DANIELS, HAVOC GO ‘FAIRLEIGH RIDICULOUS’ IN WIN

Senior Troy Daniels (pictured right, shooting) set a VCU single-game record with nine 3-pointers Saturday.

RICHMOND, Va. – In a few days, we’ll close the book on 2012 and turn the page to a new year with new hopes, new goals and new dreams. But they might have to drag Troy Daniels into 2013 kicking and screaming.

Daniels capped his torrid December by stroking a school-record nine 3-pointers and scoring a career-high 27 points in Saturday’s 96-67 win over Fairleigh Dickinson. After a pedestrian 4-of-10 start from beyond the arc, Daniels kicked into high gear, hitting five of his last six, including four straight in the final three minutes, to break Bo Jones’ 13-year-old VCU single-game mark. Daniels originally tied the record with eight triples Dec. 7 at Old Dominion.

This month has been, by far, the best of Daniels’ career. In his last five games, Daniels has averaged 19.9 points and shot .500 (30-of-60) from 3-point range. Daniels has scored at least 24 points in three of those contests.

It hasn’t been so much the flipping of a switch that has turned Daniels into a “must-watch” shooter the last five games as it has been the result of a cumulative effort. It’s been hours at Franklin Street Gym late at night with Assistant Coach Jeremy Ballard, loads of film study, and pep talks with Coach Shaka Smart. Sooner or later, the dam was going to break and allow the river that is Daniels’ sweet shooting stroke to flow freely. It appears we’ve reached that point.

“I’m happy for Troy,” Smart said Saturday. “He’s a guy that’s put a lot of extra work in, a lot of extra hours where it was just him and a manager in the gym and it’s paying off for him.”

VCU BECOMING A ‘BOARDING’ SCHOOL

Junior forward Juvonte Reddic is averaging a career-high 8.6 rebounds per game this season.

RICHMOND, Va. – It’s a simple game plan, really. Possess the ball more than the other guy and you’re going to win a lot of games. I don’t know of anyone who tracks time of possession in college basketball, but I feel confident VCU would be highly ranked.

That’s why the Rams (5-3) press teams to death. It’s to force hurried passes, poor decisions and white-knuckle moments for the opposition. It’s because it creates more scoring chances for the Rams and fewer for the other guy. It’s something VCU does exceedingly well.

Take Saturday’s 75-65 win over Belmont (5-2), for example. The Rams dissected the Bruins the last 13 minutes of the first half. Belmont turned it over 17 times during that stretch, and the Rams staged a 26-3 run as a result on the way to an 18-point halftime lead. Overall, the Rams scored 27 points off turnovers in the game.

As valuable as those extra opportunities were, it was the bonus possessions created by the Rams’ 16 offensive rebounds that were the difference in the game. VCU outscored Belmont 17-4 on second-chance points Saturday, many of them on point-blank putbacks around the basket.

It wasn’t entirely unexpected. The Bruins don’t have any regulars in their rotation over 6-foot-7. Belmont coach Rick Byrd tried 6-11, 275-pound widebody Chad Lang for about three minutes in the first half before the Rams threatened to run him off the floor on a stretcher.

BACK TO BASICS: STETSON NOTEBOOK

Juvonte Reddic led all players with 20 points Wednesday.

RICHMOND, Va. – Juvonte Reddic said it was about getting back to basics. If he meant, basically running Stetson out of the gym, then Wednesday night was mission accomplished for VCU, which dismantled the Hatters 92-56 at the Verizon Wireless Arena.

In their first game back from the rugged Battle 4 Atlantis, the Rams looked like a baseball player who spent the weekend swinging a bat with a weighted donut, only to remove it in time for Wednesday’s game. VCU unloaded on the overmatched Hatters (2-3), dominating every facet of the game. If not for VCU’s dreadful 3-point shooting (5-of-22), the Hatters would be wearing their Stetsons much lower on their way back to Florida.

After a 1-2 showing at the “Battle”, where they played three top-25 teams in three days, the Rams looked loose against a team that is clearly not of the same ilk, no offense to Stetson. It makes the win difficult to assess, if the prism we’re viewing VCU through now is that of a team on par with the Dukes and the Missouris and the Memphises. But the Rams appeared to do everything they were supposed to do, and more.

“It’s always fun to play here. We had a tough little stretch in the Bahamas going 1-2, so we told ourselves to reset, come back to Siegel,” said junior Rob Brandenberg, who finished with 17 points.

BATTLE 4 ATLANTIS SPLITS

I thought this may be of interest. Here are VCU’s stats from the three Battle 4 Atlantis games – games against the No. 19, 13 and 5 teams in the country.  Click to enlarge.

Right out of the gate, one thing that jumps out is Treveon Graham’s stat line: 18.0 ppg, 6.0 rpg against terrific competition. That speaks volumes about the progress of the talented sophomore. Juvonte Reddic also continues to impress. He posted a double-double against Duke and averaged 12.0 ppg and 9.3 rpg.

WICHITA STATE LOSS REVEALS LESSONS FOR VCU

Darius Theus provided 15 points, including a late, game-tying 3-pointer, but it wasn’t enough to carry the day for VCU Tuesday.

RICHMOND, Va. – If VCU learned anything in Tuesday night’s nail-biting 53-51 loss to Wichita State, it’s that the Rams are not yet a finished product.

Look, the Shockers deserved to win. They suffocated VCU with intense, post-season quality defense in an intense, post-season quality match-up. There were fewer open looks at the basket than there are music videos on MTV these days. The Rams were frustrated on offense. Wichita State outscored VCU (1-1) in the paint 30-12 and neutralized its “Havoc” defense. The Shockers (2-0) turned the ball over just 13 times, and the Rams scored just nine points off those miscues, an area critical to their success.

“I give Wichita State a lot of credit. They came in here and battled. They hung in there throughout the game and did a good job dealing with the crowd and the press. They were ready to go and they were certainly not scared,” said VCU Coach Shaka Smart.

FIVE KEYS TO THE 2012-13 SEASON

1-CAN WE HAVE MORE HAVOC?
For two seasons we waited for the full manifestation of Shaka Smart’s HAVOC, a supposedly chaos-inducing full-court press. For two seasons, it was…good. Not great, but good. In a way, we were lulled into thinking that HAVOC was about offense, that it was about running and lighting up the scoreboard. But Smart continued to teach and recruit the type of athletes he needed to play his system. In 2011-12, HAVOC became “fully operational”.

VCU was a historically good defensive team last season. The Rams limited opponents to under 60 points per game (59.8) and ranked 22^nd nationally in Ken Pomeroy’s Adjusted Defense metric. VCU led the nation in steals (381) and turnover margin (+6.5).

The question is, can they duplicate that type of performance this season? There are plenty of reasons to believe VCU can. The Rams return everybody but Bradford Burgess from last year’s team, and have added another HAVOC-type athlete in Justin Tuoyo (read: long, athletic, quick) to the mix. Consider me encouraged.

2-A SCHEDULE WITH (MORE) TEETH
The move to the Atlantic 10 was predicated on better opportunities. Better opportunities for exposure. More nights on national TV. More buzz. And, most importantly, increased opportunities for NCAA bids through greater competition. Look, the A-10 is a better than the CAA. It just is. Even if we try to conveniently forget that the A-10 ranked seventh in RPI last year, while the CAA ranked 14^th, the A-10 has been the better league since…always.

VIRGINIA UNION PREVIEW

RICHMOND, Va. – The 2012-13 men’s basketball season begins anew tonight. YOOOOOUUUURR VCU Rams will renew the best pseudo-fake rivalry in college basketball when they welcome neighboring Virginia Union in an exhibition at the Verizon Wireless Arena.

The Rams have won their three exhibition games, including two with Virginia Union, under Shaka Smart by an average of 22.3 points. The goal – the hope – is that the game is competitive to a point. Smart likely wants his players to be tested and to have to work through some adversity, but nobody will be comfortable with losing, exhibition or not.

A few years ago, when Union was at the height of its powers under Dave Robbins and VCU was in a solid, but unspectacular state, the Panthers made this an interesting series. From 2002-2005, VCU and Virginia Union met four times. The teams split those four games and all of them were decided by six points or less. There was a buzz around the game you would feel in the city.

The last few years, not so much.

The Rams and Panthers did not meet last season, but from 2006-2010, VCU won five games by 15 points or more, including blowouts of 28, 29 and 30 points.

Virginia Union was 15-14 last season in its first season under Juqman Jaaber, who played point guard in a Panthers win over VCU in 2004. The Panthers have some nice pieces back that could give the Rams trouble. The most intriguing, on paper, will be Union power forward Damion Harris against the Rams’ bigs. At 6-foot-7, 260 pounds, Harris has the heft to mix it up in the post, but can also step out and knock down an occasional 3-pointer. He averaged 13.2 points and 7.9 rebounds per game last season and hit 14-of-41 from beyond the arc. It could be a good test for VCU forwards Juvonte Reddic and D.J. Haley (and others).

Other notable returnees for Virginia Union are senior guard Juan Wilson, who averaged 9.1 points and shot .565 from the field last season, and junior Cordero Holt, a 6-8, 195-lb small forward. Holt averaged 7.0 points per game last year.

The Panthers rebounded the ball pretty well last season (+2.7), but turned it over 15.6 times per game. You know how we feel about turnovers around here.

From VCU’s perspective, Smart will likely use this opportunity to tinker with lineup combinations and new sets. Don’t be surprised if Briante Weber, Teddy Okereafor, Darius Theus, Rob Brandenberg and Melvin Johnson are all on the floor at the same time (just kidding, that’s not happening).

Last year, against California (Pa.) in an exhibition, Smart played his starters between 24-30 minutes. It was also a good trial run for Treveon Graham, who showed VCU fans his potential with 16 points in the Rams’ 71-48 win over a solid Vulcans squad that finished the year 17-12. VCU turned Cal (Pa.) over 24 times last November.

MEDIA DAY SOUND BITES

I’ll have women’s hoops notes Monday, but for now, here are some interviews from basketball media day.

SHAKA SMART

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ROB BRANDENBERG

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TREVEON GRAHAM

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D.J. HALEY

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JUVONTE REDDIC

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TROY DANIELS (#TreD3)

SECOND HELPING OF MEDIA DAY SCRIBBLES

Rams’ coach Shaka Smart says VCU is ahead of where it was last October, but not yet where it needs to be.

PROGRESS REPORT
RICHMOND, Va, – Last October, VCU Coach Shaka Smart was driving home the narrative that the Rams were a young (nine freshmen and sophomores) team trying to find its way. Early in the season, VCU played like it.

The Rams opened with a lukewarm win over lightly regarded Saint Francis (Pa.) and followed with ugly losses to Seton Hall and Georgia Tech. However, by March VCU was a locomotive, chugging to 18 wins in its final 20 games. Those two losses were decided by a total of three final points and one of them came by virtue of a 25-foot buzzer-beater.

It would be nice if the Rams, who return all but one player from that team, could just pick up where they left off and start blitzing through the schedule, but Smart says it doesn’t work like that.

“It’s never easy,” Smart said. “The offseason, even though we have experience, I’ve never been involved with a team in college coaching that could carry over the habits through the offseason. You have to rebuild that stuff every year. That’s one of the facts of coaching.”

LOFTY EXPECTATIONS DON’T GET GRAHAM DOWN

Treveon Graham is like a volcano — he’s just waiting to erupt. Would be shocked if he doesn’t lead VCU in scoring.

— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) October 24, 2012

RICHMOND, Va. – It’s been a while since a VCU sophomore received the type of preseason pub Treveon Graham is getting these days. Luke Winn of Sports Illustrated labeled Graham the No. 1 sophomore breakout threat in the country. Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports Network, in addition to his volcanic musings, wrote that Graham was likely to emerge as the “go-to scorer” of this year’s team; one that is of top-25 quality, according to many national writers.

Don’t expect VCU coach Shaka Smart to be the guy to pump the brakes on those expectations. He’s even willing to go a step further.

“I’ve always had extremely high expectations for Tre,” Smart, entering his fourth year with the Rams, said. “When we recruited him, I told him I felt like he could be the all-time leading scorer at VCU. He might have thought that was just a recruiting line, but I really meant that.”

Treveon Graham averaged 7.0 points and 16.7 minutes per game last season.

Eric Maynor set the school scoring record with 1,953 points from 2005-09, which means Graham is just 1,701 short of VCU immortality. But it wasn’t until Maynor’s sophomore season in 2006-07 that his career took off. That season, he averaged 13.9 points per game and led the Rams to a conference championship and a first round upset of Duke in the NCAA Tournament. He followed with seasons of 17.9 points and 22.4 points per game as a junior and senior, respectively. Graham would be okay with a similar career arc.

A 6-foot-5 swingman, Graham will likely fill the role vacated by Bradford Burgess, who led the Rams in scoring (13.4 ppg) and intangibles last year. A rugged scorer, Graham can knock down 3-pointers, but is most comfortable driving to the paint and absorbing contact.

After a 1-of-16 shooting slump to start the year – “nerves”, Graham says – the Washington, D.C. native recovered to average 7.0 points in 16.7 minutes per game. He also drew a team-high 6.0 fouls per 40 minutes last season. Everyone, from Shaka Smart to the janitors at the Siegel Center, expects those numbers to go up this year, and that’s fine by Graham. He says Smart’s talk of chasing Maynor didn’t bother him. Instead of chalking it up to recruiting-speak, Graham says Smart’s confidence empowered him.