Not ready to throw in the towel yet, but I am unbelievably disappointed. I was actually surprised that I was really excited about going to the game all day - haven't felt that way in a while. The game however, sucked the life right out of me. Some observations (most have already been mentioned in some manner):
1) Where was everybody? I looked at the Ticketmaster available seat chart and thought we'd fill 3/4 of the house. More like 1/3 full and 20% of them were the Troglodites from Richmond.
2) We played amazing D. Unfortunately, that level of exertion seemed to greatly impact our offense. The legs just weren't there on the shots (someone, can't remember who, hit the friggin side of the backboard from the corner on an open three). Let's face it, we have very good shooters and an 0-15 can't just be them contesting our shots. Tony has to decide if he wants that level of D or offense because it appears he can't have both.
3) Keyshawn - Enough with the spin move. If you get pick-pocketed doing it once, did you really think it was going to be any different the second, third or fourth time? You can get by almost anyone with your face to them, and if you can't - pass it (they are double and tripling you for a reason) Let your teammates beat them.
4) Way too many second chances on high rebounds in the paint. vcu can always jump, box them the heck out of the paint. Kelly did one amazing job of this on one ball - almost boxing his man into their bench.
5) Agree with several comments about us using the man-to-man more. Kelly and Woody can handle their big men with ease. That said, Kelly disappeared in the 2nd half. We need him to take control in a game like this. When our shooters are struggling, we need him to be the man on offense. It seemed to me that he was getting the ball too far from the rim and trying to dribble in which resulted the ball being stolen. Coaches need to read the situation and focus on getting him the ball more down low.
As I said, I am not ready to throw in the towel. Losing to vcu hurts more than anything to Mason die-hards, myself included. I still have had more fun watching this team than any other over the last decade. I want Tony to succeed. I want this thrown-together team to surprise everyone. We had a bad game against our most hated rival - and now I'm over it. And unlike others, I hope we do face them in the tournament cuz I doubt this team lets a mediocre vcu team beat them again. And I want to see that more than anything.
