Up Next: Virginia Commonwealth

[Moose39]

Northern Iowa Panthers 4-5 (0-0)

No.....Name..................Ht..Yr.....Ppg....Apg ....Rpg.....Mpg
#1 Deon Mitchell..........6-1 Jr.....13.8....3.4.....2.3.....29.1
#4 Chip Rank..............6-6 Sr......9.7.....0.4....3.3......24.0
#5 Matt Bohannon.......6-4 So.....8.3.....1.4....3.6......27.7
#10 Seth Tuttle..........6-8 Jr.....13.1....1.8.....7.3.....28.8
#11 Wes Washpun.......6-1 So.....6.7....3.6.....4.3.....30.7

Off the Bench:
#3 Ted Friedman........6-9 Fr
#14 Nate Buss...........6-9 Jr
#20 Jeremy Morgan....6-5 Fr
#21 Matt Morrison......6-0 Sr
#24 Max Martino........6-5 Jr

Vs. Virginia Commonwealth Rams 8-2 (0-0)

No.....Name..................Ht..Yr.....Ppg....Apg ....Rpg.....Mpg
#2 Briante Weber........6-2 Jr.......9.0.....4.1.....3.5......30.2
#11 Rob Brandenberg...6-2 Sr.....10.2....1.9.....1.8......25.9
#12 Mo Alie-Cox.........6-6 Fr.......3.6....0.4.....3.7......17.5
#15 Juvonte Reddic.....6-9 Sr.....13.1....0.8.....7.5......26.0
#21 Treveon Graham...6-6 Jr......16.0....1.9.....6.8......29.1

Off the Bench:
#1 JeQuan Lewis.........6-1 Fr
#4 Terrance Shannon..6-8 Sr
#20 Jordan Burgess.....6-5 Fr
#23 Jarred Guest........6-8 Jr
#32 Melvin Johnson.....6-3 So

Gametime:
Saturday, December 14, 11:00 a.m. in Cedar Falls, Iowa

Media:
Tv: ESPNU
Radio: Panther Sports Radio Network
Internet: WatchESPN, NeuLion (Audio)

Official Website:

http://www.vcuathletics.com/sports/mbkb/index

Message Board:
VCURamNation
ChatteringRam

Notes:
•Virginia Commonwealth is coached by Shaka Smart (Kenyon College '99) and is in his 5th year at Virginia Commonwealth
•Coach Shaka Smart currently has a career record of 114-37 (.755) as an NCAA Div. 1 head coach
•The Rams average 76.7 ppg while the Panthers give up an average of 70.9 ppg
•Zero players are from outside the United States
•Zero players are from Iowa
•The Virginia Commonwealth Rams appear to run nine players deep. Nine players have seen action in eight of their ten games
•In 2011, Shaka Smart led the team to their first Final Four in the 2011 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament over the #1 seed Kansas in a 71-61 victory
•The official Twitter page for Virginia Commonwealth Rams athletics is @VCUathletics
•The Virginia Commonwealth Rams hail from Richmond, Virginia. They compete in the Atlantic 10 Conference and play their home games at the Verizon Wireless Arena at the Stuart C. Siegel Center

Breaking it Down:
•Five players are 6-8 or taller
•Six players are listed as Forward or Center
•Nine players are listed as Guard
•Virginia Commonwealth consists of 8 Fr, 1 So, 3 Jr, and 3 Sr
•Virginia Commonwealth returns 71.7% of their scoring from last season
•Four players average double digit ppg

Other MVC game of note (Link):
Tennessee at #12 Wichita State..1:00 p.m. CT ESPN2/WatchESPN
Indiana State at UMKC...............2:05 p.m. CT ESPN3
Evansville at Jackson State.........2:05 p.m. CT
New Mexico State at Drake.........7:05 p.m. CT

[UNIdad]

Re: Up Next: Virginia Commonwealth

VCU has a bunch of handsome looking guys. No man crush, just making an observation.

[williebat]

I will be there hopefully some of that panther magic happens. We are due some good fortune.

[PurpleCatFan]

Re: Up Next: Virginia Commonwealth

Six of us getting into town Friday night. Looking forward to a great complete game Saturday

Go Panthers!!

[DistrictBaller]

Re: Up Next: Virginia Commonwealth

Interested to see how we look against UNI.

Obviously the McLeod Center is a tough place to play and an 11 a.m. tip in front of a whiteout, close to capacity crowd will be a challenge.

VCU does have 2 early top-50 RPI true road wins at Virginia and Belmont so we have played well so far away from home.

We have had the tendency to fall behind early in games before coming back of late though which is concerning. On the road that's a lot harder to overcome. We'll see how we handle it Saturday.

Last time we played I remember Deon Mitchell just slicing through the press with relative ease. We'll need to contain him a bit better if we want to win at your place.

Should be a good test for both squads. We'll both learn a bit about ourselves by Saturday afternoon I imagine. As they say, 'Adversity introduces a man to himself'.

Here's to a good clean game with no injuries and high entertainment value for all.

[achrist70]

Re: Up Next: Virginia Commonwealth

District you are always welcomed on Panther Nation, I hope it is a good game and we handle your guys pressure

[orangetennis]

Re: Up Next: Virginia Commonwealth

Interested to see how we look against UNI.

Obviously the McLeod Center is a tough place to play and an 11 a.m. tip in front of a whiteout, close to capacity crowd will be a challenge.

VCU does have 2 early top-50 RPI true road wins at Virginia and Belmont so we have played well so far away from home.

We have had the tendency to fall behind early in games before coming back of late though which is concerning. On the road that's a lot harder to overcome. We'll see how we handle it Saturday.

Last time we played I remember Deon Mitchell just slicing through the press with relative ease. We'll need to contain him a bit better if we want to win at your place.

Should be a good test for both squads. We'll both learn a bit about ourselves by Saturday afternoon I imagine. As they say, 'Adversity introduces a man to himself'.

Here's to a good clean game with no injuries and high entertainment value for all.

we have a tendency to get ahead and then get shut out for 10 straight minutes in the 2nd half

[DistrictBaller]

Re: Up Next: Virginia Commonwealth

we have a tendency to get ahead and then get shut out for 10 straight minutes in the 2nd half

YES!

I mean, uh... interesting.

[PantherChic]

Don't worry District-we'll give your team every chance to win. I hope our guys play with the fire , intensity and accuracy they did in the first half against Iowa State-only this time do it for the entire game. Time will tell which of our teams shows up!

Sent from my SCH-R970 using Tapatalk

[Kyle]

Re: Up Next: Virginia Commonwealth

I expect us to be 7-10 point underdogs in this game.

[UNIChippewa]

Re: Up Next: Virginia Commonwealth

Better make the freebies from the line if we want to stand a chance, especially Tuttle and Deon.

[DistrictBaller]

Re: Up Next: Virginia Commonwealth

Since VCU and UNI play this weekend and we have a mutual road opponent in Virginia... here's the full game footage of VCU @ UVA last month for those who are into scouting competition.

You should be able to get a feel for both VCU and UVA's personnel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnQ8RAHr-uw

[jnutt]

Re: Up Next: Virginia Commonwealth

i'll be in town Friday, in the stands for the first time in years as well. the suit...maybe

[Catmandoo]

Re: Up Next: Virginia Commonwealth

FYI - Briante Weber leads the nation in steals at 3.9/game and VCU as a team leads the nation in steals with 12.7/game. By contrast, UNI just set a McLeod Center record with 12 steals in Tuesday night's game vs. Savannah State. So, VCU averages more steals per game than there has ever been in the history of the McLeod Center. Wow.

[DistrictBaller]

Re: Up Next: Virginia Commonwealth

FYI - Briante Weber leads the nation in steals at 3.9/game and VCU as a team leads the nation in steals with 12.7/game. By contrast, UNI just set a McLeod Center record with 12 steals in Tuesday night's game vs. Savannah State. So, VCU averages more steals per game than there has ever been in the history of the McLeod Center. Wow.

Yea, that's a big part of our game.

VCU also leads the country in steal percentage (17.3% of possessions) and is 2nd in the country in turnover rate behind Louisville (force turnovers on 27.3% of possessions).

One thing is that UNI doesn't hit the offensive boards at all (you guys are 335th in the country in offensive rebounding percentage). That means your guys are getting back quickly on defense. VCU % of shots taken in transition is 6th-highest in the country at 33.1%, so if you guys don't have live-ball turnovers in the open court, it could take away a big part of what we do offensively. Should be interesting to watch.