Saturday, February 9, 2013

Observations from VCU loss

Observations from Charlotte's 67-61 loss against VCU:
 
-- Senior forward J.T. Thompson's knee injury is a tough blow for Charlotte, but an even tougher one for Thompson, a truly nice young man who is now dealing with his third ACL injury in three seasons (two previously at Virginia Tech).
 
"He's helped us out a lot," said sophomore point guard Pierria Henry. "It's his voice, the good advice he gives. Letting us know the things he's been through. He risked his body for us, now we've got to do the same for him."
 
Coach Alan Major said Thompson will continue to pursue his Masters degree in grad school at Charlotte. The amount of work Thompson put in to return to basketball was unbelievable and now, for a third time, it's gone for nothing. Let's wish J.T. the best.
 
-- Charlotte's rugged A-10 schedule continues next week with games at Butler and Saint Louis. The 49ers (17-6, 5-4) are then off for eight days before a home game against Temple on Feb. 24. The back-end of Charlotte's league schedule is made up of second-division teams Dayton, St. Bonaventure, Duquesne and Saint Joseph's.
 
-- VCU's defense against Charlotte was so tight that the 49ers didn’t attempt a 3-pointer in the first half.
 
-- Charlotte forward Darion Clark had to leave the game in the first half for the locker room after he apparently took an elbow to his left eyebrow. He came back a few minutes later with it repaired.-- The 49ers have point guard Pierria Henry now, but Virginia Commonwealth thought it had him at one time. Henry committed verbally to VCU coming out of high school in Charleston, W.Va., before he changed his mind. Henry also had an offer to play football at Marshall.

-- Charlotte coach Alan Major and VCU’s Shake Smart are old friends, and went through the Villa 7 assistant-coaching mentoring program together before they got their head-coaching jobs. 

-- It was the second well-attended game (8,794) in a row for the 49ers (they sold out their homecoming game against Massachusetts on Feb. 2). There was a sizeable group of VCU fans on hand, as well.

14 comments:

Drew Polly said...

The atmosphere was great when we tied it up at 22 in the first half. Hopefully we can win at least one of the next two on the road.

Jeff said...

Will the real Chris Braswell, PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESE stand up ???
(Right Tim C?)

Anonymous said...

You mean our stellar non conference schedule didn't prepare us for the rigors of the A-10?

Anonymous said...

VCU played good defense and Charlotte dominated the boards. The real difference was missed free throws by Charlotte-it would have changed the complexion of the game.

Anonymous said...

Again, the officiating in these games is beyond bad. It seems as if the refs are against the Niners. Smart should have been T'd on a couple of occasions. Major needs to be a bigger force with the refs that he is.

Anonymous said...

Who is "Shake Smart?"

Excuse Stormtrooper said...

The refs the refs the refs!!! If not for them we are undefeated

Anonymous said...

17-6 is a good record, but for this team, its lipstick on a pig. this is NOT a good team. Period.

Anonymous said...

Come on Majors! Just make it to 20 wins and that contract extension is yours!
CA-CHING!!!

Anonymous said...

Lipstick on a pig. No matter how much I hear that, it is still funny. Thanks for the laugh.

Anonymous said...

Dang people----for the 100th time, the man's name is Major (not MajorS).......idiots!!

Anonymous said...

If the officiating was so bad, why did Major not get in the refs' faces and argue his case? Even though VCU fouled on just about every possession without the foul being called, Shaka Smart was in the official's face every time a foul was called. The strategy worked. Major just sat there without saying anything.

Anonymous said...

So, now we know "HAVOC" just means to foul every time down the court. Refs can't possibly call it every time, can they?

Anonymous said...

@7:11

Major actually "bumped" an official after a particularly bad non call in the second half. He also spent the entire time during VCU's player intros talking to one of the refs. Getting in the officials face sometimes works and sometimes backfires. From where I sit, it looks as if we are not being screwed nearly as badly now as the final Lutz years.
All that said, this would have been a very good game for Major to get an intentional technical just to let his guys know he's standing up for them.