In VCU’s most recent game, a 72-to-52 home victory over George Mason, Baldwin scored nine points, grabbed nine rebounds, and recorded seven assists. puts up a shot (Mat Shelton-Eide/)īaldwin averages just a shade under 12 points per game (PPG) and also dishes out six assists per game, which ranks second in the Atlantic 10. He can shoot it, score it, and deliver it. But when he gets below that foul line, he has a tremendous IQ. He’s a good player anyways in all aspects of the game. Once he gets below the foul line, he’s an outstanding player. We need to do a good job on ball screens. “We can’t turn the ball over and let him out in the open court. “It will take our whole team to slow him down,” Schmidt said of Baldwin. Baldwin serves as the catalyst, point guard, and, frankly, the essential piece of this VCU Rams team. leads the team in minutes, averaging 34.6 per game. The Gaels did not trap ball screens, whereas VCU, who has nine players average at least 11 minutes per game, traps all over the floor.Īdrian “Ace” Baldwin Jr. “I don’t think you can take anything away from that game except that will bring similar pressure, but from different angles,” Schmidt said when I asked him to draw comparisons between the Iona and VCU defenses. VCU operates its defense with “a more run-and-jump style.” But Rick Pitino’s Gaels trap on the first pass. When Bona played against Iona in Brooklyn in December, the Gaels stymied the young Bonnies with their full-court press. The Bonnies have faced full-court pressure before. We need to handle their crowd too, but the biggest thing we need to handle is their pressure.” “Their full-court pressure and their half-court pressure. “We need to handle their pressure,” Schmidt said. That mark ranks fourth nationally, per KenPom. The Rams force turnovers on 25.4% of their defensive possessions, an incredible rate. VCU’s defensive efficiency ranks 25th nationally and first in the Atlantic 10, according to KenPom. Like VCU teams of the past, their “Havoc” full-court pressure defense has vaulted the Rams up the conference standings and back into the national discussion. Right now, the Atlantic 10 will only send one team to the NCAA Tournament, but if VCU keeps trending in the right direction, the Rams could represent the conference as an At-Large if they do not win the Atlantic 10 Tournament. VCU has played so well as of late that they have re-entered At-Large bid discussions, according to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi. The weekly power rankings for the week of Jan. They have won 11 of their last 12 and have a 16-5 record overall. The Rams boast a conference-leading record of 7-1. The Bonnies will face perhaps their most difficult challenge of the season Saturday at VCU. We have not played well enough on the road to do that.” You need to handle adversity better, but you need to do everything better on the road than you do at home to win. But the more experience you get playing on the road, the better you will get. You’re uncomfortable, so you have to play that much better. “If you looked at the newspaper today, 90% of the teams that played on the road last night lost. “We need to play hard, consistently, and better on the road than at home,” Mark Schmidt acknowledged to the media Friday. The game airs on CBS Sports Network and will tip at 6 p.m. On Saturday, Bona travels back to Virginia for the first time since the NIT, where they will face the VCU Rams and a raucous sold-out crowd at the Stuart C. More than ten months later, the Bonnies have not won a true road game since. Kyle Lofton’s free throws with five seconds to go and Osun Osunniyi’s game-sealing block as time expired punched Bona’s ticket to Madison Square Garden in dramatic fashion. Bonaventure Bonnies played in the Commonwealth of Virginia, the Brown and White defeated the Virginia Cavaliers in the 2022 NIT Quarterfinals.
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