Scouting report: Seton Hall

Jim Swing
Sports Editor
Commonwealth Times Sports’ Twitter

Probable Starters
Seton Hall
1 Jordan Theodore G 6-0 174 Sr.
4 Aaron Cosby G 6-3 190 Fr.
15 Herb Pope F 6-8 236 Sr.
23 Fuquan Edwin G/F 6-6 205 So.
33 Patrik Auda F 6-9 225 So.

VCU
10 Darius Theus G 6-3 200 Jr.
20 Bradford Burgess G/F 6-6 225 Sr.
30 Troy Daniels G 6-4 200 Jr.
33 D.J. Haley C 7-0 250 So.
15 Juvonte Reddic F 6-9 235 So.

Quick Hits

• First-ever meeting between the two schools.
• VCU: 1-0
• Seton Hall: 1-0
• Last time out: Both teams had their home-openers play a little too close for comfort as VCU edged St. Francis (Pa.) 63-57 at the Siegel Center and Seton Hall escaped St. Francis (N.Y.) in overtime.

Keys for VCU

• Bradford Burgess avenge shooting woes: Bradford Burgess needs to put his poor 0-for-12 opening night shooting performance behind him and continue shooting the ball. Chances are we won’t see another horrendous shooting night like that from Burgess again.
• Rebounding: Juvonte Reddic was as aggressive as he’s ever been against St. Francis (Pa.), and VCU is going to need him to work even harder against Seton Hall and big-man Herb Pope. After leading the Big East in rebounding in 2009-2010, Pope followed up by finishing third in the conference (7.9 rpg) last season.
• Feed the ball outside: In its opening game against St. Francis (N.Y.), Seton Hall did a lackluster job of sealing off the perimeter, allowing the Terriers to bury 12 treys on 26 tries. For a VCU team that loves to shoot the deep ball, that’s music to their ears.
• Limit Jordan Theodore: Probably the best player on Seton Hall’s roster and the guy who got them the win on opening night. The Pirates’ senior point guard and captain is quick and has no problem finding his way to the basket. Much like Darius Theus, Theodore spent his first two years at the college level behind other point guards.

Other notes

• We should see redshirt freshman Heath Houston for the first time this weekend at some point. We thought we’d see him in the season-opener, but Shaka Smart opted to keep him on the bench. Smart said in the weeks leading up to Houston’s foot injury, he was phenomenal in practice and looked to be a key guy in VCU’s rotation this year.
• This weekend marks the start of a near three-week road trip in which VCU will also face Western Kentucky and Alabama.
• The Charleston Classic could possibly present a few matchups that would help VCU come March. Depending on how Seton Hall’s season plays out, a win over the Pirates for VCU could be a twinkle in the eye of the NCAA Selection Committee later on. A possible matchup against a promising Northwestern team out of the Big 10 could also be quality win for VCU if the chips fall in the right place as well.

Bottom line

A trip to the Charleston Classic this weekend will give the Rams a great chance to evaluate where they are as a team. With the 10th youngest team in Division I college basketball, there’s not a whole lot of better ways to see where you stand than playing three games in four days on a neutral court against a couple quality opponents. Don’t be upset if this young VCU squad doesn’t win the Charleston Classic, but then again, with the trends of the past year, don’t surprised if they do.

What Shaka has to say:

“You would love, with a young team, to play your first two, three, four games at home and then venture on the road maybe for a game and then come back home, but that’s not how it works. The next month – it’s certainly a gauntlet, but it’ll really give our team a great indication of where we are and where we need to get better. And I think the key for me and our coaching staff and our players is there’s going to be some ups and down but that we learn from everything. If we have a great outing, we take what we did and we learn from it and we apply it the next time. If we have a setback, we don’t fold up the tent and go home. We learn from that and really look at this thing from a long-term perspective.”