Had to watch the replay yesterday during workday (regretfully), but more on for the office background noise.......

We are mentally fragile right now.

VCU crushed us on points in the paint. Many of their points were either by allowing them get the best position down low, or them just blowing by the defender off the dribble. VCU had at least 34 points in the paint by mid-way thru the second.

In transition we settle for bricking 3's when our wings all have room and time to attack the rim. Open looks or not, the lane for them is open. Take the easier 2's or get fouled.

Several times in the second half all 5 guys were standing around on the perimeter.

Several times in the second half VCU was running circles around us on their offensive end.

We dove for loose balls only 1 time all game. DeLoach with the lone sacrifice to the floor.

This team gave up once shots stopped falling, was not motivated to play in the second half, and the whole turn of events was most apparent around the 30-32 minute mark in the second. Shockingly we still held a 5 point lead (52-47) but that evaporated quickly.

VCU scored 37 points in the final 8 minutes of the game.

Odom with a masterclass in full court pressing us all game. Trolled us.....

We have not seen this team play any form of physical tough defense since the first half of the ref show SanFran game. Nonexistent with VCU all game. Like some others have said, we want to play a certain way defensively that is very tough and good but as soon as the refs crackdown on it or we refrain from that strategy then that's when our team defense becomes poor.

We also need more than 1 guy to be scorer. Tough to win games when only one starter has a good night going for 20 and is in dbl figures and the rest of the lineup can barely crack 8 or 10 apiece...... We might have depth on this team, but there isn't much of any scoring depth.

The way we gave up and did nothing in the second half is alarming. Not motivated at all. Things look way different on the TV than it may appear live in person.

I cannot put this recent slide on injuries, especially that all 5 losses were now winnable games. Blown leads after half or late in second half. 2022-23 here we go again.....

Who else is concerned about this upcoming road trip?

I know I am late to comment, but here are my thoughts:

1. VCU likes to play bully ball. They press you all game and they hope to wear you down mentally and physically. If you don't man up and accept that challenge they will win. We accepted the challenge in the first half and were leading by 3. The lead should have been bigger, but leading nonetheless. In the second half, we missed some early shots and it snow balled from there. We completely broke about 8 minutes into the second half.

2. Our lack of defensive rebounding was horrible. Our defense was good on the initial shot, but then we could not secure a defensive rebound and gave them many second chance points which allowed for VCU to leak out ahead. It's OK for Miles or Deloach to try to block shots, but the rest of the team has get into the lane and rebound. We are long enough and athletic enough that we should be a better defensive rebounding team.

3. FT Shooting. Why beat a dead horse? It was bad as usual.

4. Our vaunted depth did not help us. We looked gassed.

5. I get that we have had some injuries and I expected the games to be tougher. However losing 5 of our last 6 is unacceptable. This team better learn that it has to fight and claw to survive and needs to change its mindset. It needs to work harder and not turn the ball over, stop the dumb fouls and make some damn FTs. I mean, we all see it, why are the players and coached not correcting this.

6. On a side note, since we have entered the A10, I have noticed that a many of these schools are low class. The amount of trash talking and low class on the part of the players and coaches is astonishing. VCU game, there should have been at least 1 or 2 T's on VCU. At one point, the refs felt it necessary to get between two players and go over to talk to VCU and the Coach. Really? Just T them up. Seems like the A10 let's this type of behavior go on. Further evidence of the low class nature of VCU, up by 20 with a couple of minutes left and VCU Coach leaves his entire staring lineup in the game. We already subbed in bench guys. At one point little starting point guard early in shot clock shoots a 3. I means LOW CLASS, game was over at that point. Drew got into with VCU Coach before game was over. I hope our guys were paying attention.

I don't blame VCU for playing whoever they want. It's the same thing we complained about earlier this year... letting a 20 point win become 10 because you don't care about the last minute.

Not a problem for us anymore....

Low class? Ok, yeah there's a lot of trash talk but we aren't innocent. Both players and fans.

Des was lucky they called a double-technical when he plowed over Russell.

Another example of our lack of composure.

Also our guards aren't making enough effort to rebound.

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AHUNTE ...mentioned "lack of composure" Agree...you hate to go back to the Final 4 team but they are a great template for less talented physical teams winning with better play and performing down the stretch. The only time I dont recall them being pretty clutch was the Arch Madness semi final game against Bradley.
Anyway my point is composure and I think that comes from leadership which is different from being lead dog. Seems to me Watson is the lead dog but not a leader...he is way too emotional, both ways,. This concerns me the most. When you have to try and blend a lot of new guys, get new freshman involved you need a positive leader....and when you have an alpha who is not a good leader....????? Hard for guys who are going to be one and done to become leaders...Dawson certainly may have the potential to be a leader down the line....Not sure if Coach is part of this..

I agree. I mentioned "no leadership" on social media after the game. Part of what I meant is composure but anothet part of that is trusting each other and playing together (team rebounding, sharing the ball on offense) when adversity hits.

Rewatching the game (because I missed the last 10 minutes in person mercifully) I noticed JQ got pulled after his drive into traffic turnover and I don't think he got back in. Both of our bigs tried spinning dribbles in traffic for turnovers.

I could be way off but I think Drew has to be much more willing to call sets in late-game situations. Relying on playmaking isn't working for us.

You can't demand the ball and just plow forward.

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I think I saw Drew make a handshake gesture during that lecture, and my sense was he wanted to make sure there were no fireworks in the handshake line from our guys. No talking just shake the next guys hand and keep it moving.

Could be right also.

The few beers in me by then thought it was for them to look at the scoreboard, look around at the nice attendance, and never to play 20 minutes like that ever again.

I heard every word. Drew was ripping into Deloach and Watson about ZERO SHIT in the hand shake line....he pointed right to DeLoach and said "if you pull any shit you will be suspended, do you understand??". He also made Watson acknowledge it, too. It was sound advice until 10 seconds later when Drew got a tech for jawing with the other coach.

And DeLoach goes out the next game against LaSalle and plays like a warrior, and probably his best game as a Rambler. Shall we dare draw any conclusions?

To be fair, VCU’s coach quickly admitted Drew was right….one of his assistants was the real issue