GDT VS Gimmick

[Bizziken]

1) These VCU fans lauding the stars of their incoming recruits should be aware that Reddic was rated a 3-Star by ESPN and Rivals, Weber was a 2-Star by ESPN and a 3-Star by Rivals, and Graham was a 2-Star ESPN and Not Ranked by Rivals. Puts things in perspective a little.

After re-watching the game, a few things I noticed:

2) I counted 5 blatant, uncalled travels by VCU + 1 iffy fall-down play. SLU had 2 blatant uncalled travels + Jett's iffy fall-down TO

3) We had a 9 point lead with 5 Minutes left. The game was tied at 2 Minutes. Hence, VCU played +9 in 3 minutes. Unacceptable. Similarly, we had a 7 point lead with 34 seconds left and won by 2. They played +5 in the last 30 seconds. Also unacceptable.

4) All of this Havoc talk, I really wanted to see its impact against us. Throughout my re-watch I noted all of our turnovers and added a little description to each. The underlined ones are the ones I deemed Havoc/Gimmick-related

First Half

Turnover 1: Mike McCall- driving into lane, crosscourt pass. Stolen

Turnover 2: Jordair Jett- crosscourt pass (in SLU’s half), Out of bounds.

Turnover 3: John Manning- offensive foul. Moving Screen

Turnover 4: Loe/Glaze- pass a little behind Glaze under the basket. Mishandled. Steal

Turnover 5: Dwayne Evans- traveled on drive to the basket

Turnover 6: Jordair Jett- lost control on drive to the basket

Turnover 7: Rob Loe- lost control on drive to the basket. Out of Bounds

Turnover 8: Mike McCall- offensive foul. Pushoff on drive to the basket

Turnover 9: Rob Loe- after inbounds in backcourt, full court pass for McCall too long

Turnover 10: Dwayne Evans- backcourt; on inbounds pass to OPEN Loe. Out of Bounds

Turnover 11: Dwayne Evans- backcourt; after inbounds, tries to reverse pass to OPEN Loe. Out of Bounds

Turnover 12: Rob Loe- backcourt; after inbounds, tries to dribble upcourt. Steal

Second Half

Turnover 13: Evans/Manning- low pass to Manning under basket. Out of Bounds

Turnover 14: Rob Loe- long high/low pass to Evans posting up. Stolen

Turnover 15: Dwayne Evans- inbounds pass to wrong team. Stolen

Turnover 16: Dwayne Evans- lost ball off the dribble at top of key. Stolen

Turnover 17: Jordair Jett- broken possession, backcourt; batted ball too long for Evans while falling out of bounds

5 Turnovers can loosely be attributed to Havoc, however even some of those can be considered lazy, unforced errors.

[NH]

I don't think travels are a call worth complaining about. Not that it's a big issue, but travels aren't really called frequently at any level these days.

[Bizziken]

I don't think travels are a call worth complaining about. Not that it's a big issue, but travels aren't really called frequently at any level these days.

That's kinda my point...that's why I labeled them 'blatant' travels. It's happened quite frequently over the past few years, but it's definitely getting worse. All of this recent emphasis on defensive hand-checking and all the touch foul bs, but none on travels and carrying.

[Bay Area Billiken]

1) These VCU fans lauding the stars of their incoming recruits should be aware that Reddic was rated a 3-Star by ESPN and Rivals, Weber was a 2-Star by ESPN and a 3-Star by Rivals, and Graham was a 2-Star ESPN and Not Ranked by Rivals. Puts things in perspective a little.

After re-watching the game, a few things I noticed:

2) I counted 5 blatant, uncalled travels by VCU + 1 iffy fall-down play. SLU had 2 blatant uncalled travels + Jett's iffy fall-down TO

3) We had a 9 point lead with 5 Minutes left. The game was tied at 2 Minutes. Hence, VCU played +9 in 3 minutes. Unacceptable. Similarly, we had a 7 point lead with 34 seconds left and won by 2. They played +5 in the last 30 seconds. Also unacceptable.

4) All of this Havoc talk, I really wanted to see its impact against us. Throughout my re-watch I noted all of our turnovers and added a little description to each. The underlined ones are the ones I deemed Havoc/Gimmick-related

First Half

Turnover 1: Mike McCall- driving into lane, crosscourt pass. Stolen

Turnover 2: Jordair Jett- crosscourt pass (in SLU’s half), Out of bounds.

Turnover 3: John Manning- offensive foul. Moving Screen

Turnover 4: Loe/Glaze- pass a little behind Glaze under the basket. Mishandled. Steal

Turnover 5: Dwayne Evans- traveled on drive to the basket

Turnover 6: Jordair Jett- lost control on drive to the basket

Turnover 7: Rob Loe- lost control on drive to the basket. Out of Bounds

Turnover 8: Mike McCall- offensive foul. Pushoff on drive to the basket

Turnover 9: Rob Loe- after inbounds in backcourt, full court pass for McCall too long

Turnover 10: Dwayne Evans- backcourt; on inbounds pass to OPEN Loe. Out of Bounds

Turnover 11: Dwayne Evans- backcourt; after inbounds, tries to reverse pass to OPEN Loe. Out of Bounds

Turnover 12: Rob Loe- backcourt; after inbounds, tries to dribble upcourt. Steal

Second Half

Turnover 13: Evans/Manning- low pass to Manning under basket. Out of Bounds

Turnover 14: Rob Loe- long high/low pass to Evans posting up. Stolen

Turnover 15: Dwayne Evans- inbounds pass to wrong team. Stolen

Turnover 16: Dwayne Evans- lost ball off the dribble at top of key. Stolen

Turnover 17: Jordair Jett- broken possession, backcourt; batted ball too long for Evans while falling out of bounds

5 Turnovers can loosely be attributed to Havoc, however even some of those can be considered lazy, unforced errors. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/gimmick

Good assessment.

Be ready for enlightened VCWho interests to reply, pontificating for we uninitiated, mere mortal SLU fans, upon how those front court turnovers were actually due to the brilliance of their alleged "Havoc" (which is really Gimmick, a marketing plan). In reality the errant inbounds passes are attributable more to simple human error, including SLU misplays than anything VCWho did or didn't do, other than being on the court as the opponent. And VCWho supporters also will claim that their alleged "Havoc," caused the 11 SLU missed free throws, due to "rubbery" legs, etc. You see part of the trendsetting and creative genius of their Coach is his "free throw defense." Had it not been for SLU's alleged clock manipulation, SLU may well have not made a single free throw down the stretch due to the VCWho's ingenious Coach's "free throw defense" and those Gimmick caused "rubbery" legs. It's all part and parcel to this brilliant scheme.

Gimmick: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/gimmick

Definition 1 of the World English Dictionary, "something designed to attract extra attention, interest, or publicity," is particularly applicable in VCWho and its Coach's case.

If Smart turned down UCLA, then more power to him, and as a California taxpayer, thank you. UCLA (20-5, 9-3 in the Pac 12, RPI 12) under Coach Steve Alford is doing just fine without Shaka. Smart's Gimmick system, especially sending two defenders after the ball handler in the backcourt, would not play in 2014 in Westwood anyway. Nor is it needed "to attract extra attention, interest, or publicity" to UCLA Basketball, with its 11 National Championships, in the Southland and the Nation's most populous state as a whole.

For the A10 Tournament in Brooklyn, should SLU have commissioned a big Gimmick blanket to thrust up and down like a beach ball in Southern California?

[Billboy1]

If travels are in the rule book they should be called-otherwise remove it from the rules!

[slufan13]

I've seen refs letting more go with traveling, but some of the travels that VCU had could be called in the NBA.

[MUDKAT]

Good assessment.

Be ready for enlightened VCWho interests to reply, pontificating for we uninitiated, mere mortal SLU fans, upon how those front court turnovers were actually due to the brilliance of their alleged "Havoc" (which is really Gimmick, a marketing plan). In reality the errant inbounds passes are attributable more to simple human error, including SLU misplays than anything VCWho did or didn't do, other than being on the court as the opponent. And VCWho supporters also will claim that their alleged "Havoc," caused the 11 SLU missed free throws, due to "rubbery" legs, etc. You see part of the trendsetting and creative genius of their Coach is his "free throw defense." Had it not been for SLU's alleged clock manipulation, SLU may well have not made a single free throw down the stretch due to the VCWho's ingenious Coach's "free throw defense" and those Gimmick caused "rubbery" legs. It's all part and parcel to this brilliant scheme.

Gimmick: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/gimmick

Definition 1 of the World English Dictionary, "something designed to attract extra attention, interest, or publicity," is particularly applicable in VCWho and its Coach's case.

If Smart turned down UCLA, then more power to him, and as a California taxpayer, thank you. UCLA (20-5, 9-3 in the Pac 12, RPI 12) under Coach Steve Alford is doing just fine without Shaka. Smart's Gimmick system, especially sending two defenders after the ball handler in the backcourt, would not play in 2014 in Westwood anyway. Nor is it needed "to attract extra attention, interest, or publicity" to UCLA Basketball, with its 11 National Championships, in the Southland and the Nation's most populous state as a whole.

For the A10 Tournament in Brooklyn, should SLU have commissioned a big Gimmick blanket to thrust up and down like a beach ball in Southern California?

VCU

62

Saint Louis

64

Final 1 2 T VCU (20-6 (8-3)) 27 35 62 Saint Louis (23-2 (10-0)) 30 34 64

• Box Score
• Play by Play
• Team Summary
• 1st Half Box
• 2nd Half Box
• Coach's View

VCU # STARTERS MIN FGM-A 3PM-A FTM-A OREB DREB REB AST STL BLK TO PF PTS 02 Briante Weber 35 5-11 0-1 2-4 3 6 9 5 3 1 3 4 12 11 Rob Brandenberg 32 2-7 0-2 3-4 0 1 1 1 3 0 0 4 7 15 Juvonte Reddic 26 6-9 0-0 1-1 3 6 9 0 0 1 4 4 13 20 Jordan Burgess 23 2-7 1-4 0-0 0 0 0 0 1 1 2 1 5 21 Treveon Graham 33 6-19 0-5 4-4 1 7 8 0 1 0 0 4 16 # RESERVES MIN FGM-A 3PM-A FTM-A OREB DREB REB AST STL BLK TO PF PTS 01 Jequan Lewis 6 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 1 0 0 0 2 4 0 04 Terrance Shannon 3 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 12 Mo Alie-Cox 12 2-2 0-0 0-0 2 2 4 0 0 1 0 1 4 23 Jarred Guest 5 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 2 32 Melvin Johnson 25 1-8 1-4 0-0 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 3 TM TEAM 1 1 2 1 0 TOTALS 25-65

38.5% 2-16

12.5% 10-13

76.9% 12 24 36 7 9 6 13 25 62

Saint Louis # STARTERS MIN FGM-A 3PM-A FTM-A OREB DREB REB AST STL BLK TO PF PTS 21 EVANS, Dwayne - f 33 8-13 0-0 5-6 3 7 10 1 0 2 5 3 21 51 LOE, Rob - f 34 5-11 2-5 2-5 1 3 4 2 2 1 4 2 14 05 JETT, Jordair - g 37 5-10 0-1 4-9 0 6 6 5 1 2 3 3 14 11 MCCALL JR, Mike - g 34 4-8 2-3 2-2 0 4 4 4 2 0 2 1 12 30 BARNETT, Jake - g 33 0-2 0-2 1-2 0 4 4 0 1 0 0 0 1 # RESERVES MIN FGM-A 3PM-A FTM-A OREB DREB REB AST STL BLK TO PF PTS 01 GLAZE, Grandy 9 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 4 4 0 0 0 1 1 0 02 MCBROOM, Austin 14 0-3 0-1 2-3 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 3 2 54 MANNING, John 6 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 TM TEAM 5 0 5 0 0 TOTALS 22-49

44.9% 4-12

33.3% 16-27

59.3% 9 29 38 12 6 5 17 15 64

Other Information

Technical fouls: VCU-None; Saint Louis-None.

Officials: Bill McCarthy, Gary Prager, Eric Anderson

Attendance: 10639

Time: 1:00 p.m.

OK, I'll bite. It really doesn't matter if you guys stunk throwing it away, or we caused it. 17 TO's

compared to 7 avg for the season is not a recipe for success. Nor is 38% shooting for us. Say what you want, I saw a lot of steals

in that list that were called undforced. How is a steal not an unforced turnover?

Box score says a lot.

1) It says we shot the ball terribly and had a bad turnover day as well, the TO's were expected, not the shooting

2) It shows that we had our characteristic 17-20 possesition advantage, Where DOES that come from?

3) For anyone out there complining about refs. Fouls, VCU 25, SLU 15, FT's VCU 13, SLU 27 (we made ours)

4) For a FT shooting team that is one of the best in the league to shoot 59% on their own floor, what could be the reason?

5) You guys shot like you usually do.

6) you really want to call your guys a bunch of lazy guys who threw it away at will? Your team just doesn't do that most nights

7) Scores by half 27-30, 35-34. Pretty close considering we were playing a great St Louis team on their floor

Ask any coach how they try to prepare for this "gimmick." Sometimes they put 7 on 5 to work on it to prepare. Ask GW's coach what he

thought of the "gimmick." (you'll need to watch the post-game conference for that one). This system is designed for

this defense by the type of players we recruit and the immense intense practice schedule (oh and Seal Team Training

doesn't hurt either. Heck, our own coaches play in practice and frequently get busted up. Unless a recruit is identified

as a guy that can and is excited to run in our system, he's not on Shaka's board. Guys that can't hack it lose their

spots and transfer.

This was a way cool game to watch even though we took the L. Great contrast of styles and a very close game. Very

enjoyable. Losing sucks, but if you have to take one on the road vs the 12 team in the country in a game this

competitive, that's not a bad thing and It helped both our RPIs. Hats off to the winners. Don't turn it over 15 times

on our floor or there will be a bloodbath. BTW, Mel had a terrible shooting game and he averages double-digits. He's even

average and you guys go down by 5-7.

Let's look at this game rationally and break it down before going with the "gimmic" and ref excuses.

Louisville must be a "gimmick" as well. They won it all last year playing essentially the same D.

[slufan13]

As someone said earlier, a "gimmick" is something done to draw extra attention. We're not saying that "havoc" doesn't work. We're just saying it's a gimmick. It doesn't work well against everyone. But it works against teams that don't have multiple guys who can handle the ball. Either way, it's still a gimmick

[MUDKAT]

As someone said earlier, a "gimmick" is something done to draw extra attention. We're not saying that "havoc" doesn't work. We're just saying it's a gimmick. It doesn't work well against everyone. But it works against teams that don't have multiple guys who can handle the ball. Either way, it's still a gimmick

OK, it's HAVOC. And it does work and is working better as our young team learns. We're not giving the easy ones as often as earlier in the season. Now, that said if you're going to play HAVOC, you have to expect to give up some easy ones. We did a nice job of not doing that yesterday. For HAVOC to have max effect you must also make 30% of your 3's. Usually we do that. Some were contested. Many were just missed. Not characteristic of a VCU team.

Now, about that 3rd halftime given due to the clock "malfunction"? It was about 8 minutes. Nice rest for tired legs. We've seen this many times before in away games.

Now someone said that we wouldn't want Jett on our team above. That's insane. He'd be a HAVOC master and yet another guy that can go to the rim. Awesome player. Glad he's graduating.

Now, can we talk about that senile Bob Knight idiot? Game's done.

[slufan13]

OK, it's HAVOC. And it does work and is working better as our young team learns. We're not giving the easy ones as often as earlier in the season. Now, that said if you're going to play HAVOC, you have to expect to give up some easy ones. We did a nice job of not doing that yesterday.

Now, about that 3rd halftime given due to the clock "malfunction"? It was about 8 minutes. Nice rest for tired legs. We've seen this many times before in away games.

Now someone said that we wouldn't want Jett on our team above. That's insane. He'd be a HAVOC master and yet another guy that can go to the rim. Awesome player. Glad he's graduating.

Trust me, I think VCU is good. I want them to be good. If VCU keeps winning, it only makes SLU and the A10 look better.

Stop complaining about the clock malfunction. If you've watch any college basketball games this season, it happens multiple times a week and that's just during the games that I see on ESPN. Maybe it's a problem with the clock being synched to the ESPN broadcast. It probably isn't, but let's not act like the clock had anything to do with the game. Wasn't SLU making a run when the clock stopped too? Correct me if I'm wrong, I honestly don't know

[moytoy12]

Trust me, I think VCU is good. I want them to be good. If VCU keeps winning, it only makes SLU and the A10 look better.

Stop complaining about the clock malfunction. If you've watch any college basketball games this season, it happens multiple times a week and that's just during the games that I see on ESPN. Maybe it's a problem with the clock being synched to the ESPN broadcast. It probably isn't, but let's not act like the clock had anything to do with the game. Wasn't SLU making a run when the clock stopped too? Correct me if I'm wrong, I honestly don't know

I'm pretty sure the last one helped VCU. Essentially gave them a free timeout.

[MUDKAT]

We hate it when the clock stops for anything. I'm a bit annoyed we didn't go deeper on our bench and get more minutes. We don't need any guys playing 33 minutes. When that happens, the outcome isn't usually good.

[Billiken Rich]

I'm a bit annoyed we didn't go deeper on our bench and get more minutes. We don't need any guys playing 33 minutes. When that happens, the outcome isn't usually good.

You and me both brother.....you and me both. For Crews it had to be a tough to gamble on throwing Crawford into the grinder.....

[ACE]

OK, it's HAVOC. And it does work and is working better as our young team learns. We're not giving the easy ones as often as earlier in the season. Now, that said if you're going to play HAVOC, you have to expect to give up some easy ones. We did a nice job of not doing that yesterday. For HAVOC to have max effect you must also make 30% of your 3's. Usually we do that. Some were contested. Many were just missed. Not characteristic of a VCU team.

Now, about that 3rd halftime given due to the clock "malfunction"? It was about 8 minutes. Nice rest for tired legs. We've seen this many times before in away games.

Now someone said that we wouldn't want Jett on our team above. That's insane. He'd be a HAVOC master and yet another guy that can go to the rim. Awesome player. Glad he's graduating.

Now, can we talk about that senile Bob Knight idiot? Game's done.

Regarding your 3-point shooting, it was no accident that the 3-point shooting was poor. It may not be "characteristic" of a VCU team, but it is if you are playing against SLU. In the Majerus/Crews era, SLU is consistently among the best in the country in 3-point shooting defense. We typically make teams work so hard trying to run their half court offense. Many opponents shots are either contested or rushed or we take away their best 3-point shooters and the lesser options wind up taking the 3-attempts. Also, in the same way you cause fatigue with your press, we wear down opponents with our half court defense.

[The Wiz]

Regarding your 3-point shooting, it was no accident that the 3-point shooting was poor. It may not be "characteristic" of a VCU team, but it is if you are playing against SLU. In the Majerus/Crews era, SLU is consistently among the best in the country in 3-point shooting defense. We typically make teams work so hard trying to run their half court offense. Many opponents shots are either contested or rushed or we take away their best 3-point shooters and the lesser options wind up taking the 3-attempts. Also, in the same way you cause fatigue with your press, we wear down opponents with our half court defense.

+1

[RiseAndGrind]

I love when opposing teams say "Well, if we would have shot our normal percentage, we would have won."

How many teams have had the worst shooting game of the season against SLU? 5? Awfully coincidental...

[slufan13]

I love how VCU is 287th in FG%. They haven't been able to shoot all season. It's not surprise that an already bad shooting team would shoot even worse against SLU.

In VCU's 3 games this season against really good defenses (Virginia, Florida St, SLU), they are 12-53 from 3. 22.6%. Maybe they just shoot really bad against really good defenses.

[Bay Area Billiken]

VCU

62

Saint Louis

64

Final 1 2 T VCU (20-6 (8-3)) 27 35 62 Saint Louis (23-2 (10-0)) 30 34 64

• Box Score
• Play by Play
• Team Summary
• 1st Half Box
• 2nd Half Box
• Coach's View

VCU # STARTERS MIN FGM-A 3PM-A FTM-A OREB DREB REB AST STL BLK TO PF PTS 02 Briante Weber 35 5-11 0-1 2-4 3 6 9 5 3 1 3 4 12 11 Rob Brandenberg 32 2-7 0-2 3-4 0 1 1 1 3 0 0 4 7 15 Juvonte Reddic 26 6-9 0-0 1-1 3 6 9 0 0 1 4 4 13 20 Jordan Burgess 23 2-7 1-4 0-0 0 0 0 0 1 1 2 1 5 21 Treveon Graham 33 6-19 0-5 4-4 1 7 8 0 1 0 0 4 16 # RESERVES MIN FGM-A 3PM-A FTM-A OREB DREB REB AST STL BLK TO PF PTS 01 Jequan Lewis 6 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 1 0 0 0 2 4 0 04 Terrance Shannon 3 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 12 Mo Alie-Cox 12 2-2 0-0 0-0 2 2 4 0 0 1 0 1 4 23 Jarred Guest 5 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 2 32 Melvin Johnson 25 1-8 1-4 0-0 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 3 TM TEAM 1 1 2 1 0 TOTALS 25-65

38.5% 2-16

12.5% 10-13

76.9% 12 24 36 7 9 6 13 25 62

Saint Louis # STARTERS MIN FGM-A 3PM-A FTM-A OREB DREB REB AST STL BLK TO PF PTS 21 EVANS, Dwayne - f 33 8-13 0-0 5-6 3 7 10 1 0 2 5 3 21 51 LOE, Rob - f 34 5-11 2-5 2-5 1 3 4 2 2 1 4 2 14 05 JETT, Jordair - g 37 5-10 0-1 4-9 0 6 6 5 1 2 3 3 14 11 MCCALL JR, Mike - g 34 4-8 2-3 2-2 0 4 4 4 2 0 2 1 12 30 BARNETT, Jake - g 33 0-2 0-2 1-2 0 4 4 0 1 0 0 0 1 # RESERVES MIN FGM-A 3PM-A FTM-A OREB DREB REB AST STL BLK TO PF PTS 01 GLAZE, Grandy 9 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 4 4 0 0 0 1 1 0 02 MCBROOM, Austin 14 0-3 0-1 2-3 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 3 2 54 MANNING, John 6 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 TM TEAM 5 0 5 0 0 TOTALS 22-49

44.9% 4-12

33.3% 16-27

59.3% 9 29 38 12 6 5 17 15 64

Other Information

Technical fouls: VCU-None; Saint Louis-None.

Officials: Bill McCarthy, Gary Prager, Eric Anderson

Attendance: 10639

Time: 1:00 p.m.

OK, I'll bite. It really doesn't matter if you guys stunk throwing it away, or we caused it. 17 TO's

compared to 7 avg for the season is not a recipe for success. Nor is 38% shooting for us. Say what you want, I saw a lot of steals

in that list that were called undforced. How is a steal not an unforced turnover?

Box score says a lot.

1) It says we shot the ball terribly and had a bad turnover day as well, the TO's were expected, not the shooting

2) It shows that we had our characteristic 17-20 possesition advantage, Where DOES that come from?

3) For anyone out there complining about refs. Fouls, VCU 25, SLU 15, FT's VCU 13, SLU 27 (we made ours)

4) For a FT shooting team that is one of the best in the league to shoot 59% on their own floor, what could be the reason?

5) You guys shot like you usually do.

6) you really want to call your guys a bunch of lazy guys who threw it away at will? Your team just doesn't do that most nights

7) Scores by half 27-30, 35-34. Pretty close considering we were playing a great St Louis team on their floor

Ask any coach how they try to prepare for this "gimmick." Sometimes they put 7 on 5 to work on it to prepare. Ask GW's coach what he

thought of the "gimmick." (you'll need to watch the post-game conference for that one). This system is designed for

this defense by the type of players we recruit and the immense intense practice schedule (oh and Seal Team Training

doesn't hurt either. Heck, our own coaches play in practice and frequently get busted up. Unless a recruit is identified

as a guy that can and is excited to run in our system, he's not on Shaka's board. Guys that can't hack it lose their

spots and transfer.

This was a way cool game to watch even though we took the L. Great contrast of styles and a very close game. Very

enjoyable. Losing sucks, but if you have to take one on the road vs the 12 team in the country in a game this

competitive, that's not a bad thing and It helped both our RPIs. Hats off to the winners. Don't turn it over 15 times

on our floor or there will be a bloodbath. BTW, Mel had a terrible shooting game and he averages double-digits. He's even

average and you guys go down by 5-7.

Let's look at this game rationally and break it down before going with the "gimmic" and ref excuses.

Louisville must be a "gimmick" as well. They won it all last year playing essentially the same D.

Did Louisville invent a name for its defense? And even if the answer to the Question is Yes, did Louisville put that name on its warmup uniforms?

What VCU has done is the very definition of the word Gimmick, as provided above.

When SLU plays VCU again, it is very unlikely that SLU will play most of the game with 6 players. That was something unique to this last game.

The VCU fans remind very much of the Missouri State fans that used to invade this Board around the time of the SLU-Mo. State series, which is now in hiatus. All of this is systemic to being a mid-major, the need to draw attention and attempt to be noticed- the very essence of Gimmick, the reason for it.

The VCU fans seem to have a need for our imprimatur, approval, validation. What difference does it make what we think about their team? I could care less what they think about us. We read the same old, nada, nada, nada about the Billikens. Except all the Billikens do is win- 51-9 the last 2 years, 77-17 the last 3 years. All those so called 2 and 3 star recruits must be doing something right.

But remember, according to all these self-proclaimed experts, SLU has no chance after this year. Right.

[slufan13]

Did Louisville invent a name for its defense? And even if the answer to the Question is Yes, did Louisville put that name on its warmup uniforms?

What VCU has done is the very definition of the word Gimmick, as provided above.

Syracuse doesn't put "zone" on the back of their warmups do they? VCU's defense may be effective more times than not, but it is absolutely, by the definition of the word, a gimmick.

[slufan13]

[Bay Area Billiken]

Syracuse doesn't put "zone" on the back of their warmups do they? VCU's defense may be effective more times than not, but it is absolutely, by the definition of the word, a gimmick.

I saw Syracuse for the NCAA in San Jose last year.

I saw no Syracuse players wearing T-Shirts that had "2-3 Zone" stenciled on the back.

Nor did I see any Syracuse fans passing a blanket inscribed with "Zone."

[Bay Area Billiken]

SLU's RPI is 11.

We await the AP and USA Today Coaches Poll rankings.

[ACE]

I saw Syracuse for the NCAA in San Jose last year.

I saw no Syracuse players wearing T-Shirts that had "2-3 Zone" stenciled on the back.

Nor did I see any Syracuse fans passing a blanket inscribed with "Zone."

Does Syracuse have their coach do an assembly line style chest bump with his players prior to the game? When I saw VCU doing that crap again this year, I knew they were destined to lose.

[MUDKAT]

I love how VCU is 287th in FG%. They haven't been able to shoot all season. It's not surprise that an already bad shooting team would shoot even worse against SLU.

In VCU's 3 games this season against really good defenses (Virginia, Florida St, SLU), they are 12-53 from 3. 22.6%. Maybe they just shoot really bad against really good defenses.

You are absolutely correct and that's the reason we're not the ones with the A10 title in hand. That said, you guys are pretty low on O efficiency on KenPom like we are. We usually are and expect to be there, just not as bad as this year, but we're playing a fresh PG and a 2nd year Melvin that is at this point in his career amongst the best VCU players of all time at their respective points in their career.Both these guys are still learning their game and how to play it within the system. We both have excellent Adj D numbers. That's why we have the records we have.

Yes, you guys guard the 3 as good as anyone out there. Still we missed 4 wide open ones that even if 2 were hit would have changed the game. We missed em and you won. That's the reality. I wish our guys would just catch and shoot instead of hesitating.

Now, I'm an opponent here, but I'm not flaming anyone. Just putting my opinion, facts and stats up. Not beating up on SLU posters (except the idiots that have nothing real to say and name call).

I intend to enjoy your board. If you can get on our board and be of value, you will be given respect and a place to post. Just remember, new posters over there need to be careful to be real BB posters. RamNation takes no schnit. It's run always keeping in mind that it's out there for all to see and the mods will not allow for the board to be seen by all with a bunch of nasty and name-calling crap on it.

[MUDKAT]

Syracuse doesn't put "zone" on the back of their warmups do they? VCU's defense may be effective more times than not, but it is absolutely, by the definition of the word, a gimmick.

Syracuse has never needed anything. They are blue bloods and will always been a huge success. It's us (SLU and VCU) that need to build our brands.