Districtballer

Well this game sucks so far. Ohio is hitting everything from 3. Gotta think Dambrot will be chewing his guys out during half-time.

I'm really hoping you guys can knock off Ohio tonight. Would love to see Akron get into the top 50 RPI to give us another top 50 win. You guys have been very impressive in MAC play. I knew once we played your full squad late December that those early OOC losses were aberrations due to not having your full squad and have told everyone questioning your NCAA-worthiness that I've come across. Hopefully we both get back into the field again this year! Best of luck to the Zips going forward! Beat the Bobcats!

Those are last year's bracketbuster matchups.

We actually drew Northern Iowa on Friday at 7 p.m. on ESPN2. Couldn't have asked for much of a better match-up considering we couldn't play either you or Wichita State. Very happy with this matchup. Battle of the Kansas-killers! You guys got a nice draw as well! Will be rooting for the Zips to pull out a nice road win! Rooting for you guys to get into the top 50 RPI so we can have a top 50 RPI win. Listening to Lunardi say that Akron was the CAA's best OOC win all year made me realize just how far down the CAA has fallen from last year. Would love to see you become a great quality win for us in the eyes of everyone and not just those of us who are wise to how good the Zips are.

No problem. The internet can be hilarious at times. I think Akron-Iona makes a lot of sense and will be watching and rooting for the Zips if it pans out.

https://twitter.com/#!/VCUPav/status/16...3683457/photo/1

Seriously. It's hilarious. Everyone wants to have the scoop. Even Jeff Borzello at CBS is rolling with it. Just goes to show how little everyone knows.

Originally tweeted by the exact same poster on the VCU boards: https://twitter.com/#!/VCUPav The image was hosted on photobucket and posted on twitter and VCURamNation by VCU super fan Chris Crowley and now people are just running with it.

It's BS. Ratfink just hawked a prediction from a VCU poster... http://www.vcuramnation.com/forums/viewtop...tart=20#p148187

LOL this is complete BS. It's a prediction from our VCURamNation board that one of our resident posters Pavarotti put up as a guess. http://www.vcuramnation.com/forums/viewtop...tart=20#p148187 Gotta love people looking for a scoop around BracketBuster time. We'll all find out soon enough!

Ken+ went to the Elite 8 for what it's worth. There are some valid questions here and every healthy fan base has a balance between those who think everything is going great as is, and those who demand more. The presence of both groups is a good thing, it means people are paying attention and care about the program.

Well Gibbs was at the game and he's a high-priority guy for KD since he's recruiting Gibbs himself according to Rivals. I'm sure there were likely several recruits considering you were playing VCU and expecting a good crowd with Terry Bowden in the house. Ideal atmosphere to bring in recruits.

He's a guy that Akron has been recruiting hard in Jack Gibbs. VCU is also involved with him. He's a 2013 guard out of Westerville North in Ohio. A lot of people think he might be the best 2013 point in Ohio. He recently tore his ACL and is out for the season however.

Akron was out-rebounding VCU 20-12 at the half. VCU got back into the game by hitting the boards much harder in the second half, grabbing 24 to Akron's 15 and winning the overall rebounding for the game 36-35. 15 of those were on the offensive glass. The rebounding and subsequent fouling were what really got VCU back from that 12 point deficit in the second half. Akron had ample opportunity to put away VCU but we hung around and did what good teams do, win games when nothing is going for you. It was easily the most exciting game we've played since we beat Florida State by 1 point in OT in the Sweet Sixteen in March. So impressed with both squads!

Here is the last minute that one of our fans recorded:

Haha, we know all about homer announcers (we have some ourselves), but this blew even them away. It was highly entertaining listening to them making up phantom fouls, travels, and carries on us every offensive possession. Every shot we hit was lucky and every call you got that they admitted was questionable or Quincy Diggs mouthing off at our bench was 'part of the college basketball' It's certainly par for the course, but our fans have listened to a lot of homer announcers and yours were a different level altogether. We do have a pretty knowledgeable fan base and a good number have been fans since VCU was a fledgling D1 program in the 70's. Lots of history and perspective from different types of posters. It's a good community for the most part. Thanks and I wish the same for KD and Akron as I'm sure Shaka does. You all have a fine program and you will only get better in the years ahead. Take care!

To be fair, VCU leads the country in turnover percentage rate (at least we did going into the UNCG game, we're definitely one of the leading teams in the country in this department). We probably had a good amount to do with that and have forced a ton of turnovers from almost everyone we've played so far. Blue and Gold, yeah I was highly impressed with Abreu coming off a surgery and being that good. He's a quality player and along with Marshall a true mid-major star. I didn't mention Zeke before, but man has he grown since our last match up. He was soft as jello as a freshman and did nothing then. It couldn't be more different this time around. He was a monster defensively and really stopped everything in the half court going to the rim. He's a NBA player when it's all said and done. He reminds me a ton of Larry Sanders for us, and he went 15th overall in the 2010 NBA draft. The kid is special defensively. I'm glad you guys got Terry Bowden to bring some fans into the house. That was a very strong mid-major atmosphere for 4,000 fans and I haven't seen many mid-major games as high-level as the one I saw last night. You guys have a fine team and will have a fine season if you can keep your full team together all season.

Wow, that was some college basketball game. Everything I hoped it would be and more. You guys had a spirited crowd and your team is pretty special. I'm still shell-shocked and my heart rate is just starting to get back to normal. We played awful tonight and I have to credit the Zips defense for not giving us much of anything in the half-court. This was the first time since Mississippi State that your whole team has been together and you were just as impressive tonight as when I watched that game. If you guys can stay healthy and suspension-free...this IS a Sweet 16 caliber squad, record be damned. Rob Brandenberg had a nice home-coming and was huge for us despite having a badly-sprained ankle which limited his playing time (he said he was 70% in his post-game interview), but he stepped up when we needed him most. Our youth and inexperience was probably pretty evident to most of you there and we still have work to do in our half-court offense if we want to be relevant in March. Our defense has been our calling card and you guys burned it on numerous occasions with some great ball-movement and nice shooting from outside. I was VERY impressed with what I saw and thought we were extremely fortunate to come out of there with a win. I had pegged this as a loss as far back as 2 years ago after our last game knowing how much we were losing this past season, and we were fortunate to pull this one out. Good teams find a way to win when nothing is going for you and it seemed everything is going well for the other team (you guys shot 50% from 3 and we were awful at 26%). Hopefully this will be a huge learning experience that results in tangible growth for our young guys. Outside of Theus and Burgess, we were putting out sophomores and freshmen almost exclusively. You guys are going to be a TOUGH opponent for anybody in the MAC and I will be betting on you guys in March if you guys get to the Dance. It has been a pleasure talking hoops with you guys over the course of the series and I have no doubt KD will have Akron moving forward to even greater heights in the near future. What a barn-burner. If those fans don't come back after watching a game like that, I don't know what will bring 'em in. That was some high-level basketball played tonight at the JAR.

Called it!

I agree. I'm sorry for everyone that AA won't be playing. I don't think we're half as good without him on the floor. All I can say is Don't count Alex out...he might surprise us and play..... Fully expect him to at least give it a go. Everything indicates that Abreu would rather eat his knee than not play on it. Coaches are just trying to keep the opponents on their toes which is what they should be doing. Good coaches prepare for all scenarios and Akron will be tough with or without Abreu. Looking forward to what should be a very good mid-major game. Hoping that JAR will be full with the Terry Bowden effect.

No sir, family obligations prevented that from happening. Looking forward to watching it online though! Here's a cool article from Fox Sports Ohio on the game and the connection between Smart and KD: http://www.foxsportsohio.com/12/28/11/Spec...amp;feedID=9467 Here's another article from Ohio.com: http://www.ohio.com/sports/vcu-vs-ua-baske...riends-1.252560 Vegas has VCU as a 1 point favorite at your place. I think that's giving a lot of respect to our squad. It'll be a tough game and hopefully an entertaining one. We'll see if KD and Akron can get their first win of the series. It sounds like the series won't continue as long as Smart and KD are coaching at our schools, and this is KD's best team of all the one's we've played against, so I wouldn't be surprised at all to see Akron take the W. Here's to a good, clean game with no injuries!

This guy has the Zips as a 2 point favorite according to this from SportsChatPalace: http://sportschatplace.com/college-basketb...a-commonwealth/ The Vegas picks should be out tomorrow.

Why should you expect an apology ? That's funny but keep on waiting. We'll bring food and water as you age. It's actually more funny because what he said happened never actually occurred as I explained later on in the thread. As for being favored, I highly doubt that we would be at your place. Perhaps on a neutral court, but definitely not at your house. Are you aware yet that this is also going to be some sort of Terry Bowden night? Tickets were selling well already, but now it mighit be an extremely excited crowd and a possible sellout. This timing is bad for you guys, but if you are hoping for a crazy atmosphere, this is probably going to be the case. Yes I saw that, glad to hear it. Big-time teams play in big-time environments. Our team thrives off of playing in packed houses with high energy levels. It's more the half-empty, quiet environments that give our guys trouble. We've played in front of a sellout crowd every game at home this season, it will be a great test to see how we fare in front of a sellout crowd rooting for the other squad. Hopefully both our teams can give the fans a show that will keep them coming back to the JAR, win or lose. If you put an exciting product on the floor, who knows how many football fans might take interest in the basketball program? Hopefully Abreu is back at 100% and you give us your best possible effort in the most hostile atmosphere you can muster. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Why should you expect an apology ? That's funny but keep on waiting. We'll bring food and water as you age. It's actually more funny because what he said happened never actually occurred as I explained later on in the thread. As for being favored, I highly doubt that we would be at your place. Perhaps on a neutral court, but definitely not at your house.

It was an ugly game. If we play that way at the JAR we will get blown out. Hoping it was the whole trap game scenario since we played on Tuesday and this was on the road in an empty cavernous arena. Credit UNCG for playing well and handling the press better than most of our opponents. A W is a W but I'm sure Shaka will have the guys in the gym a lot after this game. Akron will be a stiff test and we can't play like that and expect to have a chance against you guys. We'll be riding a 6-game winning streak into the JAR but I don't have any qualms about saying this will be a tougher game then any of those games. It will be a very good test as the last game before our conference slate picks up.