The Tribe Has Spoken

Virginia Commonwealth University will make the short trip to Williamsburg wednesday night to take on the William and Mary Tribe in each teams biggest conference game yet. The Rams are 4-0 in conference  play so far this year, with road wins over JMU and Towson, and home wins over Delaware and Northeastern. Like the Tribe, they played a pretty weak out of conference schedule with their biggest wins at home against UAB and Houston. This season they have gone to a new style of play, 40 minutes of  frantic pressing and pushing, the motto being “94 feet both ways” under new head coach Anthony Grant.

VCU is 4th in the CAA when it comes to RPI, at 99. Their SOS is 273, slightly better than W&M’s. They are much higher in the Pomeroy rating at 61, and according to that have an 80% chance of winning wednesday night. Mike Greenfield’s ratings give VCU a 72% chance of winning, with a 5.2 point spread.

VCU’s leading scorer this season has been B.A. Walker, a senior guard. Walker is averaging 15.1 points per game, and 2.9 boards. His biggest number is his assist-turnover ratio, which is key in a system like they run. He has 38 assists to 19 turnovers. He is shooting 88% from the foul stripe on the year, and is second on the team with 16 steals. Walker chucks up a lot of 3’s and is 40-102 on the year.

Jesse Pellot-Rosa, another senior guard, is the team’s second-leading scorer. JPR is averaging 13.7 points per game, and is second on the team with 4.9 boards per. He also has 16 steals, but has 23-24 assists to turnover. He is shooting about 42% from the floor on the season, and is leading the team with 36 offensive rebounds.

The third player I’ll be previewing is Eric Maynor, a sophomore guard out of North Carolina. Maynor is averaging 13.2 points per game, and is one of the team’s best 3-point shooters at 48%. He averages 4.5 rebounds per game. The number that really jumps off the screen is his assist-turnover ratio, the best I have seen all year. 87-25, about 3.5/1. He is one of the top shooters on the team from the floor, at 46%.

I really think W&M can pull off this upset. We are #5 in the nation in 3-point defense, and VCU’s guards, especially Jesse Pellot-Rosa and B.A. Walker, really depend on the 3. If we can make them miss some shots, it will be difficult for them to press, and everything unwinds.

W&M-70
VCU-67

RIP EM UP
TEAR EM UP
GIVE EM HELL
TRIBE