Busting Brackets
Fansided

VCU Basketball: 2019-20 season preview for the Rams

By Lukas Harkins

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MARCH 15: De'Riante Jenkins #0 of the Virginia Commonwealth Rams celebrates a basket against the Rhode Island Rams during their Atlantic 10 basketball tournament quarterfinal game at Barclays Center on March 15, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MARCH 15: De'Riante Jenkins #0 of the Virginia Commonwealth Rams celebrates a basket against the Rhode Island Rams during their Atlantic 10 basketball tournament quarterfinal game at Barclays Center on March 15, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
6 of 7
Next
COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA – MARCH 22: Coach Rhoades of VCU reacts. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA – MARCH 22: Coach Rhoades of VCU reacts. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /

Schedule breakdown

With regard to the Rams’ schedule this season, their slate sets up well for a high seed in the NCAA Tournament. Even though their non-conference schedule is not the most rigorous in the country, it features a number of resume-boosting opportunities that also happen to be very winnable games for the team.

Additionally, there are not many true “cupcake” matchups as many of their mid-major opponents are projected to be some of their best in their respective conferences. Coach Rhoades and Co. did a very nice job putting this slate together and it should put the team in a great position heading into Atlantic 10 play.

VCU will start this upcoming campaign with six consecutive home games. And will this might sound like an easy opening couple of weeks, the teams coming to the Siegel Center are no pushovers. The season begins with a battle against St. Francis (PA). The Red Flash feature one of the most talented players in the entire country in Keith Braxton and are widely projected as the preseason favorite in the Northeast Conference.

The Rams will then take on middle-of-the-CUSA North Texas in their homecoming game on Nov. 8. Neither of these two opening opponents should pose major challenges to the Rams but can still be regarded as solid teams.

The first game on the schedule that needs to be circled by all college basketball fans will come on Nov. 13. This is when nationally-ranked LSU will come to town. The Tigers are led by former VCU head coach Will Wade and feature a ton of young talent. The Rams will have the home-court advantage and that could play a major factor in this contest. LSU-VCU will be one of the nation’s top non-conference games this season (excluding tournaments).

Moving forward, the Rams will then face three more mid-major opponents with Jacksonville State, Florida Gulf Coast, and Alabama State. All of these games will occur in the Commonwealth and this is probably the easiest three-game stretch on VCU’s schedule. With that said, though, Jacksonville State is regarded as one of the top teams in the Ohio Valley. That could be a sneaky game.

At the end of November, VCU will take a short trip to the Sunshine State to participate in the Emerald Coast Classic. Although this event is not the most heralded of the non-conference tournaments, the Rams will be tasked with playing Purdue and Florida State/Tennessee in back-to-back days. All four of the teams in the event expect to reach the NCAA Tournament this will be a great barometer for where everyone stands heading into December.

Upon returning home from the Emerald Coast Classic, VCU will meet with Old Dominion and Missouri State before embarking on a true two-game road trip. It is never easy to win away from home in non-conference and the Rams will have two difficult challenges as they take on Charleston, one of the CAA favorites led by Grant Riller, and Wichita State, a potential at-large team from the AAC. VCU’s last nonconference game will come against Loyola (MD) at home, where they will be tasked with covering proven star Andrew Kostecka and highly-touted freshman Santi Aldama.

This is a fun non-conference slate that features several high-quality matchups. The schedule is not the most daunting in the nation, but there are definitely some challenges. The average preseason KenPom rank of VCU’s opponents sits at 163.2. The team is projected to enter league play with an 11-1 record by the model.

With regard to the Atlantic 10, as a whole, the conference looks poised for a strong year. VCU is the clear preseason favorite but the league will compete for as many as four NCAA Tournament bids this season. Davidson and Dayton make up the second tier in the league while Rhode Island and Saint Bonaventure also potentially have enough talent to make runs at the Big Dance. I expect that VCU will roll through the conference with a strong record but those four squads could provide resistance and opportunities for the Rams to improve their seed projection.