El Shaqtus

SC-Upstate was actually a lot better than I thought they'd be.

That was a nice Billi-win tonight.

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RIP Coach Rick Majerus 12/1/12. You were the one that said it was OK to think big at SLU. You were right.

KVBL Lexington Kings

z8-Minutemen

So today I went 7-2 in my predictions. No real surprises besides Fordham losing to Texas State. Mildly surprised by Rhody loss, but not a ton.. The Duquesne loss comes as no surprise as well. Glad to see that every other team did what they needed to do tonight.

(OFF TOPIC)Also, must-see footage from the game that me and my friends attended tonight: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=pNqGxDxvt-s

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UMass Minutemen- 8 tournament appearances, 1 final four. Alumni: Julius 'Dr. J' Erving, Marcus Camby

Northeastern Huskies- 7 tournament appearances. Alumni: Reggie Lewis, Jose Juan 'JJ' Barea

AdamtheFlyer

Plenty of sleep till...

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buckswope

This game was definitely too close for comfort. The Bills managed to grind it out on the back of Dwayne Evans - who looks poised for a monster season. Cody Ellis couldn't hit from range, but played with an edge and found ways to score. It seemed like Jordair was having a dreadful game (5 turnovers!, numerous defensive lapses), but he did make some big plays and finished with a respectable stat line aside from the turnovers. McCall had a solid game, but I'd like to see him even more assertive on the offensive end.

The real surprise was the insertion of Grandy Glaze into the starting lineup. Glaze played a total of 29 minutes all of last season and didn't make it into the previous exhibition game until garbage time, but a knee injury to Corey Remekun (who was in street clothes) and the mysterious benching (or injury?) of John Manning (who was a much bigger factor than Glaze in last week's exhibition), which opened the door for Glaze. It appears Grandy is going to get the majority his points on backdoor cuts and offensive boards - although he didn't look too bad in his lone low post maneuver. He lacks the shot blocking threat of Remekun or Manning, but he could develop a bench role as an energy guy.

There was definitely a lack of crispness on both ends which led to mini-runs which kept the game close, but the real concern is the lack of outside shooting. With Kwamain out and Ellis perpetually streaky, the Billikens need McCall, Carter, and/or Barnett to step up.

Ninerballin

We were also without VT Transfer JT Thompson. He was out with a knee injury, which has been the reason he was limited in playing time throughout his collegiate career. I don't know how much he will contribute this season, but he was pretty solid for Va Tech when healthy.

If we would've had Braswell and Mayfield, we would've likely beaten this team by 20+. That being said, I did like what I saw from TWill and the 2 frosh big guys from Georgia, Clayton & Clark. Both are strong and rebound well around the basket.

moss2k

Charlotte scored 68 points, 65 were by either freshman or sophmores. Colby Lewis, a walkon, hit a 3 in the 2nd half.

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DistrictBaller

VCU was pretty good for the first game. Lots of improvement on the defensive end needed, but we'll get there. FGCU was a pretty good offensive team and they had some good skill players. They're only entering their second year as a fully eligible D1 member and they returned all 5 starters from a team that went to the A-Sun championship game and led at halftime against Belmont. They also beat the USC-Upstate team in their conference tournament that played Saint Louis last night.

The cool part is that VCU tied the all-time school record for steals with 20 and Briante Weber broke the individual school record with 10 steals of his own- in 18 minutes. He also added 13 points on 6-7 shooting. It was nice to see him clicking on both offense and defense. The A-10 all-time steals record is 11 held by Mark Macon of Temple. The NCAA record is 13 held by Mookie Blaylock from the 80's. I have a feeling Briante Weber will be breaking that record before his career is over as he's just a sophomore. Melvin Johnson also had a decent collegiate debut with 9 points in 12 minutes off the bench.

We forced 25 turnovers, pulled down 22 offensive rebounds and were +11 on the glass overall. 3-point shooting was poor tonight at 26.7% but that's also a function of our style of play and the number of possessions we get compared to the opponents.

Wichita State will be a much better test of where we are on Tuesday.

Here are the video highlights from VCURamNation: http://www.vcuramnation.com/2012/11/...da-gulf-coast/

and the video highlights from VCUAthletics:

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UD40

The lack of depth (especially down low) and the absence of multiple offensive threats were evident for Rhody down the stretch. They were scrappy on defense, and had some decent looks on offense but between a four man bench, and only one big man that posses some offensive skills (Aaman,) it'll be a long season for the Rhody faithful.

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All Heat First Team

MudFlap

Will be interesting to see if he is at Point vs. BU. SEM MA JAY is questionable after a walk-on tried to eat his arm. At least Taylor and Martin showed a pulse.

xu1990

All indications that Dee plays the point, and Semaj plays off the ball. Clearly like playing 2 PG most of the time though