CAA tournament recap
By the numbers:
No. 1: Old Dominion’s ranking nation-wide in rebounding margin at +12.1 rebounds per game.
2: Amount of straight CAA tournaments ODU has now won.
3: Number of minutes VCU freshman forward Juvonte Reddic played against the Monarchs.
+4: ODU’s rebounding-margin in their one loss to VCU this season.
+20: Average rebounding margin Old Dominion got in their two wins versus VCU this season.
6: Amount of rebounds VCU’s team had in total at halftime.
7: Amount of players ODU had with over two rebounds or more at halftime.
8: Points VCU senior point guard Joey Rodriguez scored against ODU.
9: Rebounds ODU senior forward Frank Hassell grabbed— a game high.
22: Points ODU senior forward Frank Hassell scored— a game high.
11: Consecutive points VCU scored with Hassell on the bench in the second half to cut a 18-point lead for the Monarchs to seven.
104: Consecutive starts junior forward Bradford Burgess has now made for VCU following his start against the Monarchs.
19: Points Burgess scored against ODU, a team-high.
11,200: Amount of people that attended the CAA tournament final between VCU and ODU.
46,544: Amount of people that attended the CAA tournament in total when adding in the final; a tournament record.
$5 million: Economic impact the CAA tournament brings to the city of Richmond according to the Richmond Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Quotes of the game:
“These last two games he’s gotten the better of us,” VCU head coach Shaka Smart said about Hassell. “All you have to do is look at Frank Hassell … he’s a monster.”
“With us it starts with defense and ends with offense, and in between we’re going to board not with the best of them. We are the best of them,” said ODU head coach Blaine Taylor.
“All I can say is I disagree with that,” Smart said in reference to Burgess being left off of the CAA’s three All-Conference teams.
“I thought we really had them doing some soul-searching for the first 25 minutes of the game of whether they were going to be able to play with us,” said Blaine Taylor.
“I’m not going to play politics,” Smart said when asked about if he thought VCU deserved an at-large bid into the NCAA tournament. “We would love to do something about it but honestly, after that final buzzer sounded, there’s nothing we can do.”
“There’s a lot of real blabbermouths on the bubble,” Taylor said. “In Montana … we used to say ‘big hat; no horse,’ ” Taylor, who used to coach at Montana, said in reference to coaches politicking for a spot in the NCAA tournament.
