Some observations from the VCU game.
1) Rhoades COY Candidate - I think he is has to be the frontrunner at this point. They were picked 4th in the preseason poll, but I just feel with all the injuries they sustained - I think most expected to fall down from that, but they survived their OOC and now are tied for 3rd in the league. His team is limited offensively, but he still gets them to play their brand of defense and that alone is keeping them in games. Just goes to show if you get a team to buy in defensively, you can be mediocre at best on offense and still have a shot to win.
2) Our bad defense - we continue to play bad defense and as a result, teams shoot well against us. This was going to be a game of would VCU score enough with and limit us enough, or would UR score more than VCU given our bad defense. VCU defense forced us to shoot 35% overall and 18% from deep (4-22), but our defense allowed VCU to shoot 50% and 40% from deep (4-10).
3) Vince Williams - we had no answer for this guy. 22 points, 10 rebounds and 8 assists. But most importantly - he not only took the big shot, he made the big shot at the end. No special play was run, just inbound the ball to your best player and let him create. Was it a little lucky - maybe. But at that point in the game - when the guy has 19 points and has hardly missed - not sure how much luck it really is. He just dribbled down, shuffled and pulled up from straight on three pointer. Similar to the Davidson game - how do you let the hot hand beat you again. Pressure him, make him drive and kick - make someone else beat you or make him take a more difficult shot. Instead - we let him dribble down and just pull up with a lightly contested 3. Credit to Williams, Discredit our defense.
4) Burton - he is our best player without question. But he seems to be fading in the last few games. Everyone is allowed to have a bad game, and he did vs VCU. Some of that was their defense and some of that was Burton. But he has struggled a little bit since Davidson game - and I think we need to get him back on track to get back in the win column.
Overall - pretty simple game from VCU standpoint. They forced us to play more of their style than we would like. Something you would not think a team with not only "super senior" experience would allow, but also a team with a lot of experience against VCU. We needed to slow them down, work clock, get good shots and make them play half court defense. Instead - many times we took first shot, sometimes too quick and got pressured into their style of play. Something you don't expect a team of 5 year seniors to do at this point.
