VCU Fan here

[NattyMat]

Long time no see!

Hey guys, good luck against Butler. I've got a ton of respect for your program after whooping our butts last year. I'm definetly not looking forward to seeing Jeremy Crouch again.

I was wondering if you guys could tell me a bit about this years team. I definetly keep up with the MVC but it's hard to catch Valley teams on TV on the east coast. I have a VCU podcast (downloadable internet radio show) at www.vcuramnation.com and we are gonna talk a bit about the upcoming matchup so I was just curious as to what you guys think. How our guards matchup, matchup problems on both sides, etc...

We lost two great shooters to graduation but Coach Grant recruited one of VCU's best groups of freshmen in it's history...our main upgrade being a couple of future stars down low (we've had three freshmen rotate as starters this season).

1) Larry Sanders may not get the minutes, but he's a 6-9 Center with a 7-3 wingspan and a talent for blocking shots. He's only averagin 10.9 minutes a game, but a little over 4 boards and about 2 blocks in that time. When he's seen good minutes he's looked incredible.

2) Lance Kearse is perhaps our highest rated recruite out of For Meyers, Florida. He's the cousin of "The Freak"..Philly deffensive End Javon Kearse and he is a great scorer off the bench. He's a real muscular kid who can score when he gets the minutes

3) Joey Rodriguez has been a solid freshmen point guard for us. One of our highest rated recruits (also out of Florida) he's played like a senior at times in clutch momments...(hitting the game winning free throws against Houston, and playing great against Maryland).

Anyway, look forward to playing you guys. I'm hoping you guys will get to see a lot of Larry Sanders and Lance Kearse when we play you, hope we play big and try to create some matchup problems...until then, you guys go get that win against Butler and we will do our best with Longwood

[MacabreMob]

....and we will do our best with Longwood

Whoo-hoo.... Longwood's claim to fame: Jerome Kersey!

Good luck NattyMat. I will let others give ya a good report on the BU team... I'm not really good at that stuff.

[tornado]

Natty, here's my short take on BU--
BU is dominated by good guard play, but at times turnover-prone and that has led to falling behind early in a few games, two of which we were never able to catch up and lost (Vandy & UIC).
We are bigger and better in the paint than last year, but still weak at times and just can't seem to score much in the paint, although grabbing more rebounds.

Out point guard Daniel Ruffin is the key, and if he is on and passing well, then we score, and we have fine 3-point shooters, and a couple players like Andrew Warren and Theron Wilson who can move, create shots, and are tough matchups.
The teams were are likely to lose to are those with BIG GUYS like Vandy & Michigan State, and we don't have the defenses to stop those big guys, but we did kinda stop their guards.

I can assure you that the VCU game here will be very close to a sell out, which is bad for VCU, as our fans are loud and into the game, and if we get over 11,000 it becomes a factor I believe that helps our team and hinders the opponent.

We have a couple bench players, Sam Maniscalco (Fr), Will Egolf (Fr), and David Collins (Jr) who at times come off the bench and really shine and give the team a BIG spark.

[it's boogie time]

You can view Bradley's next game against Butler for free on the Horizon League's webcast. However, I don't think it'll be indicative of the type of game that the Bradley/VCU game will be.

[NattyMat]

Natty, here's my short take on BU--
BU is dominated by good guard play, but at times turnover-prone and that has led to falling behind early in a few games, two of which we were never able to catch up and lost (Vandy & UIC).
We are bigger and better in the paint than last year, but still weak at times and just can't seem to score much in the paint, although grabbing more rebounds.

Out point guard Daniel Ruffin is the key, and if he is on and passing well, then we score, and we have fine 3-point shooters, and a couple players like Andrew Warren and Theron Wilson who can move, create shots, and are tough matchups.
The teams were are likely to lose to are those with BIG GUYS like Vandy & Michigan State, and we don't have the defenses to stop those big guys, but we did kinda stop their guards.

I can assure you that the VCU game here will be very close to a sell out, which is bad for VCU, as our fans are loud and into the game, and if we get over 11,000 it becomes a factor I believe that helps our team and hinders the opponent.

We have a couple bench players, Sam Maniscalco (Fr), Will Egolf (Fr), and David Collins (Jr) who at times come off the bench and really shine and give the team a BIG spark.

Should be a good one. Coach Grant hasn't been affraid to play our freshmen...and when he has we lost some games (Miami, Arkansas, and Hampton..ugh..although I think Hampton has a good little squad). We'll obviouslly need good games from Maynor and Shu but I think the key for us could be playin big with a lot of Sanders, Kearse, and senior Michael Anderson

[numbr_9]

I just wanted to say that the fans in Richmond were some of the most courteous, classy fans I've ever encountered, and I hope that any of your fans who visit Peoria get treated as well as you treated me.

That having been said, good luck to VCU the whole way except for the game vs. Bradley. :-)

[BU ICEMAN]

Natty-

tornado did a pretty good job with the summary....I thought I'd throw a few questions/opinions your way, see what ya think:

Ruffin absolutely dominated Maynor last year, what're the chances that happens again? By the end of the 1st half, you could see it all over Maynor's face that he wanted nothing to do with Ruffin. Thing is, this time Ruffin's not 100%....

I got a good view last year of Gwynn's elbow to the back of the head of Ruffin(?) right in front of the BU bench, I wonder if BU remembers that and might let him know they didn't forget.......

Interesting little place you guys got there in Richmond, I felt kinda weird knowing I was kinda sorta underground....pretty loud and crazy too, really good student/crowd support.

I think this might be one of the most entertaining games for both of our fanbases this year. What's the TV deal that VCU has? Do they broadcast the out-of-town games? I'm kinda hopin that there's an outside chance it might be on one of the channels up here in MD....