Potential New Uniforms for the 2008-09 Season

I was browsing around the roster page this morning and noticed new photos under each of the players profiles. It looks as though the players will be wearing new uniforms this season. The Rams needed an upgrade from last season's bland threads which featured the same uniform as schools like Iowa. I was hoping that the Athletic Department would upgrade to soomething like the Nike System of Dress which has been adopted by many ACC, Pac-10, and Big East schools. The Nike SOD features fitted jerseys with baggy, more comfortable shorts.

The potential new uniforms look more boring than in past seasons. From the looks of Larry Sander's photo, it looks like the jersey will be plain white, black, or gold with very few if any "highlights". But then again if you look at transfer Jay Gavin's profile, there looks to be some sort of black and gold highlights on the ribcage of the jersey. Either way I am not very impressed with the jersey's, especially with the "floating logo" just about the team name. Also the trim around the neckline couldn't be more 80's style. See Eric Maynor's profile for a comparison of last year's to this year.

Again this is all speculation made based on the sight of a few photos. Hopefully these are not the game day uniforms and those are yet to be released. However I am thinking this is not the case. Or I wonder what changes have been made to the shorts. Maybe they "make" the uniforms...we'll have to wait until November 7th to find out.

2008-09 Schedule Released

Below is the finalized schedule put out by the Athletic Department this afternoon. Headlining our OOC games are Oklahoma, Western Michigan, Drake/Vanderbilt, and New Mexico. It is important to win at at minimum 3 of those four games in order for the Rams to leave no question on the Selection Committee's mind that we belong in the 2009 Dance. Hopefully it wont come down to the Committee's decision as I can foresee the Rams winning the CAA.

Nov. 7 Fri. VIRGINIA UNION Alltel Pavilion 7:30 pm
Nov. 12 Wed. VIRGINIA STATE Alltel Pavilion 7:30 pm
Nov. 16 Sun. THE CITADEL Alltel Pavilion 4:00 pm
Nov. 19 Wed. SOUTH DAKOTA STATE Alltel Pavilion 7:30 pm
Nov. 22 Sat. at Rhode Island. Kingston, R.I. TBD
Nov. 25 Tues. at East Carolina Greenville, N.C. TBD
Nov. 29 Sat. vs. New Mexico Cancun, Mexico TBD
Nov. 30 Sun. vs. Drake/Vanderbilt Cancun, Mexico TBD
Dec. 4 Thurs. WESTERN MICHIGAN Alltel Pavilion 7:30 pm
Dec. 6 Sat. at William & Mary Williamsburg, Va. TBD
Dec. 13 Sat. at Richmond Robins Center TBD
Dec. 17 Wed. AKRON Alltel Pavilion 7:30 pm
Dec. 20 Sat. #vs. Oklahoma Oklahoma City, Okla. TBD
Dec. 27 Sat. HAMPTON Alltel Pavilion 7:30 pm
Jan. 3 Sat. at Delaware Newark, Del. TBD
Jan. 5 Mon. UNC WILMINGTON Alltel Pavilion 7:30 pm
Jan. 7 Wed. at Drexel Philadelphia, Pa. TBD
Jan. 10 Sat. HOFSTRA Alltel Pavilion 7:30 pm
Jan. 14 Wed. at Towson Towson, Md. TBD
Jan. 17 Sat. OLD DOMINION Alltel Pavilion 7:30 pm
Jan. 21 Wed. at Georgia State Atlanta, Ga. 7:30 pm
Jan. 24 Sat. GEORGE MASON Alltel Pavilion 7:30 pm
Jan. 28 Wed. NORTHEASTERN Alltel Pavilion 7:30 pm
Jan. 31 Sat. at Hofstra Hempstead, N.Y. TBD
Feb. 4 Wed. at UNC Wilmington Wilmington, N.C. TBD
Feb. 7 Sat. WILLIAM & MARY Alltel Pavilion 7:30 pm
Feb. 11 Wed. JAMES MADISON Alltel Pavilion 7:30 pm
Feb. 14 Sat. at Old Dominion Norfolk, Va. TBD
Feb. 18 Wed. DELAWARE Alltel Pavilion 7:30 pm
Feb. 21 Sat. at ESPN BracketBusters TBD TBD
Feb. 25 Wed. at James Madison Harrisonburg, Va. TBD
Feb. 28 Sat. GEORGIA STATE Alltel Pavilion 7:30 pm

March 6-9 Fri.-Mon. CAA Tournament Richmond Coliseum TBD

Home games in BOLD and played at the Alltel Pavilion at the Stuart C. Siegel Center
* - Colonial Athletic Association game
# - All-College Classic (Ford Center, Oklahoma City)
% - Cancun Challenge
All game times listed are Eastern Standard Time

Previewing the 2008-09 Season

The 2008-09 season promises to be a good one yet again. The Colonial Athletic Association is much stronger from top to bottom than in past years and it is directly due to the increased quality of recruiting around the conference. VCU is expected to headline the top of the conference once again, with the usual teams (GMU and ODU) nipping at their heels. But I wouldn’t consider squads like Northeastern and Georgia State sleepers either. Pre-season rankings seem to agree that Northeastern is going to give the Rams, Monarchs, and Patriots a run for their money. It’s going to be an exciting season that should leave the CAA with multiple teams in post-season play, further expanding the national exposure of our conference.

What we've lost from 2007-08
It's not hard to see where we will feel the absence of Jamal Shuler, who recently signed a pro contract in Europe. Losing Shuler means losing senior leadership and an athletic shooting guard who drained a team high 41% from beyond the arc last year. But we can’t forget that Shuler was also responsible for shutting down every opposing team's best shooting guard. And for my less knowledgeable readers, VCU led the NCAA last year in 3pt defense, allowing just 26.9% of opponent’s trey balls from connecting. Just as in every position, we will need the young guys to step up and take leadership roles on defense.

We'll also feel the absence of Mike Anderson in the power forward position. Mike "the Byrdman" Anderson was a charismatic crowd favorite who was long and lanky for his height but was never afraid to bang inside on offense. However, averaging only 7.2 PPG last season, his production on offense was limited. On the other end of the court Mike Nice was a prize possession for our full court press which Anthony Grant has proven that he will utilize for most of the game. We’ll feel his absence immediately but I’m positive that Grant and Co. will have one of our younger, more scrappy players ready by season start.

Wil Fameni’s graduation will also be hard felt. The 6 foot 7 inch, 250 pound Forward from Cameroon was a very important role player on the VCU squad that beat Duke in March of 2007. Unfortunately Wil spent most of his senior season injured which obviously affected his playing time and impact on the court. Wil was a well balanced shooter and defender. He often backed down his defender and had a quality turnaround game. Fameni also had a surprisingly good defensive ability, being very large yet still quick laterally. One of the better, more overlooked plays from the month of March 2007 was the block Fameni had on George Mason’s Folarin Campbell (1:55 into video). I believe it made that evening’s ESPN Top TEN.

New Additions to the Rosters
This coming season Rams fans will see the addition of 3 freshman and one transfer student. Anthony Grant landed two scholarship player in Terrance Saintil (Opa Locka, FL) and Bradford Burgess (Midlothian, VA).

- Terrance Saintil, who will be wearing the number 4 jersey this season, is a 6'8" forward from Opa Locka, FL who helped his HS team win two 4A state titles. Saintil is an above average athlete and a post player who can hit jumpers from anywhere within 10 feet of the hoop. His size is his biggest strength going into his freshman year where he could see significant time
- Bradford Burgess will be donning the jersey of my favorite VCU player of all time, BA Walker. Wearing #20, the 6’5”guard from Benedictine High School played alongside UNC’s highly touted recruit and McDonald’s High School All-American, Ed Davis. Burgess too was a McDonald’s All-American nominee as well as assisting in back to back state titles. Burgess was named first teamVISAA Division I All-State after his senior campaign.
- Transferring from Marist University is Jay Gavin, a 6'2" guard from Seat Pleasant, MD who was named the MAAC Co-rookie of the year as well as being selected by CollegeInsider.com to the Freshman Mid-Major All-American Team. Gavin will have to comply with NCAA regulations and sit out this year.
- Invited to walk-on with the Rams this season is 6’8” freshman David Hinton. See next week for more in depth analysis on the new additions to our roster.

Forwards
In my opinion we will be much better off down low this year than we have in the past. This year’s big men are much more versatile than those of last season. Not to take anything away from the skills of Wil or Mike, but overall we are going to be much more athletic in areas where we've lacked athleticism and versatility in the past. Wil Fameni was genuinely injured throughout most of last season and thus was not able to perform at his highest potential. Mike Nice, as much as he was a leader and crowd favorite, his production on offense was hot and cold. We needed a more consistent inside force and he was unable to fill that need. His press is where we are going to notice his absence this year. We'll need someone young and scrappy like TJ Gwynn to step up and play the whole "94 feet both ways" press that we have seen in the past and will need in the future.

We will see more minutes out of Larry and Lance this season, and I like the opportunities that will bring to the table. Lance posses a defensive mindset but isn't afraid to bang down low at the other end of the hardwood when needed. Kearse will also be playing at 100% this season as he has shown no signs of still having a rare case of Mono through much of last season. I'm looking and predicting Lance to lead the team in scroing (behind Maynor of course). And Larry looks to have grown a healthy inch or two and bulked up a solid 8-10 pounds. The recently updated roster lists Larry at 6'10" 220, which is an inch closer to the sky and 15 pounds heavier than last season. We could really use that kind of weight down low. I just hope he maintains his explosiveness from last season. Hopefully he has been hitting the squat rack in the gym and training his quick twitch muscles.

Guards

Check back later this week for an analysis of our guard play for the upcoming season.