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Rise and Shine: Surging Rams

By Sam Federman

Photo by VCU Athletics
Photo by VCU Athletics

If you don't know about the VCU Rams yet, you're already late.


They moved to 15-4 and 5-1 in the A10 on Tuesday with an 81-57 win at the Ryan Center over Rhode Island.


Good news: You can catch the best team in the A10 on national TV tonight, as they take on St. Bonaventure at home at 9 p.m. on ESPNU.


The Rams' only loss in A10 play came on New Years Eve to this very Bonaventure team, with Melvin Council scoring as the clock wound down to give Bona the edge, but these teams are in very different spots now.


St. Bonaventure has lost 4 of 5 since a 14-1 start, and sits 3-4 in the A10, thus will be playing desperate, needing a big win. But VCU has turned it up to another level since the calendar flipped to 2025, dominating on both ends.


Head coach Ryan Odom - who took Utah State to the NCAA Tournament as a 10 seed two years ago - built this year's team around a super deep and talented backcourt, spearheaded by Max Shulga, who came back to VCU after initially committing to Villanova. Shulga played for Odom at Utah State before following him across the country, and was one of the A10 's top players last year. This season, he's picked up right where he left off, averaging 15, 6, and 4.


VCU also boasts three other double digit scorers in the backcourt, with Joe Bamisile (16.7 PPG0, Phillip Russell (11.7 PPG), and Zeb Jackson (10.1 PPG). But what makes this team truly great is how well all of them guard, and the defense from the frontcourt.


The Ram guards force a ton of turnovers, with Bamisile's 2.5% steal rate being the lowest of VCU's top four, but he also pairs it with a 3.5% block rate. Freshman Brandon Jennings is a huge jolt of defensive energy off the bench as well. In the frontcourt, the quarter of Jack Clark, Michael Belle, Christian Fermin, and Luke Bamgboye makes life incredibly difficult for opposing offenses to score on the inside or get to their favorite actions.


VCU is the top team in the A10 at defending the pick-and-roll, and ranks 13th in all of Division I.


Odom's tournament team at Utah State ranked 16th in offense and 70th in defense. This team nearly reverses that, ranking 75th in offense and 16th in defense. But I think this VCU team has a higher offensive ceiling than USU's defense that year. So far in A10 play, VCU is the top team in the league offensively, despite playing a pretty hard schedule.


The Rams rank 37th in KenPom, 20-plus spots higher than any other A10 team, and have a chance to take sole possession of first place - albeit only for a day - with a win against the Bonnies on Friday.

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