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2017-2018 VCU Rams

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#1 · (Edited)
VCU to A-10 Billboard

 
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#424 ·
Damn DB...that's some work. Sort of a long, color coded post...except with moving pictures and music :)

First kid's got some range, reminded me Redford's.
Second kid impressed because he's already got a left hand (not many of them can shoot offhand)
Third kid looks like a real load...and I bet the biggest potential for the future. Soft hands, good vision...some of those interior passes were really good.
Fourth kid high motor? Needs a haircut? If he was on E1T1, they just won the finals at the Peach Jam today.
Seems like a lot of guards. This first kid wanted to play havoc, but seemed a little slow on recovering to the other end. Of course if he really scored 50 it probably didn't mean anything. Shaka will put the in boot camp anyway.

Of course, none of this may mean anything until you add their Rival's rankings.
 
#425 ·
If you just compared my video to a Muddy post, that's the last one I'll be making. LOL

First kid, JeQuan Lewis hit all those 3's in one game, scoring 50 to break the State Farm Tournament of Champions all-time scoring record in Chicago (guys like Anthony Davis, Reggie Bullock, Cory Joseph, and Nick Calathes are below him on that list). That's not really his whole game though, just that the highlights from that game heavily involved him nailing a ton of 3's. There is a full video of that game and Lewis shows a pretty well-rounded lead guard game. Very quick first step and great court vision. Don't let that one segment where he lazed back fool you, he was torching those guys. Reports from the staff are that they feel JeQuan Lewis is the most talented recruit Shaka has signed at VCU, if that's any indication. He'll have an adjustment period just on having to learn the PG position at this level alone, but once he hits his stride, he's going to be a very solid player in the A-10.

Lyles comes from a great DeMatha program, but had to move to PG after James Robinson moved on to Pitt. He's been recruited to VCU as a scorer at the 2, but had to play the 1 this season. DeMatha had a pretty poor season by its standards. Lyles is a really good scorer, but undersized and still slight of frame. Going to need to bulk up to impact at this level.

Simmons is a big boy at 6'9, 240. He's got a lot of potential, but not expected to be a real factor until a couple of years into the program. Needs to lose some of the bad weight to play in our system. He's got a lot of great qualities and intangibles that will help him once his body catches up to our style.

Brooks is all motor. A lot like Briante Weber on defense but shoots better from outside. Was a 40+% 3 point shooter and all those highlights were from a victory over a nationally-ranked Paul VI team from D.C. in the City of Palms tournament this past winter.

Dave Telep named him as having one of the 10 most under-the-radar seasons last year in this ESPN Insider article: http://insider.espn.go.com/blog/dave-telep//post/_/id/3068/teleps-top-10-under-the-radar-seasons The other 9 guys were all top-100 recruits. Brooks did play for E1T1 Elite but obviously he's on campus at VCU now as a 2013 recruit so he had nothing to do with the Peach Jam championship today.

Here's a highlight from last year with E1T1 Elite:

 
#428 ·
RAMS FINISH FIRST AMONG A-10 SCHOOLS IN LEARFIELD DIRECTOR’S CUP STANDINGS


RICHMOND, Va. – The VCU Athletic Department is reaping the benefits of countless hours of dedication put forth by the student-athletes, coaches and staff with one of the best years in VCU Athletics history.

In the Rams’ first season as a member of the Atlantic 10 Conference, VCU finished first among conference institutions in the 2012-13 Learfield Director’s Cup standings. The Black & Gold finished with 150 points, which ranked among the top-40 percent of all Division I institutions.

Among Divison I-AAA schools, VCU ranked ninth, its first appearance in the Top-10 since 2005-06 and only the sixth Top-10 finish in school history.

http://www.vcuathletics.com/general/2013LearfieldCupStandings
 
#429 · (Edited)
#432 ·
Agreed. The storylines write themselves.

Florida State: Terrance Shannon playing against his old team

Michigan (if we win): Got destroyed in the round of 32 in March, payback

Georgetown (if we win): rumored to be blocking VCU from the Big East per Pete Thamel

That's probably the toughest draw of any team in the field, but I'm sure Shaka wouldn't have it any other way. We have the team to be successful here and it would be great for both VCU and the A-10 if we make a deep run or win it.

FWIW, 5 out of 6 ESPN writers are picking VCU to win this tournament. Myron Medcalf, Dana O'Neil, Jason King, Jeff Goodman, and Eamonn Brennan go with VCU. Andy Katz goes with Michigan.

http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/86371/bracket-reveal-puerto-rico-tip-off-2
Title-game prediction: VCU over Georgetown.

The Hoyas should reach the title game, but I think they’ll face a VCU squad that’s equipped with a multitude of talent and depth. Smart has a rotation that could be 10-11 players deep. And even though he has lost a few veterans, he will gain the services of former top recruits Mo Alie-Cox and Jordan Burgess, two players who were academically ineligible for competition last season. And Shannon, the Florida State transfer, will be available, too. Smart’s HAVOC attack demands talent and depth, and he has both. This is the most skilled squad that he has had at VCU. That’s just too much for Georgetown to overcome, especially with VCU’s interior advantage (see Shannon and 6-9 forward Juvonte Reddic). These Rams will be dangerous. They’ll prove it in San Juan.

Who others are picking:

Eamonn Brennan: VCU over Georgetown
Jeff Goodman:VCU over Northeastern
Andy Katz:Michigan over Georgetown
Jason King: VCU over Kansas State
Dana O'Neil: VCU over Kansas State
Also under '5 players to watch':
Treveon Graham, VCU: The Rams are often praised for their defensive strengths. Last season, however, VCU proved its worth on offense, too -- averaging 78.0 points (11th in the nation). Graham, the team’s top scorer, was a catalyst. He averaged 15.1 PPG and 5.8 RPG. He also hit 36.6 percent of his 3-pointers. Graham doesn’t waste minutes, either. He had the Atlantic 10’s top offensive rating (118.1 per KenPom.com, among players who used at least 24 percent of their team’s possessions). Last season was a breakout campaign for this guy. If VCU reaches its ceiling, the 6-foot-5 guard/forward could earn All-American consideration.
 
#434 ·
Interesting... i would put my money on Michigan with their ball handlers beating the VCU press, and as a SLU fan I might be worried that VCU's press is now able to handle a team with ball handlers. However a VCU win in that tourney would be a huge boon for the league, and its always nice to see Michigan lose.

I say Muck Fichigan go VCU!!!
 
#435 ·
Michigan's ball-handling prowess largely centred around the National Player of the Year who is no longer at Michigan. Tre Burke killed us. Really poised with great decision-making. Penetrated and moved the ball extremely well. He did turn it over 7 times, but he really made Michigan go and killed us in so many ways.

If they have a guy like that in the wings, it won't be fun for VCU again. Stauskas and Albrecht can really knock em down. I don't think they have anybody near as good as Burke replacing him though, and we'll be deeper and more well-rounded this year than we were last season.

We actually have an inside game with Terrance Shannon helping out Juvonte Reddic. With Reddic all alone, we were sunk as soon as he got into foul trouble. We were too 1-dimensional and it showed against teams that forced us to play outside of what we wanted to do.

This will be a different squad from last year. I'm really impressed with what we were able to do despite our obvious limitations. Obviously we did what we like to do extremely well given our win total, but if we want to make a deeper run and not have winning be dependent solely on match-ups like last year, we need to be more well-rounded. I have heard we will be drastically different in the looks we can present this year. That could be really good for VCU. We'll see how it goes.

Either way, VCU making a lot of noise in this is great for the A-10. I'm hoping we all can show extremely well in the OOC.

EDIT: All that said, Mitch McGary is just a hoss, and the one guy we (and pretty much everyone else in the country) will have a tough time containing. If we can rattle the guards to the point where they can't get him the ball, that neutralizes him a bit, but it remains to be seen if we can. I like our chances a lot better with Burke and Hardaway in the NBA though.
 
#437 ·
LOL funny thing is Albrecht was known as a pure ball handler and non scoring threat going into the tourney. Michigan is a tough squad one of those schools that replaces lottery pics with blue chip prospects it will be a game to watch for sure...

Seriously though if VCU can give different looks and show that it can shut down ball handling teams you will be quite terrifying. (if VCU isn't terrifying enough) here is to you guys knocking them dead in OOC Muck Fichigan!!
 
#438 ·
We'll see in a couple of months. Everyone is a world-beater in the preseason.

With this schedule, we'll know very quickly if we're for real or not. 4 ACC teams all away from the Siegel Center with Michigan and Georgetown if we take care of business. Really stout road/neutral schedule for our OOC.
 
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#442 ·

ROB BRANDENBERG, JARRED GUEST ARE SET TO JOIN
GLOBAL SPORTS ACADEMY FOR NINE-DAY EUROPEAN TOUR


RICHMOND, Va. – For the third time in three years, HAVOC is going global.

This time, rising senior Rob Brandenberg and rising junior Jarred Guest will embark on a nine-day exhibition tour of Germany and the Czech Republic with a team from Global Sports Academy. The tour is set for Aug. 11-19.

Brandenberg and Guest will team up with eight other student-athletes from Division I and II programs for the trip. The squad will be coached by California (Pa.) University Head Coach Bill Brown. Brown, a mentor and former coach of VCU's Shaka Smart, will lead the 10-member squad in five contests against European competition.

This will be the second time in three years a VCU duo has joined Global Sports Academy. Darius Theus and Troy Daniels participated in a similar exhibition tour in the summer of 2011. Brandenberg and Guest were also part of VCU's exhibition tour of Italy prior to last season.

http://www.vcuathletics.com/sports/mbkb/2013-14/releases/20130719ywt0ef



VCU fans can follow updates provided by Global Sports Academy on Twitter (@GlobalSports_US) and Facebook (Global Sports Academy).
 
#444 ·
DB, I see you are keeping them honest at NBC sports on where the donations are.
Assume you were the majority of the $10 million already raised. Nice of them to give you a shout out.

Are you going to take Siegel up to 12,000 = more havoc?
 
#445 · (Edited)
That's highly unlikely IMO. I think we're more likely to cap it at around 10,000 since we're in a fixed footprint downtown. What I've heard is it's more likely to be between 9,400-9,600. We want to meet demand while still keeping the raucous atmosphere that makes the Stu a tough place to play. I believe talk of 10-12K isn't practical for safety reasons given the footprint of the facility.

A good amount of renovations will go towards maximizing revenue opportunities. VCU has had great demand for the 4 million dollar luxury suite addition built in 2011 and could fill more requests as corporate Richmond is buying into VCU Basketball nowadays. Preliminary plans involve replicating those suites on the opposite (north) end of the Siegel Center which would involve a good amount of re-modeling of the concourse to create easy access and thoroughfares for traffic.

We'd likely fill in the corners and increase the pitch of the seating in order to increase the capacity within the existing footprint of the arena while not taking away from the home court advantage we enjoy.

I could give you a Muddy-style post on everything that progressed up to the practice facility timeline-wise and as far as contributions are concerned, but I'll spare you that. Here's a post I made on it on the VCU boards if you or anyone else is interested in the project: http://www.vcuramnation.com/forums/...gel-center-upgrades.10879/page-17#post-289777

We're at about 10 million dollars raised with a target of just under 15 million. We have a couple of gifts being worked out to announce in the next couple of weeks that will get us closer to target, and we're hoping to have all the funds in place by late summer to start breaking ground. Completion date would be roughly summer of 2015. Will take 20 months to complete the 57,000 sq. ft. privately-funded facility.
 
#446 ·
Appreciate the comments, and thanks for the "sparing."
Might I suggest that when you update/renovate Siegel, that you consider what my adopted Spiders have done with the video boards. Those are going to be worth seeing.
I wish we had something similar at Cintas. (although we do have one heck of a great center board now). That gives me the opportunity for stadium porn. Always wanted to do that:

 
#448 ·
Appreciate the comments, and thanks for the "sparing."
Might I suggest that when you update/renovate Siegel, that you consider what my adopted Spiders have done with the video boards. Those are going to be worth seeing.
not at the expense of more seats
RC reduced seating capacity so now has room for the giant screens

2T more seats and just enlarge the two screens we already have!
 
#447 ·
Cintas has a great set-up. Robins will also be one of the best-looking arenas in the league when the renovations are complete. Having 4 huge video boards like that will be great for the fans.

There have been discussions of a center-hung video scoreboard a la Cintas with the Stu renovations as well. The roof would need to have some structural modifications to support the weight however. We'll see exactly what the renovations entail. At this point our practice facility is taking precedence for recruiting and player development purposes.
 
#455 · (Edited)
It was just announced by VCU that Briante Weber has earned an invite to the Chris Paul Elite Guard Camp in Winston-Salem, North Carolina from August 9th-11th. He will be training with Paul and some of the best collegiate PG talent in the country.

VCU's guys have been involved in some great player development opportunities this off season:

-Juvonte Reddic participated in both the Nike Amar'e Stoudemire Big Man Skills Camp in New Jersey and the Nike LeBron James Skills Academy in Las Vegas.

-Treveon Graham participated in the World University Games Team USA trials in Colorado Springs, made the team, and started for Team USA in Kazan, Russia.

-Rob Brandenberg and Jarred Guest are both participating on a 9-day, 5-game European tour with Global Sports Academy along with 8 other D1/D2 players against competition in Germany and the Czech Republic from August 11th-19th.

Hopefully all these opportunities pay dividends for our players this upcoming season.
 
#457 ·
Here's the press release from VCU on the CP3 camp invite to Weber:

http://www.vcuathletics.com/sports/mbkb/2013-14/releases/20130730h6gk1b
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Chris Paul is known around the NBA as one of the best, if not the best, point guard in the league. His dedication to his craft extends beyond just his game, he is also very particular about the invitees of his yearly CP3 Elite Guard Camp.

That's what makes the invitation for rising junior Briante Weber even more special. Weber was selected among a group of elite college point guards to spend three days at CP3 Elite Guard Camp from August 9-11 in Winston-Salem, N.C.

"I'm blessed to have an opportunity to be among some of the best players in the country," Weber said. "I'm looking forward to the chance to learn and get better so I can help the team reach our goals for the upcoming season."

The CP3 Elite Guard Camp is an invitation-only camp for the top high school and collegiate point guards from North Carolina and across the country, held in CP3's hometown of Winston-Salem, NC. This will be an opportunity for some of the rising stars in the game of basketball to learn on the court from one of the game's best floor leaders. Fresh off another outstanding NBA season, CP3 is bringing his experience, as well as an elite group of instructors to help a new group of guards.

Weber is coming off a record-setting sophomore season in which he set a new school record with 98 steals. He also led the country for the second straight season in steal percentage, registering a steal on 7.61% of the opponent's possessions when he was on the floor. Those numbers helped him earn the Atlantic 10 Defensive Player of the Year award.

In addition to his defensive prowess, Weber averaged 5.4 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game for the Rams.
 
#460 ·
Was attempting to inject a small amount of humor into what is becoming a somewhat humorless board. If I just wanted to comment on our player, I could have done that 2 weeks ago when it was announced. I wish we were playing VCU again this year, I enjoyed that budding rivalry. I particularly enjoyed the whole concept of Havoc, and how Shaka and his team energize your fan base. You don't seem to have any objections when other posters introduce Xavier into discussions about the A10 this year, like following our position in a A10 team placement in the top 144?
 
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