Men’s basketball cruises to season-opening win

Zachary Holden
Staff Writer
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The VCU men’s basketball team kicked off their season with an 80-57 victory over Florida Gulf Coast at the Siegel Center on Friday night. It was the Rams 10th straight home-opening victory.

“We played with great energy, I liked that our guys flew around,” VCU head coach Shaka Smart said. “We certainly weren’t mistake free, but I liked our aggressiveness.”

VCU started off the scoring with a Treveon Graham 3-pointer just after the one minute mark. The Rams and Eagles traded baskets for the first eight minutes and the score was 11-10, with VCU up by one.

A VCU timeout was taken and Smart had a stern talk with his players.

“I just said, ‘Guys this isn’t good enough,’” said Smart. “We just needed to turn up our aggressiveness and our mindset of attacking and I thought we did that for the next several minutes.”

Those next several minutes the Rams went on a 16-4 run. In fact, VCU closed out the final 12 minutes of the first half on a 35-10 run to enter halftime with a 46-20 lead. The HAVOC play from the Rams proved too much for the Eagles in the first half.

At the half, Briante Weber had three steals in five minutes played and Graham led the team with nine points.

The second half saw the Rams continue to play their style of basketball with ease, although the Eagles began to match baskets with VCU. A pair of easy backdoor screens led to alley-oops by the Eagles and forced coach Smart to call a timeout.

“[We were] just a step behind on defense from where need to be,” said Smart. “Florida Gulf Coast is a good offensive team; they can make you pay for that stuff.”

As usual, coach Smart’s words of wisdom proved effective and VCU played at a much higher level and began to run away with the game.

With 14 minutes left in the game, the Rams had extended their lead to 31 and doubled the Eagle’s score as they led 62-31 after a Weber 3-pointer.

That wasn’t all Weber did tonight, though. Steal after steal after steal, Weber etched his way closer to the school’s single-game record of eight steals. Weber had eight steals against Virginia Union in the exhibition, but those statistics don’t count towards any records.

With just over seven minutes to go, Weber recorded his eighth steal, breaking the school record. He would add two more steals and finished the night with 13 points to give him a double-double.

“Shoot, I’m just as shocked as everyone else, I wasn’t even counting,” said Weber. “[It’s] just something I can add to a record book. But I’m not worried about it, I’m worried about being a team player and getting out there and doing what coach Smart wants us to do. The steals will come.”

“I tell Bri[ante] all the time, ‘When you get in the game, be a game changer,’” said guard Rob Brandenberg. “He has the ability to do that. Not a lot of players can do that [and] can change the game. He can do it without scoring.”

The Rams continued to hold on to their lead and even allowed freshman Justin Tuoyo and senior David Hinton to get some playing time late.

Graham led the team with fifteen points and was one of the four Rams in double-digits on the night.

“Just feeding off my, they give me the confidence to go out there and play my game,” said Graham. “That’s what I did. The points will come; just let it come to me.”

The crowd of 7,693 was the 19th straight sellout at the Siegel Center which is the sixth-longest streak in the nation.

“I thought the crowd was terrific tonight, it’s great to be back out here in the Siegel Center in front of our fans,” said Smart. “It’s just a special place to be. I thought our fans and students played as big of a role as anybody in allowing us to go on a run in the first half by giving us energy.”

VCU hosts Wichita State in a nationally-televised game Tuesday night. The Rams defeated the Shockers in the second round of the NCAA Tournament a season ago.