Wonder can see them. Good luck tomorrow and the rest of the season. Frankly, I don't care if we win or lose. I just want to see how our guys respond from losing Bones, and I want him healthy for the A10/NCAA tourney.

Nope. VCU has gone through the same thing. They know you will be fired up and come out looking for blood.

Good luck on Tuesday.

So is this really your best team ever? They might come out shooting like Gonzaga against VCU, but it looks like Dayton answered that question. ✌

Hey trashy mods (if there even are mods), just delete my damn account. NOW. This board is nothing but dumb and ignorant bullies with no home training or self respect. Even the UR board is less trashy. This is not how you should represent a university. I'm glad your players are more mature. Thanks.

Since I'm one of the few in this thread who actually talks about basketball, there are only a few smart folks here. The rest of you need to go hang out in nature, maybe you'll realize the world isn't really as evil as it has made y'all act on here. Billiken Rich says the crap he/she said as if it's normal, but yeah, I'm the problem here. Trashy savages.

You wouldn't know smart if it punched you in the face.

@Taj79nice to confirm you're another a$$hole.

@Taj79funny, that's what it seemed like when y'all played Dayton.

Too bad, we have Bones and he always scores. Looking forward to 2/23. https://www.instagram.com/p/CLPq9aqFqKZ/?igshid=ap3w1k299rr0

Roy, you're still a 12 year old? Don't ruin a good discussion again.

Yes, Stockard says he wants to return. He has become a big time pickup for us. He's also former SBU player Courtney Stockard's cousin.

VCU is a surprise to some, but not me. During last season's meltdown (due to mostly chemistry issues, but also injury), I was already posting that we would be fine, because of the recruits coming in, and because Coach Rhoades would finally have his first team full of his own players. Coach Smart leaving, and then Wade leaving after only two seasons, created a domino effect for Rhoades to deal with. Smart's entire recruiting class de-committed when he left, but we were still in a good place as a program. When Wade left after two seasons, along with some players, Rhoades only had a couple of months to scramble a makeshift roster together, and convince Wade's leftover players to stay, which included Santos-Silva and Mobley. Of course, both of those players have now left over the last two seasons, mostly due to crazy family members convincing them the grass was greener elsewhere, and making a big stink on social media. Them leaving turned out to be addition by subtraction. So those issues behind the scenes created a small hit to the program, which led to what happened last season. Some fans blamed Rhoades's coaching ability, but I knew that was not the case, because he had a lot of drama to deal with. He has helped recruit some of our best players over the years as Smart's assistant. Smart even said during the game last night that Rhoades is the best assistant he's ever worked with. He truly has an eye for talent, and we are finally back to recruiting at the level Smart was, and this is the result. I haven't been so excited about a VCU team since the FF run, especially the team chemistry, and the DEFENSE. It's currently ranked #13 on KenPom for a reason, and it doesn't get enough praise. Folks can say the team isn't that good, but they are usually the folks who don't pay attention to how stout their defense is, and it'll keep them in any game against anyone, as long as the chemistry stays at this level. And with such a young group, it's fun to see who steps up on any given day. Jamir Watkins is still my favorite player in the 2020 class, and I was calling Ace Baldwin a day-1 starter after watching some of his high school games. I posted before this season that we'd win 23+ games, as long as we get to play enough of them, just because I could see how hard Rhoades's recruits play for him. I can see his second A10 Coach of the Year award coming. Getting picked 9th in the A10 was reasonable, but I knew it would turn out to be a joke. And with Jalen DeLoach and Nick Kern coming next season, along with Stockard saying he wants to return, it'll be a special, special group, especially if Bones stays.

VCU gets a revenge game against SBU, and a third game against Dayton (the 3/3 game at Dayton is still on).

Congratulations on the good win!

From the outside world, great post. You weren't playing good defense before the COVID pause. Giving up 90 to Minnesota should've been the early red flag to anyone with eyes, but folks wanted to believe Minnesota was so good. LSU gave up 99 to Vandy and Arkansas last season, and with Will Wade's personality, and the fact he's never played organized basketball, he's never going to get kids to play consistently tough defense. This LSU team is much worse than last season's. Travis Ford is almost another Wade. Regardless of if COVID had hit or not, you were going to struggle in the A10, because who really wants to play consistent defense for him? And he's not a good in-game coach.

Early February, chasing Fordham. SLU sucks. They haven't played defense all season. Peace, all. *Dodges all incoming personal attacks*

Keeps the players engaged and in shape, as evidenced by French's new poofy body.

@Littlebill

They don't even have to look that far. They can look right down the street at VCU. VCU will probably host the A10 tourney.

Tell your friends that, thanks.