Men’s basketball off to good start in ’09

The men’s basketball team got the post-Eric Maynor era off to a superb start Thursday night as the Rams crushed cross-town rival Virginia Union University 85-55 in the U.S. Army Downtown Showdown.

First-year head coach Shaka Smart showcased the team’s new, intense style of play that wreaked havoc on a Panthers team that is picked to finish top of its conference this season.

“You have to take your hat off to VCU,” said VUU head coach Willard Coker. “They’re well-conditioned and they push the ball down your throat, I mean right down your throat.”

Junior forward Larry Sanders (Fort Pierce, Fla./Port St. Lucie), who picked up numerous off-season accolades coming into the season, looked like a man among boys throughout the game and was so unstoppable that he registered a double-double with nine minutes left in the first half-all with relative ease.

The Rams’ talisman has infinitely inflated shoes to fill this season following the departure of arguably the best athlete to ever come out of VCU in Maynor. Yet while dropping his usual plethora of dunks and blocking his usual bounty of blocks, it was his zero fouls that was most noteworthy following last season’s habitual foul problems.

“If he can do that on a nightly basis, we’ll be in good shape,” Smart said.

Sanders’ scintillating performance was joined in conjunction with strong play from senior T.J. Gwynn (Burlington, N.C./Cummings), now a starter for the team, and junior Brandon Rozzell (Richmond/Highland Springs – who has put up big numbers two years in a row in the annual exhibition against the Panthers. Rozzell scored all 14 of his points in the first half, and was four of six from downtown – including three on three consecutive plays.

“We have a fast team and all of us like to run,” Rozzell said. “Today I was just the open guy lucky enough to knock down the shots.”

Armed with a near-insurmountable lead by halftime, Smart spent much of the second half tinkering with the team and by game’s end he had used all 12 players in uniform in an assortment of different lineups. All 12 of those players scored at least one point in the contest, including the four freshmen on this season’s squad.

Virginia Union’s only bright spot on the night came