A couple things stood out about this game for me:
- vcu's size and physicality was overwhelming. Not just Tillman, but their guards are big and strong as well. Doughty, Brooks, and Burgess are all long, physical players. Not a great matchup for us when we're starting Otis, who's tiny, and Kier, who's tall but not very strong at the moment.
- Love what we've seen from Boyd lately. He looked totally comfortable against vcu's system. Feels like he should've gotten more than 22 minutes in a game where the threes weren't falling and Kier was a non-factor on offense. I would have liked to see Boyd on the floor with Grayer more but for the most part it looked like Boyd was only in when Grayer was out. I think Boyd taking Kier's minutes could have given us a better chance to match vcu's physicality.
- Turnovers are a problem for us *on both sides of the ball.* We're now bottom 10 in the country in opponent turnover percentage. Only one team in the bottom 20 gives up less than 1 point per possession and that's UCF, who has a 7'6" center to anchor the post. Our turnovers on offense are glaring, but the turnovers we aren't forcing are just as much of a problem. When you don't turn the opponent over you let them get shots up on just about every trip down the floor. This hurts more when your best option to guard the opposing 4 is 6'4", 190. Dave has done a tremendous job this season, but I still think the choice to stay in a conventional, standard defensive set with a four-guard lineup is questionable.
- Relvao looked not terrible. He had a block that's unfortunately omitted from the box score but it's encouraging to see him play some good minutes. It's interesting that Temara didn't see the floor at all, but Tillman/Cox/Hamdy probably would have eaten his lunch.
Disappointing but not unexpected loss. Always frustrating when vcu gets to play prison rules defense and the refs call touch fouls on our guys, but that's how it works when they're bigger and stronger.
