By the Skeen of their teeth: VCU escapes Drexel off Skeen buzzer-beater

Adam Stern
Sports Editor
Commonwealth Times Sports’ Twitter

Despite their late-season implosion— the one that suddenly sabotaged what was shaping up to be an all-time historic season— VCU senior forward Jamie Skeen told reporters Thursday of how the team had moved on.

On Saturday, he showed them, too.

Skeen— the Wake Forest transfer who has exuded pro potential in different spurts and surges all season long— scored a buzzer-beating bucket with only the most miniscule of milliseconds left on the clock in the CAA Tournament quarterfinals to send Drexel head coach Bruiser Flint and his brutally physical team crashing out.

The 62-60 win vaults VCU into the tournament’s semifinal versus top-seeded— and completely cocksure— George Mason on Sunday at noon.

“[The final play] was definitely designed for me but I didn’t have a clock in my head,” Skeen said. “I was just playing basketball; just trying to make my move.”

And that he did. But VCU second-year head coach Shaka Smart, now 3-1 all-time in the CAA Tournament, was a bit more impressed.

“If he won’t brag,” Smart said, “I’ll brag for him.”

“He knew exactly what he was doing [on the final shot],” Smart said. “And he let it off as time expired to make it a true buzzer beater.”

For his part, Flint was upfront and honest about the final play.

“We wanted to deny Skeen to be honest with you, but it didn’t happen,” Flint said. “We knew what was going to happen, and that was it really; nothing more can be said.”

Now that’s a rare statement. Flint— infamous for his animated and agitated persona— is rarely at a loss for words. And, in keeping with up with tradition, the ten-year head coach picked up one of his trademark technical fouls with just over six minutes left in the game.

“I just said it’s a foul and he gave me a technical [foul] … and honestly there were a lot of fouls in the game,” Flint said. “They like to give me technicals in Richmond.”

And it’s in Richmond that the Rams’ NCAA Tournament chances will be decided. After dropping four out of their final five games— this from a team that hadn’t loss back-to-back games in more than a year before that stretch— the team’s chances of an at-large bid are almost nonexistent.

So with the Rams now turning their attention to the top-ranked Patriots— who just this week finally reached the Top 25 pinnacle that VCU themselves were only weeks removed from at one point— the team will be looking to avenge a 20-point loss that was just as stomach-gutting as it was bubble-bursting.

“The first time we played them, it wasn’t really us; I feel like we can play them much better,” Skeen said.

On that night, the Patriots torched the Rams in nearly every facet of the game. But none of that matters now, Skeen would tell you, and after beating Drexel, the Rams now have their opportunity at a second shot.

“Tomorrow we have a chance to redeem ourselves,” Skeen said. “That’s what we’ll do.”

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Photo by: Kyle Laferriere