Who's Got Next: Akron

VCU steps outside of conference play to take on the Akron Zips this afternoon as part of the ESPNU Bracketbuster. Gametime is scheduled for 4 pm at the Verizon Wireless Arena at the Stuart C. Seigel Center.

This will be the fourth meeting alltime between the two schools. VCU has won all four meetings, with all four games being decided by five points or less.

This is the second time the two have met have met as BracketBusters opponents. VCU beat the Zips 73-69 last season.

Akron leads the MAC in scoring margin (+7.1) and is listed second in field goal percentage (44.0 percent), assists (13.9 apg), assist/turnover ratio (1.0 a/to) and rebounding margin (+3.1); while also ranking second in scoring defense (allowing 63.3 ppg) and field goal percentage defense (allowing 40.4 percent).\

The Zips have held 11 opponents to 59 or fewer points this season. Akron is 11-0 in those games.

Akron returns four starters back from a 23-13 NCAA tournament team. The Zips are lead by Chris McKnight who averages 8.9 points per game, but two games ago, McKnight scored 25 points.

VCU head coach Shaka Smart served as an assistant for two seasons with the Zips in 2004-2005 and 2005-2006.

The Rams look to exact some revenge for the CAA who has so far performed poorly in this year's addition of the Bracketbusters. Old Dominion and William and Mary each stepped outside of CAA play on Friday night taking on Northern Iowa and Iona, respectively. Both schools got hammered.

Game 25: VCU 73, Bruiser 54

VCU Plays Defense as Sanders Dismantles the Dragons

@The Siegel

Box Score

The Rams and this Blog are back on track with a dominating 73-54 victory over the Dragons of Drexel University on Tuesday night at the Siegel Center.

The Dragons (15-13, 10-6) had no answer for Larry Sanders who fell just 2 points shy of a career high with 29 points on 13-of-15 shooting, while grabbing 15 rebounds and blocking five shots.

VCU (18-7, 10-6) dominate from the outset closing the first half with an 11-2 run to take a 33-21 lead to the locker room. The Rams made five three-pointers in the half from four different players. Sanders finished the first frame with 12 points, five boards and three blocks. The junior missed just once from the field hitting 5 of 6 field goals.

The Rams continued their onslaught in the second half opening with an 8-2 run. The Dragons never got closer than 13 the rest of the way.

The VCU Defense was impressive holding Drexel to just 36.2% from the field, while the Rams made 50 percent of their field-goal attempts and were 7 of 15 from long range.

Sophomore Bradford Burgess registered a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Brandon Rozzell would finish with nine points and three assists, while junior Joey Rodriguez added eight points and seven assists.

Jamie Harris led Drexel with 20 points on 7 of 17 shooting, while Shannon Givens added 12 points for the Dragons off the bench.



The Rams are now locked in a fifth-place tie with Drexel, but the Dragons have the tiebreaker due to their 2-0 record against top seeded Northeastern.

VCU hosts the University of Akron in the ESPNU BracketBusters on Saturday. Game time is set for 4 p.m. The game will be televised nationally on the ESPN family of networks.

Game 23: VCU 82, GMU 77

Mason Rallies from 15 to Stun VCU

@ The Patriot Center

Box Score

George Mason (11-3, 16-9) erased a 15-point second half deficit and snapped the Rams' four-game winning streak.with an 82-77 overtime win over Virginia Commonwealth (17-6, 9-5) on Tuesday night.

The Rams took a 41-28 halftime lead after shooting 54 percent from the field in the first half. But the Rams watched it slip away as Cam Long hit a pair of free throws with 4.8 seconds to play to force overtime

Long finished with 19 points finishing 9 of 10 from the free throw line. He also had five boards, five assists and two steals in 44 minutes. Louis Birdsong had a season-high 13 points and five rebounds while Ryan Pearson contributed 12 points to the Patriot victory.

Joey Rodriguez was terrific for VCU leading all scorers with 24 points. The junior hit six 3-pointers and dished out seven assists.

Junior Larry Sanders finished with 13 points, four rebounds and one block on 5 of 12 shooting. He fouled out on Long's overtime forcing drive to the basket with only seconds left in regulation.

Junior Ed Nixon had 11 points while Senior T.J. Gwynn added 10 and 7 boards for the Rams.

With a victory VCU, winners of eight of its past nine games, had a chance to pull even with Mason and into at least a tie for third in the Colonial Athletic Association race.

Instead, the Rams fell out of the top four in the CAA race and are on the outside looking in towards one of the four byes for the conference tournament.

The Rams will be back in action Saturday when they travel to Harrisonburg to take on the Dukes of JMU. Game time is scheduled for 7pm.

Game 22: VCU 70, ODU 58

Gerald Lee is Soft!

@The Siegel

Box Score

Larry Sanders and Joey Rodriguez combined for 20 points, eight rebounds and five assists in the second half to help Virginia Commonwealth to a 70-58 Colonial Athletic Association game against rival Old Dominion on Saturday in front of a sold out crowd at the Siegel Center.

Old Dominion controlled play for the first eight minutes culminating in a Bazemore dunk off a well designed in-bounds giving the Monarchs an 18-8 lead at the 12:31 mark. VCU would respond with a 16-5 run capped by an Ed Nixon three to give the Rams a 24-23 lead.

The rest of the half remained a back and forth affair as neither team could hold a lead for more then few minutes. The half would end with the Monarchs holding a 33-31 lead.

VCU opened the second half on an 11-2 run erasing a 2 point ODU halftime lead and putting the Rams ahead 44-38 with 12:44 to go in the second half.

Darius James hit a pair of three's that cut the VCU lead down to three-points on two occasions but the Monarchs could get no closer to overcoming the deficit.

The Rams went on a 17-5 run with 8 minutes to go to give the Black & Gold a 15-point advantage and the eventually victory. The Monarchs were only able to muster two field goals over the remaining 7:55 of the game.

In his first start of the season, senior Kirill Pishchalnikov went 5-for-7 from the field and 4-for-4 from the line for a season-high 14 points.

Pishchalnikov replacing Sanders in the starting lineup scored six of the Rams’ first eight points.

Junior Larry Sanders came on late to register his eighth double-double of the season with 14 points and 12 rebounds, while sophomore Bradford Burgess led all scorers with 16 points on 6-of-12 shooting.

Kent Bazemore lead the way for ODU, finishing with 12 points, six rebounds, three assists and one steal, while Frank Hassell was the only other Monarch in double-figures with 10 points and five boards.

ODU entered the contest ranking fifth in the country in rebounding margin with a +8.8 mark. The Black & Gold won the battle of the boards by a tally of 39-37.

The Ram defense was equally impressive forcing 16 turnovers and holding the Monarchs to just 33.3 percent shooting in the second half. ODU has had only six games this season with 16 or more turnovers.

The Monarch’s leading scorer, Gerald Lee, was held to just four shots on the afternoon.

The loss knocks ODU (18-7, 10-3) out of a first-place tie in the Colonial Athletic Association and pulls VCU (17-5, 9-4) within a game of second place with five contests left on the schedule.

The Rams will be heading to Fairfax Tuesday to face George Mason as part of Rivalry Week. Tip is scheduled for 7 p.m. and will be televised nationally on ESPNU.

In other news, Sophomore guard Jay Gavin has left Virginia Commonwealth's basketball team for what the school said was personal reasons.

Gavin sat out last year after transferring. He averaged 12.3 points as a freshman at Marist and was the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference's co-rookie of the year.

He started 7 games for the Rams and averaged 5.6 points for VCU, with 23 assists and 14 turnovers in 17 games.

Who's Got Next: ODU

The Rams (8-4, 16-5) and Monarchs (10-2, 18-6) renew their rivalry today at 4 p.m. at the Verizon Wireless Arena at the Stuart C. Siegel Center.

VCU is currently tied for fourth with Drexel. The Rams need a win to improve their chances of getting one of the four byes in the first round of the CAA tournament.

The Monarchs, in a three-way tie for first-place in the league, are allowing just 55 points per game, the third-best mark in the nation. With big guards and big forwards, ODU averages 15.5 offensive rebounds and ranks eighth in the country in rebounding margin (plus 8.8).

Old Dominion (18-6, 10-2 CAA), which has won nine of its last 10 games

Winners of seven of its last eight, VCU has averaged 80.9 ppg in the last eight contests, while holding opponents to just 63.6 ppg.

VCU leads the head-to-head series 41-38, with the teams alternating wins each meeting for the last six contests.

Last year, VCU defeated ODU 61-44 at VCU and 61-53 in the CAA semi-finals. ODU beat the Rams, 69-65 in the Constant Center. ODU’s only win in the Siegel Center was a 67-66 decision in 2007-08.

ODU has won just once in 10 tries at the Siegel Center.

Game 21: VCU 73, UNCW 60

Reserves Dominate in Victory Over UNCW

@Wilmington, NC

Box Score

Ed Nixon scored a career high 19 points and Joey Rodriguez added 18 to lead Virginia Commonwealth to a 73-60 victory over UNC Wilmington on Wednesday night.

Nixon scored 14 in the second half sparking an 18-9 run that would that would push a four point VCU lead to double digits.

It was the seventh win in eight games for the Rams (16-5, 8-4), who shot 51.9 percent from the field (14-for-27) in the second half.

Nine different players scored for the Black & Gold. Freshman Troy Daniels contributed 7 and senior Kirill Pishchalnikov added six points to join Nixon in the high-scoring attack off the bench which contributed 42 points.

UNC-Wilmington (7-16, 3-9), which has lost eight of nine, shot 35.8 percent from the field (19-for-53) and was 3-for-17 on 3-point attempts (17.6 percent).

Chad Tomko was the only Seahawk in double-figures with 11 points, while John Fields added nine points and 11 rebounds in the loss.

The Rams take on CAA archrival Old Dominion on Saturday at 4 p.m at the Verizon Wireless Arena at the Stuart C. Siegel Center.

Who's Got Next: UNCW

VCU (7-4, 15-5) will be traveling to Wilmington to face off against the Seahawks of UNC Wilmington (3-8, 7-15) in a Colonial Athletic Association game at Trask Coliseum.

The Rams have won six of its last seven outings, including a 78-62 decision over Georgia State last Saturday. The Black & Gold have averaged 81.9 points over the last seven games while holding opponents to a paltry 64.1 ppg.

The Rams took advantage of 28 turnovers by the Seahawks in a 91-57 route on Jan. 2 at the Siegel Center in Richmond.

VCU owns a 20-17 edge in the 37-game series since the two teams first met in 1971. The Rams have won seven of the last 10 games, but UNCW upset the eventual CAA champions, 81-72, almost one year ago to the day at Trask Coliseum. The Rams are 3-11 alltime when traveling to Wilmington.

This will be the second game for Seahawks coach Brooks Lee who took over as interim head coach for the remainder of the season following the reassignment of Benny Moss.

UNCW traditionally has been a powerhouse in the CAA. From 2000-06, the Seahawks went to four NCAA tournaments.

Moss began his four-year stint as Seahawk head coach during the 2006-07 season. He compiled a 41-74 overall record and was 23-45 in Colonial Athletic Association play during that span.

Tip off is scheduled for 7 p.m.