Live Blog! - VCU/UCLA

Maynor Takes Center Stage
03/19/2009

Everyone is anxiously awaiting the tip of the VCU/UCLA game. The game has been pushed back to 10:05 pm from its original 9:50 tip off time.

VCU has been getting a lot of National Attention and seems to be the consensus upset pick of the 2009 NCAA Tournament. Seth Davis, Jay Bilas, Greg Anthony, Reggie Miller and President Obama are just a few of the big names that have endorsed VCU.

The game will feature a match up of two of college basketball's elite guards in Eric Maynor and Darren Collison. Maynor famously lead VCU past Duke in the 2007 NCAA's and is a two time CAA Player of the Year. Collison has lead his Bruins to the last three Final Fours.

And here we go...

VCU takes the tip.

19:25 Joey turns it over on a cross court pass intended or Maynor.

19:23 Foul on Burgess. Bilas: "VCU is 2-6 when Larry Sanders fouls out."

18:36 Foul on Sanders. UCLA takes the early lead 1-0.

18:01 Maynor hits a jumper with time running down on the shot clock. VCU up 2-1. Kirill "The Kremlin" Pishchalnikov falls down awkwardly. Sparking conversation concerning his recent articles in the RTD. Apparently basketball is not well followed in his hometown of Mykop, Russia.

16:35 Dragovic hits UCLA first jumper from the field. UCLA up 3-2. Queue the comparisons of Dragovic to Dolph Lundgren in Rocky IV. "I will break you." Dick Enberg just annointed Larry Sanders "Larry the Landlord." TJ and Easy Ed Nixon are in for the Rams.

16:00 Collison just scored his first bucket. Joey turns it over for a break away bucket by Holiday. He is obviously intimdated.

14:40 TJ scored his second bucket in a row. UCLA 10 VCU .

13:54 UCLA gets another steal off a Joey turnover. Holiday takes the ball on the face break. Easy Ed Nixon tries to draw a charge. Layup and foul. Joey is struggling right now. There is a clear height disadvantage with Holiday. Bilas: "VCU cant handle the UCLA pressure."

13:33 Rozzell knocks down a three from the corner. That is a good sign for the Rams. Maynor is going to need all the help he can get. UCLA takes the early lead 13 to 11.

VCU needs to get the ball to Larry Sanders in the post. UCLA's big mean are clearly not an offensive threat. We are going to need some sort of presence down low to take pressure off of Maynor.

Ben Howland said earlier this week that Holiday is the best on ball defender he has seen. He is a true freshman. I am surprised that he isnt marking Maynor. Then again with all the Maynor talk this week Collison probably feels he has something to prove.

10:34 Its a defensive struggle at this point. VCU is playing good defense in the half court set. Maynor drawls a foul and will get two from the line. Bilas: "Jim Laranega calls him the Magician." Maynor hits both freebies. The game is tied at 13.

9:23 Collison just picked up his second foul. Maynor hits the 2 free throws. VCU 15 UCLA 16. Kremlin checks back into the game.

9:00 Maynor is fouled again. This time by James Keefe. He cant make the front end of the one and one. Dragovic nails a three on the other end. Where is Kremlin? He needs to get out there put the iron curtain down.

7:57 Another three from Dragovic. Just like that UCLA is up 22-15. I hear a Rocky IV quote coming on...

"If he dies... he dies."

Maynor needs to play up the Rocky comparison I have working here. Burgess could be Apollo here. Assuming we could rewrite the movie to have Apollo survive his fight with Ivan Drago.

7:21 He heard me say that! Burgess answers Dragovic with a three of his own.

6:47 Joey just nailed a three! He might have found his mojo. Rams down by one, 22-21 UCLA. Holiday turns over on the other end. Rams might be stealing some momentum here.

6:00 Maynor heads to the bench for a breather. Joey draws a foul from Anderson and is headed to the line for a one and one. He cans both of the free throws. Rams on an 8-0 run. VCU 23-UCLA 22.

4:58 Larry Sanders picks up his second foul and heads to the bench. TJ Gwynn is checking back in. He has been huge so far hopefully he can keep it going.

4:10 Shipp cans a 10 footer for his first bucket of the game. UCLA takes a 27-23 lead.

3:42 Another turnover by the Rams. Joey fouls Shipp to prevent the breakaway. Shipp hits a three off the reset. UCLA up 30-23.

2:34 Joey air ball and UCLA is in transition. Shipp with another bucket. UCLA is up 9 now. Rozzell is back in the game for Joey. Shipp has clearly moved in the role of Ivan Drago here. He single handedly taking it to the VCU defense.

1:24 UCLA is up 35-23 on the Collison bucket. VCU answers with lay up by the Kremlin. VCU 25-UCLA 35. Enberg just announced that the Kremlin's brother and sister are Olympic level discus throwers. I need to find out more about this!

Final seconds of the opening period. Maynor has the ball. Eric dishes to TJ for an open look. The shot is off the back of the rim. VCU 25 UCLA 35 at the half. UCLA ends the half on a 13-2 run.

Josh Shipp and Nikola Dragovic lead all scorers with 8 points. Maynor is the high man for the Rams with 6 points. The turnovers have been the story of the game. VCU has 9 and UCLA is nearly even with 8.

This really is starting to look like a Rocky movie. Our hero, VCU, is down early but he isn't out of the match. The Rams just need to keep absorbing the punches from UCLA so they can make the last minute come back.

The Second Half is under way...

19:17 Larry scores the first bucket of the Half. UCLA 35-VCU 27.

18:34 Another bucket from Larry Sanders. VCU is with in 8. Joey misses a three on a breakaway. Joey misses another three. Come on son!! I need you!!!

17:19 Aboya hits two from the line following the foul from Joey. UCLA is back up by 10, 39-29.

16:32 Burgess hits a three to get he Rams back to with in 7.

15:51 Maynor takes Collison to the hoop. And 1! That is Collison's third foul. Maynor cant hit the free throw. VCU 34 UCLA 39.

15:28 Collison turns it over. Holiday has moved over to guard Maynor. Collison has moved over to Rozzell. Maynor moves past Holiday and draws a foul from Aboya, his second. Best on ball defender you have every seen? We shall see Coach Howland. We shall see!

14:39 Gwynn is huge right now. We need to find some way to quantify hustle plays statisticly. He has had at least 4 good hustle/game changing/energy type plays. He is my pick for player of the game at this point.

14:01 Jay Bilas "Ed Nixon is VCU's best athlete." That is simply hilarious.

13:42 Maynor hits a trade mark floater. UCLA answers with a Josh Shipp lay up.

13:13 Maynor feeds Sanders for a dunk. UCLA 43 VCU 38.

12:21 Maynor is out for a breather. VCU needs to make some stops. They cant keep trading buckets.

12:12 Josh Shipp just drew a third foul from Larry Sanders. He hits 2 from the line. UCLA up 7. The third foul on Sanders is huge. Did I mention we are 2-6 when he fouls out? VCU 38 UCLA 45.

TV Timeout!

11:57 TJ feeds Sanders in the post. Larry draws the foul and is going to the line. I need more TJ!

Before we get to the free throws we will here from out sponsors. TV Time Out!

Sanders hits 1 of 2 from the line. VCU is now down by 6.

11:00 Hot Nix with the put back. Bilas: "Nixon is one of the best athletes on this team." Again, I can only laugh.

10:30 Another hustle play by TJ to keep the possession alive for VCU. Maynor is fouled. He hits both shots. VCU 43 UCLA 47.

9:52 Larry hits 1-2 from the line. VCU down by 5. Bilas: "No one has brought more energy to the game then TJ Gwynn." I am going to go ahead and make TJ our Mick for the sake of my running Rocky Comparison. Naturally Coach Grant should play Mick but TJ is bringing the energy at this point.

"Get the Chicken Rock!"

9:26 Maynor draws a fourth foul from Collison. Who promptly heads to bench. This could be the turning point.

On the inbound play Ivan Dragovic flops to drawn a foul from TJ. The refs head to the monitor to see if it was a flagrant. No call. UCLA to inbound. Holiday is running the point in Collison's absence. He nails a jumper off the screen. UCLA 51 VCU 44.

8:22 Holiday hits two free throws to put UCLA up by 9.

7:57 Holiday hits a floater to put UCLA up 55 to 44. Collison's fourth personal was a turning point. UCLA is pulling away behind a offensive blitz from the UCLA freshman. Rams need to get some stops if they want to stay in this game.

7:28 Holiday commits his third foul on Eric Maynor. Eric hits both from the line. VCU 46 UCLA 55. Maynor is not shooting well but he is making up for from the line.

6:30 Sanders just got worked by Alfred Aboya. Aboya double pumps and spins around a committed Sanders for the dunk. UCLA 57 VCU 46. Burgess with an assist from Maynor answers with a lay up.

5:39 TJ Gwynn gets a lay up. 57-50 UCLA. TJ gets my vote for player of the game. Yeah, I said it again. He has 6 points and 5 boards and about 100 energy plays.

5:13 Collison puts UCLA back up by 9 with two free throws. Collison has only missed 10 free throws all year. Thanks Dick Enberg!

4:11 Maynor is 3-11 from the field. He hits a floater. Make that 4-12.

3:45 Another Maynor bucket. UCLA 61 VCU 55.

3:13 Joey hits a three. VCU 58 UCLA 61. Assist from Maynor.

2:42 Collison drives for a lay up. 63-58 UCLA.

1:58 Block by Sanders! TJ with a layup from assist from Maynor. VCU 60 UCLA 63. VCU is pressing out of the reset.

1:19 Collison breaks past Joey and dishes. Rebound Rams. A streaking Burgess is fouled by Holiday. Rams are in the bonus. Burgess will shoot two from the line. Rams could cut the lead to one!

TV TIMEOUT!

Burgess hits both shots. VCU is within 1!

57.0 Gwynn picks up a foul sending Aboya to the line. He hits both. UCLA up 65-62.

ANOTHER TV TIMEOUT!

48.0 Maynor goes straight to the rim and draws the foul on the double team. He hits both. Rams down 1. UCLA 65 Rams 64.

YET ANOTHER TV TIMEOUT!

Come on VCU!

Here we go. Final 30 seconds. UCLA ball. Nixon is on Holiday. Maynor is on Collison and Burgess on Shipp. Collison goes to the rim and Larry Sanders comes out of no where and throws his mess out of the paint!!!!! Rams ball with 11.1 to go.

2 Seconds add to the clock. 13.0 to go. VCU to inbound. UCLA is in the full court press. Collison on Maynor. UCLA take a timeout to set their defense. For all the marbles! VCU inbounds to Maynor. Maynor drives right and stumbles. He picks up his dribble. Double pumps and misses the pull up.

UCLA wins 65-64.

Crushing defeat...

Maynor finishes with a game high 21 points on 5-16 shooting. He scored 10 points from the free throw line. The senior also added 6 rebounds and 6 assists in 40 minutes of action. Larry Sanders scored 10 points and grabbed 12 boards to secure his first NCAA Tournament double double. TJ Gwynn 8 points and 5 boards and brought the most energy of the court. Josh Shipp lead the Bruins with 16 points and 8 boards. Collison added 10 points and 2 assists for UCLA who will advance to face Villanova on Saturday.

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