Santos-Silva thrives in starting role

Ryan Grube, Contributing Writer

In the world of college basketball, the “next man up” philosophy is an overriding mentality — college athletes only get four years to showcase their talents, which presents younger players opportunities to step into bigger roles.

When First-Team All-Atlantic 10 forward Justin Tillman graduated, sophomore forward Marcus Santos-Silva knew it was his void to fill.

“The coaches just told me to be ready,” Santos-Silva said. “We lost Tillman, so I’m going to have to step up my role even bigger this year to help the team out and to get a whole bunch of wins for us.”

A year after averaging 3.1 points and three rebounds, Santos-Silva has risen to the challenge. The big man out of Taunton, Massachusetts, is averaging 9.7 points and seven rebounds on the season.

Santos-Silva credits his offensive jump to a productive offseason, during which he focused on broadening his postgame.

“I give most of it to my big man coach, coach [Brent] Scott,” Santos-Silva said. “This whole summer, we were working on post moves, control and also getting my confidence up. So, I owe them a lot.”

Along with his improvement on the offensive end, Santos-Silva has anchored a strong defensive season for the Rams.

VCU, which finished 179th in defensive efficiency last season according to teamrankings.com, is now up to third in the nation. Santos-Silva says the drastic surge is a testament to a summer filled with defensive workouts.

“We would do a lot of defensive drills in the summer for basically the whole entire practice. Sometimes, we wouldn’t even touch the ball,” Santos-Silva said. “But, it paid off.”

And paid off did it ever. Currently, Santos-Silva averages 1.2 blocks and 0.9 steals, good for second and third on the team, respectively.

His stellar overall play has VCU (20-6, 11-2 in A-10) back in the NCAA Tournament discussion after the team missed out on the “big dance” for the first time in seven years.

Santos-Silva said while last season was rough, he and the team used it as a learning curve for 2019.

“It was hard, but it also made us mentally stronger for this year because right after that season was over, we got straight back to work,” Santos-Silva said. “We used last season as motivation for this season.”

Following a dominant win over Rhode Island Feb. 19, Santos Silva and the Rams stand alone atop the A-10 standings.

With just three games remaining in the regular season, Santos-Silva has his sights on one goal in particular.

“We’re here for a big goal,” Santos-Silva said, “and that’s to win the A-10 championship and make it to the tournament.”