RANDOM NOTES: WILLIAM & MARY

I don’t really miss doing game notes. In principle, I enjoy most of what goes into notes. Researching stats and trends, seeing how players stack up historically, etc. But they’re a lot of work. By the time you get halfway through basketball season, you just want to set them on fire. It’s tough not to like all this information, however. Here’s some good stuff from the VCU-William & Mary game notes, most of it courtesy of Scott Day.

• William & Mary Head Coach Tony Shaver and VCU Assistant Mike Rhoades go back a ways. Shaver presided over the program at Hamden-Sydney for 17 years, crossing paths with then Randolph-Macon lead man Rhoades 11 times. Rhoades was 6-5 in those 11 meetings with Shaver.
• Joey Rodriguez needs two 3-point field goals to move past Chris Brower (175) for third on the Rams’ career list. Rodriguez is also three steals away from passing Edmund Sherod (202) for second in school history.
• In five career games, Bradford Burgess has never scored more than nine points against William & Mary. Burgess is averaging 6.2 points and 4.6 rebounds in those five games.
• Rodriguez and Brandon Rozzell are 14-of-31 each from 3-point range against the Tribe in their careers.
• Rodriguez scored just five points in his first three career games against the Tribe. In five meetings since, Rodriguez has averaged 12.8 points and 4.8 assists.
• Ed Nixon is shooting .530 (18-of-34) in his career against William & Mary.
• VCU is 35-12 all-time against William & Mary. The Rams dropped the first meeting, 55-54, at the Richmond Coliseum on Nov. 25, 1977. VCU then proceeded to win the next 15 games in the series, a span of more than 19 years. The Rams also put together a 12-game win streak from 2003-2008.

THAT MAKES PERFECT SENSE
VCU is 0-3 this year when allowing between 70-79 points. However, the Rams are 3-0 this year when their opponent scores 80 or more.

DIFFERENCE-MAKERS
VCU is…

• 9-1 when leading at halftime this year
• 5-0 when scoring 80 or more
• 8-1 when shooting 45 percent or better
• 4-1 when outrebounding opponents
• 11-1 when leading with 5:00 left
• 5-0 after a loss

A SECOND HELPING

Yesterday’s post about a VCU-themed sports bar apparently struck a chord with some of you. In fact, it had its very own VCURamNation.com thread, which means now it really matters. So, to kick off today’s blog, I’m publishing some of the best suggestions I’ve seen in the last 24 hours.

SHOW

• Franklin Street Fries (namram). Served hot and sweaty? They’ve got to be better than Coliseum Fries, which are served cold and musty.
• Boo Boo’s Picnic Lunch: PB&J with chips and cookies (vcubanana). Ends up in “show” because people might not remember this nickname in five years.
• Big Shot Brad (Tony Dee). A double shot of any liquor.

PLACE

• The Wil Fameni Panini (Marcus Shrock)
• The Eric Maynor/Dom Jones Root Beer Float (YouveBeenRammed).
• Kentrick Warren Tomahawk Chops (ViCtoriUs). Pork chops slathered in tangy BBQ.

WIN

• The Nick George: Fish and Chips, obviously. (YouveBeenRammed). I can’t believe I overlooked this one. Nick is from the U.K., for those of you not in the know.
• The Greg Paulus: A lain-egg, over easy with no grits. (artRAMMinMN).
• The Pishchalnikov-Litcholitov: A traditional white Russian. (Scott Day).
• The Eric Maynor 1,000-Point Club: Served with a side of Duke mayo. (ram4life).
• Brandon Inge-aladas: Step up to the plate with three traditional enchiladas. Your choice of beef, chicken or cheese! (myrtlebeachramfan).

BONUS (Other stuff I thought of..)

• Kendrick Warren French Dip: You’ll want to dunk this roast beef sandwich in a side of au jus!
• Boris Kodjoe Cole Slaw: A handsome side!
• B.J. Burton Burger: Served with meat, cheese and beer.

TUESDAY LINKS

• W&M Looks to Freshman Duo to Aid in Turnaround (Virginian Pilot).
• Your Monday Sankalpa: Living in the Present… (CAAHoops.com).
• Data, Quotes, and Randomness (CAAHoops.com).
• VCU Ram Nation is offering fans a chance to win courtside seats (VCURamNation.com).
• Towson has FINALLY, released plans for a new basketball arena (TowsonTigers.com).

OKAY, NOW FOR THE “REAL” LINKS

• Kevin Love is breaking his Twitter silence. Gee, I’m so excited. I can’t wait for more groundbreaking tweets about Kurt Rambis’ hair (Si.com).
• Marshawn Lynch’s 67-yard run Saturday against the Saints was unreal, and what better way to recount the moment than through Tecmo Bowl.
• A brief history of product product placement in movies.
  

SAY HELLO TO COURTNEY HURT

Courtney Hurt averaged 26 points a game last week in a couple of VCU wins. That was good enough to earn her CAA Co-Player of the Week honors for the third time this year. The Rams ONLY needed 17 points and seven boards from Hurt on Sunday in a 64-46 win over George Mason to improve to 3-0 in CAA play. Mike Voyack sat down with “C-Hurt” today to get her thoughts on this season.

NOW SERVING…

I happened to mention to my wife on the way back from Wilmington, N.C. the other night how there really wasn’t a VCU-themed sports bar in town and how it would be cool to start one. Frankly, when you’re trying to stay out of the center median at 3 a.m., pretty much anything seems like a solid conversation. Now, she helped with a lot of these, so I can’t take all the credit.  Stay with me here.

The menu practically writes itself. For example:

APPETIZERS

Buffalo (N.Y.) Wings
Channel the spirit of ’07 with these meaty wings, covered in North Carolina Clutch Hot Sauce!

Calvin Duncan Dumplings
Tasty Asian-style pot stickers smoothly pan fried with our special No. 5 spice mix.

Bo Jones Cardiac Chips and Salsa
Your hunger prayers have been answered with these crunch tortilla chips and zesty salsa.

Shuuuuu Stew
Bomb your appetite with the finest beef stew recipe Jacksonville, N.C. has to offer.

MAYN EVENTS

Rolando Lamb-Chops
Delicious lamb chops with cracked pepper and rosemary

“Q” – ban Sandwich
Quanitra  Hollingsworth would be proud to chow down on this traditional combination of ham, pork, swiss cheese, pickles and mustard on Cuban bread. Served with a side of Double-Double Fries!

The Bruiser Flint
This spicy Philly Cheese Steak will have you breathing fire!

The Full Monte Ross
This “fightin’” chicken sandwich includes bacon, mushrooms, swiss cheese, lettuce, tomato and mayo.

The Sonny Smith
Two egg sandwich, served “Sonny” side up, with ham and cheese.

The Beth Cunningham & Cheese
Ham, swiss, lettuce tomato and mustard piled high on rye!

The Dagger
A heaping buffalo chicken sandwhich is so huge, it’s held together by an over-sized steak knife.

The Eric Maynor
This meal is unbeatable! Straight from Oklahoma City, it’s a USDA approved, 16 oz. steak, rubbed with North Carolina BBQ spices and cooked to perfection. Served with baked potato and a Bringing Down the House Salad.

The Larry Sanders
It’s traditional fish and chips with a twist! Battered in some of Milwaukee’s finest brews, this dish rejects hunger! Also served with Double-Double Fries.

DRINK MENU
The Tom Yeager-bomb
The Mike Nice Iced Tea
The B.A. Johnny Walker

I could go on, but it’s lunchtime. Share your own menu item in the comments section, if you like (keep it clean).

SUNDAY LINKAGE

Big props to the wife yesterday. She was a trooper, making the trip to UNC Wilmington and back with me. Despite the fact that she’s in bed by 10 p.m. every night, she made it up past 3 a.m. to help me me get stay awake long enough to get safely home. The conversations from the car ride home may have given me material for another blog, but we’ll address that at a later date.

THE LINKS

• Rozzell, VCU Roll Past Wilmington, 82-64 (Richmond Times-Dispatch).
• VCU’s Pressure, Depth too Much for Seahawks to Overcome (Wilmington Star-News).
• VCU Wears Down UNCW 82-64 in Trask Coliseum (UNCW Basketball Blog, Wilmington Star-News). Brian Mull wrote that my blog was “lively” the other day, so he gets two links in today’s blog.
• VCU Ram Nation has compiled a list of the top 10 plays of the Rams’ season to date (that they have on film).
• Nice pub for Hofstra star Charles Jenkins. Will NBA Come Calling for Jenkins? (New York Newsday).  Jenkins is the best player in the CAA right now. It’s good to see him getting some looks.
• If you want to recap Saturday’s CAA action, you can do that right here.

PEDAL TO THE METAL

WILMINGTON, N.C. – Shaka Smart had a feeling about Brandon Rozzell before this one. You see, the book on Rozzell is, great player at home, struggles on the road. But Smart felt like Saturday’s game at UNC Wilmington’s Trask Coliseum was going to be different.

“About 36 hours ago I started talking to him about Saint Louis. As you know, in Saint Louis last year he had 27 points. I told him, ‘Brandon, I’ve got a feeling this is going to be like Saint Louis. Bring a Saint Louis-like energy and a Saint Louis-like focus.’”

Rozzell struggled mightily on the road last season as well, but summoned a career-best 27-point assault in VCU’s 71-65 triumph at Saint Louis’ Chaifetz Arena in the championship of the College Basketball Invitational.

Saturday, Smart couldn’t have been more right, as Rozzell pumped in 22 points, including six 3-pointers, to ignite an 82-64 VCU rout of upstart UNC Wilmington in potentially the Rams’ most complete performance of the season. READ MORE…

MY TRASK TASK

I’ll be making the drive down to Wilmington, N.C. for Saturday’s VCU-UNC Wilmington game. The official wife of Around The Horns has agreed to accompany me, so we’re a go on this road trip.

I’ll be blogging live from the game, so please drop by and follow along. CLICK HERE FOR LIVE BLOG.

SKEEN’S SCENE

For those people who were waiting for Wake Forest transfer Jamie Skeen to cast a long shadow and dominate VCU opponents in the low blocks, that time has arrived.

Nearly a year to the day, and against the same opponent that he made his Rams’ debut, Skeen reminded fans what all the excitement was about, using a series of drop-step moves and flat-out muscle to frustrate Tulane’s defense and stake VCU to a 13-point halftime lead. The Rams went onto a 70-67 win behind Skeen’s 15 points.

Three nights later, Skeen dumped 14 points and 10 rebounds on UAB to record his third double-double of the young season.

The difference in the hulking, 6-9, 240-lb forward is hard to miss. Often lost in the shuffle behind future NBA First Round Draft Pick Larry Sanders last year, Skeen found his opportunities limited. To complicate matters, Skeen was adjusting to a brand-new system, the fourth head coach of his college career and a 21-month break between games. In 28 games last season, Skeen averaged 8.1 points and 4.5 rebounds in 20.7 minutes per game.

However, following Sanders’ departure to the NBA, Skeen has become the Rams’ primary and most consistent offensive option. Through 15 games, he is averaging a team-high 14.2 points and 7.7 rebounds a game.

“I’m getting a lot more touches because last year we did have an NBA player that played in the post,” Skeen pointed out, matter-of-factly. “It was pretty much [Larry Sanders’] show and I was a back-up post, pretty much. Now that he’s gone, I guess I’m the No. 1 big, so I’ve got to step up and make the best of my opportunities.”READ MORE…

I WAS TOLD THERE WOULD BE NO MATH

I was never a math all-star. In fact, I had such a hard time staying awake in Algebra 2 junior year that my teacher sent me to the guidance counselor because he thought I was on drugs (I wasn’t, so back it down). I’m not going to try to blow your mind today, but I thought it would be interesting to apply a little math to analyze a couple facets of the VCU Men’s Basketball team’s performance this season. Do you have your No. 2 pencils and graphic calculator ready? Great.

THE THREE-POINT MYTH
For you curmudgeons out there who prefer set shots and short shorts in your basketball games, this note is probably not for you. I’ve heard this asked before. There are fans out there who want to know why the Rams shoot so many 3-pointers? The 3-pointer first reared its head in college basketball in 1980 and ever since, there’s been this debate between fans. It’s like bellybuttons, the innies versus the outies.

The simple answer is because 3-pointers are worth more. See, that wasn’t so hard. But seriously, let’s look closer. It’s true that VCU takes a lot of 3-pointers. In fact, the Rams take an average of 23.5 3-pointers a game. They make 8.4 of those, on average, for a shooting percentage of 35.8.

A 3-pointer is worth 1.5 times a normal bucket, so if you take the Rams’ 126 makes and multiply it by 1.5, you get 189. Divide that by VCU’s 352 attempts and you get an adjusted shooting percentage of .537. This is the important number in all of this. Ask yourself this question. If you could take a 2-point shot you knew was going in 54 percent of the time, would you take it? I would. Food for thought: VCU is shooting 48.5 percent on 2-point shots this season. Twos or threes, shot selection is what’s most important.

RE: REBOUNDING
This has been an area of concern for the Rams all season. Overall, the Rams have been outrebounded by an average of 5.9 boards per game. It’s true that VCU’s style of play forces more turnovers than the opposition (252-187), which leads to more shots and more rebounds. But specifically, that applies to more available DEFENSIVE rebounds for the opposition. However, offensive rebounds are where teams really get hurt. Offensive rebounds lead to second shots and more scoring opportunities. It also forces the opposition to defend for a greater period of time.

This is an area that VCU will have to address. The Rams’ opponents have missed 476 shots this season and grabbed 199 offensive rebounds. That means when VCU’s opponents miss, they get an offensive rebound nearly 42 percent (.418) of the time. VCU, meanwhile, grabs an offensive rebound 33 percent of the time. One or both of those will have to change if VCU wants to avoid more headaches.

Oh, and I got a ‘B’ in that Algebra 2 class.

C. HURT AND THE GLASS CRASHERS

Courtney Hurt’s junior season is turning into in impressive exhibition. Hurt blistered UNC Wilmington with 35 points, 13 rebounds and four steals in a 70-58 win over the Seahawks Thursday night at the Siegel Center. Hurt was nothing short of spectacular, scoring 25 of the Rams’ 39 points in the second half on the way to tying VCU’s single-game scoring record. She is now one of six Rams (seriously) who hold that distinction. It’s Hurt’s third 30-point performance this season.

Wilmington entered the game as winners of four of its last five games, but couldn’t keep Hurt and Company off the glass. Hurt, the nation’s leading rebounder, grabbed eight of the Rams 17 offensive boards to spark VCU’s second-half comeback. Those 17 offensive boards yielded 21 second-chance points. Hurt’s double-double was her 12th straight, which extends her own school record.

“It’s one of her biggest strengths. If she misses her own shot and follows it up or just being active on the glass,” said VCU Head Coach Beth Cunningham. “It’s why she has all the double-doubles she has. She certainly did a good job for us on the defensive boards, but she’s always getting a lot of offensive rebounds and just has a nose for the ball. I think those types of plays really get your team going.”

Junior Andrea Barbour added 12 points and eight boards for the Rams, who have won three straight to improve to 7-5 overall and 2-0 in CAA action.

UNCW actually led by six, 52-46, with 8:35 to play, but VCU closed the game on a 24-6 run. At one point, Hurt scored 10 straight points, including a go-ahead three-point play with 4:26 left.

TIDBITS
Hurt, Barbour and Jennifer Lane each had four steals for VCU, which turned over UNCW 26 times… Sophomore Daphne Adebayo enjoyed her best game as a Ram, contributing eight points and two rebounds. Adebayo made all four of her field goal attempts in a career-best 30 minutes… UNC Wilmington’s Martha White scored 10 points in her first 12 minutes Thursday, but had just one second half point… VCU outscored UNCW in the paint, 38-20 and got 29 points off turnovers… The Rams have won nine of their last 12 over the Seahawks, including four straight… UNC Wilmington scored the first 10 points of the game and led by as much as 12 points (23-11) in the first half.

VCU SINGLE-GAME SCORING RECORD (35 POINTS)
Becky Crow (2/8/80 vs. New Orleans)
Brenda Smith (12/9/86 vs. Longwood)
Kelly Hoover (3/1/87 vs. Virginia Tech)
Anna Pavlikhina (1/18/92 vs. South Florida)
Kita Waller (1/28/10 vs. UNC Wilmington)
Courtney Hurt (1/6/11 vs. UNC Wilmington)