The Block

[mojo-spider]

strictly amateur video here, but you might enjoy the angle of the game ending Spider stop...the defense was strong tonight!

no surprise the Rams called on Trayveon Graham on their final possession...Deion Taylor manned up Graham and Terry Allen finished the job...a gigantic defensive play to end an amazing game...

congrats to all...

Go Spiders!

Terry Allen Blocks Graham's Final Shot

 

[MolivaManiac]

FWIW, I think it was a foul but we earned the (no) call with the ridiculous jump ball call on the previous play.

 

[MidloTrader]

Just watched replay and announcers said they thought it was a foul at first as well, but after reviewing, it was a clean block and great D. For once tonight, refs got it right. But still sad that refs don't know what hand check fouls, body check fouls, walking and traveling are these days.

 

[SpiderK]

Midlo , you are so right about the refs. Our guards were pounded and hand pushed and checked all night.

 

[brooklyn brownstone]

the way graham lowers his shoulder on every drive to initiate contact and double pump, well guess what? At the end of a game you might not get that call. He shot a boatload of fts tonight and other than his clutch 3, that's all I saw him do, try to draw fouls of which the refs gave him a good number of benefit of the doubt calls. you ain't getting calls on the road like that at the end of a close game though so live with it. great job by deion to hold his ground and not foul and let the help come and great job by terry knowing he wasn't going to pass and helping out.

anyone who thinks graham is an nba player is delusional. he is a horrible defender, very slow of foot (compared to nba off guards), and as we saw tonight, his own-shot creation consists of driving to his strong hand, lowering his shoulder and double-clutching on the release. that's not an nba game. see ya in europe.

 

[MolivaManiac]

Graham is a very good college player but he isn't athletic enough nor good enough shooter for the nba.

He can make a pile of money in Europe and nothing is wrong with that.

 

[brooklyn brownstone]

wait, I must be dreaming then because MudKat told us earlier today that he's a lock NBA player.

where is mudkat anyway? I miss him already. he seems to be UR's good luck charm, we need more of him on this board.

 

[fan2011]

Here is the ESPN video. If you look at the frames where the block occurred you can clearly see TA got all ball. I didn't believe it at first, but it was actually completely clean.

 

[MidloTrader]

Know there's a lot of moaning on this board about our guys who don't get us many points. But tonight without them being so disruptive on D, making blocks, initiating great inbounds, etc, we don't get this W. Every player has his role and thanks to ALL our players who played hard, never gave up, and made it happen tonight.

 

[GKiller]

Mudkat will be back once he works out a credit situation with his bookie.

 

[urfan1]

don't forget the block was made possible by the great switch and front by Deion -- he may not score much but his interior D is very good, he can leap as high as anyone I've seen and he is so much quicker than most interior players

 

[97spiderfan]

Graham got several calls earlier in the game, so the no call was justice. And for the record, the rest of vcu' players didn't look like anything special outside of graham. Game is not even close without graham and his ability to get a ton of foul calls and our inability to hit our ft's down the stretch.

 

[spider fan]

Graham carried RPI but the refs tendency to call fouls in his favor when he is obviously the aggressor was ridiculous. RPI plays a very physical game and K Zero was pounded quite often which wore him down but refs ignored much of that. May happen but difficult to imagine the calls will be so favorable for Graham in postseason games called by other than A-10 refs. Naturally he would say the combination DT/TA block at the end of the game was a foul because he was getting calls in his favor all game.

 

[72Spider]

We've beaten a bunch of ranked teams in the last 10 years and I thought this vcu team was one of the weakest ranked teams we have beaten. Not that they're bad but don't seem to be at the level of the other ranked teams we have beaten.

 

[spider fan]

72 - agree - commented before the game during warmups that RPI players did not look that imposing. Also thought pregame that our players were having a lot more fun especially during the dunking alley oop drill. Also still think it is cheeseball to the max to have a word on the back of your warmup jacket that reflects your inflated opinion of yourself. To a normal fan the question would be either where is Havoc College? or have not heard of a team known as "Havoc". I mean change the school nickname to "Havoc" or "the Havoc" if you want but other than that it is a total non sequitur.

 

[BigHouseDef]

In live action, I thought it was a foul. On the replay, looks as if we got the block with the forearm instead of the hand, which made it look like a foul. May have been some body contact with Taylor, but Graham had been initiating contact as well. Not likely to get that call at that moment of the game.

As for Graham, what a beast. Hell of a competitor. Looked like a guy who was determined to win even if he had to go 1-on-5. Glad that we were able to hold on for the win.

 

[9Legs]

Watch the video! Was that a moving screen on Mo Allie Cox that wasn't called?

 

[MooreHall73]

Midlo, I agree with what you said, but we played 7 players last night. Four scored in double figures. VCU only had two in double figures. It was a true team victory in all regards, including a balanced scoring attack.

 

[Not-A-Homer]

Looked like a foul in live action, but the replay shows one helluva block by Terry Allen.

Terrific position defense by Deion Taylor (admittedly I am not his biggest fan), and the right "no-call" by the official.

Enjoy the sweep!

 

[spider fan]

9Legs - Mo Allie Cox got away with moving screens much of the game. Would body up to a player and then take several steps in the direction our player was trying to move.

 

[SpiderK]

Graham's initial reaction said it all, he knew he had been blocked and stripped clean. He hung his head right away knowing it was over. Great play by our guys.

This post was edited on 2/26 11:30 AM by SpiderK

 

[rickschofield]

I'm an all out Spider fan but I thought maybe DT fouled him with the body. TA's block looked clean (he had all ball but only seems to hit his arm after he blocked the ball). Just glad it worked out our way and wasn't a three-point play by him making the shot, getting fouled and then making a free throw to win it by one.

 

[SpiderK]

Graham had been lowering his shoulder all night to initiate contact. Glad to see the no call made when their was no foul.

 

[SpiderGuy]

Originally posted by Not-A-Homer:
Looked like a foul in live action, but the replay shows one helluva block by Terry Allen.

Terrific position defense by Deion Taylor (admittedly I am not his biggest fan), and the right "no-call" by the official.

Enjoy the sweep!

Correct. At the end of the game unless things are flagrant or beyond obvious the refs need to let the game play out. I remember a game several years ago (can't remember versus who), but with about 1 second left the refs made a very questionable call on us. The other team shoots foul shots & we lose by 1 point.

 

[MidloTrader]

No way he should get that call or some of the others he got in 2nd half. He was creating all that contact and players all over are doing it and refs today simply don't respect the D when there's verticality. Know Ced and Darien were couple of our players who took advantage of this. Don't blame any player for taking what referees are giving them. Think I can see Shawndre doing more of it going forward as he's been more aggressive lately and will next 2 years for sure.

 

[spider fan]

Midlo - you nailed it - the refs don't call the games the way the rules are written and what do you get? More and more and more violations of the unenforced rules. Double dribbling is a good case in point which has now morphed into you can bounce the ball and stop and if you don't move much you can start all over again bouncing the ball.

 

[64Spider]

Fan......unless you are TJ

 

[97spiderfan]

Refs miss calls every game, it's part of the game. There is no way they are going to get every call right or even see every call. If you are going to win, you have to overcome that.

 

[MidloTrader]

97, this isn't about refs missing calls. It's about how they're calling the game everywhere now. Players are allowed to create "extreme" contact, lower shoulder, etc and even when the defensive player is vertical, it's a foul on D 100% of the time these days. Okafor for Duke had a bunch of them last night against VT. Graham got a lot of those foul calls last night with that.

I believe that all of this is intentional to benefit and create more offense, since you keep hearing that offense is all fans care about. I believe they're wrong since I see as much cheering and appreciation for good D as for good O. But then we'd definitely be ok with being in the category of "boring" teams that play great D and simply win.

 

[SpiderK]

Midlo, you are right. The big players are just lowering their shoulder and pushing over the vertical until they are close enough for easy lay up or get a foul. Can you imagine Larsen doing that for GW? We would have never seen Bill Flye or Jeff Pehl do that a few years back.

 

[urfan1]

It also seems to me that they are allowing a lot more "spacing" by the offensive player by pushing off with their arm the foul comes when they extend their arm

 

[Stork3]

... or the foul does NOT come when you fracture Alonzo's orbital structure with an elbow...

 

[32counter]

Graham had no vertical left in his jump attempting that shot.He was spent after 49:55.TA's shadowed him perfectly.