VCU - Upon Further Review

[Ricardo del Rio]

I almost hate myself for this thread because I may be the only one on this fine forum, who is interested in strategic detail or as some might say, "minutia."

It all began, when I wondered about the players, who were on the floor with Fred for the last 0.5 seconds. I replayed the video to get the answer. During the replay, I learned I was mistaken about a comment that I had made earlier about the crunch time players.

So I said to myself, "Do it right, Rio."

I defined crunch time as the last 4:00 minutes of the game. Many will disagree with this assumption. Here are the players, who were on the floor, during the last four minutes of the game as follows:

Beginning at 4:00 mark and down to 0:005 (0.5 seconds) mark.
Carl
Cle
Ron
Demetric
Mal

0.5 mark - first free throw attempt by Reddic
Carl
Cle
Ron
Demetric
Tekele

0.5 mark - second free throw attempt by Reddic
Carl
E.O.
Ron
Demetric
Tekele

0.5 mark - Shocker in-bound pass
Ron
Demetri
Fred
Mal
Tekele

Earlier I said that the inbound pass by Ron had bounced off Mal's left hand. I was wrong. It bounced of the left hand of Tekele.

From the 4:00 minute mark down to the 0.5 second mark, Coach Marshall played the same five players.

During the last 0.5 seconds of play, Coach Marshall made three changes to the players on the floor.

[molly jabali]

thanks!

[WuDrWu]

RDR, part of the reason (especially) Mal and Carl were on the court so much was for the 2 stoppages in play for the "challenge" flags to check the monitors for head shots.

There was so much time to rest, those guys were really fresh. They are also the guys 3G trusts, but I just wanted to add that oddity.

[Speed]

Nice analysis, I'd like to see a lot more of Williams & Cotton.
Maybe regulation needs to be longer so we can see all our assets.

[ShockerGorilla]

Those guys in for the last 0.5 seconds have the best hands on the team. All they had to do was catch the inbounds pass to win the game.

[KC Shox]

From the VCU board, we didn't win this game. VCU beat themselves and gave it to us. Whether having two MVC refs as part of the officiating crew, missing free throws and to their bigs getting fouled time and again and not getting any calls were the key factors we won. Pffffff!

[Dan]

Using that rationale, we are 2-1 against VCU since we beat ourselves the first 2 times we played.

[ShockerPrez]

Whatever lets them sleep. Personally, i would rather know that the other team beat us. Beating yourself means that you arent as good as you think. If you cant hit free throws when it matters, well then maybe you arent a good free throw shooter. If you foul, then maybe you arent that good at defense. Turn the ball over, you arent as goof at passing, etc. Etc.

[forevershockerfan]

Something else that has been hanging out in my lil pea brain is how resililient we were in this game considering the intense Defense we were facing. This victory had to be cool for "The Gabe", Stutz, Toure', Rags, etc on the last 2 teams we had when we played VCU. VCU was grabby when they set a trap and a press but learned the hard way that when they sowed the wind, in return they reaped the black and yellow whirlwind. We more expected that with our 2 more experienced teams of the past 2 Seasons in a row. However, it was THIS team that beat their very experienced team in their yard. When VCU had the one nice run, many teams have and will fold up the tent, warm up the bus, and head home with their tail between their legs. NOT US BABY!!!

Also, we have several players stepping up thus far. Mr. Wessel desrves some mention for hustling and showing much improvement with his hard work of the summer. Baker and MA paid their own way here last Season and are huge assets for us now. They already seem like they play as though they have been here for 3-4 Seasons. As 3G said, "this is my best recruiting class ever here." They are blending in with our returning cast and we are hoping for our team chemistry to get better and better as the Season progresses. Cle may be better than we ever dreamed.

[ShockerFever]

They're still talking about this game?