You may want to delete the first part...folks will run with that narrative all day.
*** Official VCU vs IOWA STATE Game(Day) Thread ***
- Thread starter CycloneRulzzz
- Start date
You may want to delete the first part...folks will run with that narrative all day.
I was at the game too. The ISU crowd was such a non-factor since we were trailing so much but it was awesome to see it really get going in the last 6 minutes.
This was a great game for this team to experience and learn to win. Past Otz teams would always seem to claw back to make it a close game, but if the opponent jumped it back up to 10 (like VCU did), then it'd be over. Very optimistic for the year that this young team was able to battle this one out to a W.
Glad they sat him for Watson after this
Watson theoretically had a busy day, playing for Milan and BRE.
My TLDR ramblings…
- Not surprised the first game away from Hilton and first game against a decent team was pretty rough. Any W is probably a good W given that.
- While perhaps not as skilled, VCU had incredible length and athletic ability. I’m not saying they’d do great in the big 12, but we’ll play big 12 teams who are not that long and don’t play as above the rim as they do blocking shots and finishing. It was good for the team to see that this early after such generally small teams in the tune up games.
- I think Shulga for them is a very solid offensive player but in first half also had some lucky bounces, played ok second half but kind of returned to the mean in terms of lucky bounces. Belle for them was making ugly lucky shots and fts the entire first 30 minutes, he may have been playing harder than our guys at the time but some luck there with a really bad shooter making ugly shots. Our coaches would‘ve been doing the right thing encouraging him to take long jumpers. He was 0-8 from 3 coming into the game and 4 of 20 on the season fgs.
- I was shocked when Lipsey wasn’t on the all Big 12 preseason teams and continue to think it’s hilarious people thought he wouldn’t be a top 20 value player in the conference. He’s already way closer to 1st team than he is not being on any Big 12 team. The kid is incredible. I’d say this even if his jumper hadn’t improved…but it really has. He willed the team to win.
- People overreacting to Milan having his first non-perfect game should really stfu. He’ll get used to it but VCU had incredibly long and athletic players that was probably new to him, also the word is out that he can shoot and teams aren’t going to leave him open. His shot didn’t look bad but every shot was just a little too strong, he just needs to settle into playing on the road and playing at this level. The shot will be there, the fadeaway will be there. I wish some of you could go see how unpolished and awkward freshman Fizer was.
- He was a little out of control at times but Gilbert also refused to lose and helped save us from our horrible first half with his second half. 10 rebounds and game high scoring. The kid plays hard and has some real natural ability to go with it.
- Other than Tamin, Rob may have been the guy who played hardest for the entire game. Seems it’s not a fluke that his finishing at the rim has improved and these guys could match his size and length somewhat.
- C Jones didn’t shoot well but he had a lot of hustle plays.
- The middle 20 minutes of game time were atrociously officiated and not in the “evens out” sort of way. Very gritty for the guys to play through and overcome it. I still am baffled at how MM could get hit that hard on a made basket with no whistle, how can you call a foul the entire rest of the game if that’s not a foul? Bizarre.
- Not surprised the first game away from Hilton and first game against a decent team was pretty rough. Any W is probably a good W given that.
- While perhaps not as skilled, VCU had incredible length and athletic ability. I’m not saying they’d do great in the big 12, but we’ll play big 12 teams who are not that long and don’t play as above the rim as they do blocking shots and finishing. It was good for the team to see that this early after such generally small teams in the tune up games.
- I think Shulga for them is a very solid offensive player but in first half also had some lucky bounces, played ok second half but kind of returned to the mean in terms of lucky bounces. Belle for them was making ugly lucky shots and fts the entire first 30 minutes, he may have been playing harder than our guys at the time but some luck there with a really bad shooter making ugly shots. Our coaches would‘ve been doing the right thing encouraging him to take long jumpers. He was 0-8 from 3 coming into the game and 4 of 20 on the season fgs.
- I was shocked when Lipsey wasn’t on the all Big 12 preseason teams and continue to think it’s hilarious people thought he wouldn’t be a top 20 value player in the conference. He’s already way closer to 1st team than he is not being on any Big 12 team. The kid is incredible. I’d say this even if his jumper hadn’t improved…but it really has. He willed the team to win.
- People overreacting to Milan having his first non-perfect game should really stfu. He’ll get used to it but VCU had incredibly long and athletic players that was probably new to him, also the word is out that he can shoot and teams aren’t going to leave him open. His shot didn’t look bad but every shot was just a little too strong, he just needs to settle into playing on the road and playing at this level. The shot will be there, the fadeaway will be there. I wish some of you could go see how unpolished and awkward freshman Fizer was.
- He was a little out of control at times but Gilbert also refused to lose and helped save us from our horrible first half with his second half. 10 rebounds and game high scoring. The kid plays hard and has some real natural ability to go with it.
- Other than Tamin, Rob may have been the guy who played hardest for the entire game. Seems it’s not a fluke that his finishing at the rim has improved and these guys could match his size and length somewhat.
- C Jones didn’t shoot well but he had a lot of hustle plays.
- The middle 20 minutes of game time were atrociously officiated and not in the “evens out” sort of way. Very gritty for the guys to play through and overcome it. I still am baffled at how MM could get hit that hard on a made basket with no whistle, how can you call a foul the entire rest of the game if that’s not a foul? Bizarre.
iSU crowd sounded pretty good the last 8:00 minutes of the game
This is an excellent way to initiate a player topic. Others would say "Player A sucks and shouldn't be playing! Player B would be doing so much better! WTF is wrong with TJ?!"
In answer to your question, I don't know. I was surprised Watson didn't play.
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Wasn’t able to watch. Did VCU pull a Pitt and pack the paint/dare is to beat them as a jump shooting team or did we just miss everything but play our game aside from that?
He actually looks creative and graceful finishing…and with the ft% it’s great for him to actually finish.
We were actually getting into the paint a lot. Just couldn’t finish. Almost felt like it was the opposite where they were taking away the perimeter and daring us to go inside against their length.
Rob clearly put in a lot of work in the off season. He is greatly improved. Same energy and solid on defense (surprisingly good against guards on the perimeter when he gets switched), but much better around the rim on offense.
A lot of the missed shots in the first half were around the rim, we just couldn’t get them to fall. Of course, there was a lot of contact on many of them too.
Yeah, they were hitting shots that we wanted them to take (or at least we were content to give up). Defense was fine IMO.
Credit to the coaches for the halftime adjustments. I thought maybe we’d get away from pounding it inside, but they just made adjustments to make that easier.
Kudos to Rob as he was key to that. Who would have thought that he’d be referred to as an elite screener, but he was outstanding
That Belle guy was 4-20fg, 0-8 3pt entering the game.
Officiating was very inconsistent. I give our team a ton of credit for hanging in there. A lot of teams would have folded when they got it down to 2 possessions and then went back to double digits.
Lipsey and Gilbert completely out the team on their shoulders. That 1-2 minute stretch at the end when Lipsey has assist to Rob, two buckets and then drew an offensive foul was incredible.
So rare to see him show any kind of emotion on the floor but was fired up after he drew that foul.
Totally agree with point above. Had both teams shot anything close to a typical FG% in the first half we would have been up double digits.
Killing them on the boards, winning TO margin, taking higher percentage shots. We just couldn’t get one to drop and they were making everything.
Killing them on the boards, winning TO margin, taking higher percentage shots. We just couldn’t get one to drop and they were making everything.
