VCU's Run Nets Georgia State $193K

Not too shabby.  Thanks to the Rams for this.  As we discussed a few weeks ago, the CAA does not share profits equally and rewards the teams who actually compete in the postseason. 

Let's hope we can return the favor very soon.

Wilmington Star News Link

Georgia State Baseball Hosts CAA Opponent VCU

The 19-4 Panthers are hosting the 7-12 VCU Rams Friday through Sunday. The Panthers are 3-0 in CAA play after sweeping Towson and the Rams are 1-2 after a close series with James Madison. The Panthers are coming into the series on a hot-streak, both at the team level and individual level. The current 10-game winning streak and 19-4 record are good for a school record and the team is tied for the NCAA's third longest winning streak. Only four teams in college baseball have more wins than the Panthers.

Who: The VCU Rams are CAA conference mates of the Panthers and 2010 defending CAA Champions. Coach Frady is 9-3-1 against VCU and 4-2 at home, the Rams defeated GSU in the first game of the 2010 CAA tournament.

VCU at the Plate: The Rams are batting .284 as a team and scoring 5.3 runs per game. They have scored over their average only 6 times, 42 of their 100 runs have come in 3 games against Holy Cross (1) and Princeton (2). Removing those 3 games, they're averaging only 3.6 runs per game. Senior outfielder John Lenherr leads by large margin at the plate with a .419 batting average and slugging near .600. John doesn't have any home runs but he has 6 doubles and 3 triples on the year and he accounts for almost 30% of their stolen bases being 9-for-11. Hitting in the 2nd spot in the lineup, John is the guy you want to keep off base as he can get in scoring position very quickly on you. Utility man Taylor Perkins is hitting .300 and leads the team with 17 RBI's. Taylor has started every game for the Rams. VCU has not shown much power with only 3 home runs and slugging .371 as a team with three different players accounting for the home runs.

VCU on the Mound: The Rams have a team ERA of 4.26 and has been a decent squad this season. They're allowing an average of 5.8 runs per game and have allowed more than 6 runs only 4 times. Half of their 12 losses have been by 2 runs or less so their pitching staff has kept them in games. This leads me to say VCU is a better team than their 7-12 record shows. All three starters to face have good strike-to-walk numbers at or better than 3:1. Starters as follows:

Seth Cutler-Voltz (Jr., RH) will pitch on Friday. He is 1-1 with a 5.17 ERA after 5 starts. WHIP of 1.5 and batters are .312 against him. He was an innings eater in 2010 and is averaging just over 6 innings per start this season. Seth is a power fastball pitcher.

Kyle Haynes (So., RH) gets the start on Saturday. Kyle is 2-3 after 5 starts with a 3.81 ERA. Kyle has had some tough luck getting little help from the offense with 2 losses coming from scores of 1-3 and 3-4. WHIP of 1.3 and batters are hitting .267 against him. Kyle made 12 starts as a freshman and ended the season with a 5.60 ERA.

David Benson (Sr., RH) is a VCU newcomer and gets the ball on Sunday. He is 1-1 with a 2.25 ERA after 4 starts and 1 relief appearance. David has 30 strikeouts in 24 innings pitched and batters are hitting .250 against him. One of his no-decisions came in a 6 inning outing against Longwood where he allowed only 3 hits, no runs, 1 walk and 9 K's. His only loss came against James Madison where he went 6 innings and allowed only 2 runs off 7 hits and 2 walks. David seems to be the most talented starter the Panthers will face.

The Rams have a steady group of relievers in the fact that none of them have had a mound meltdown this season. About half the group has given up around an inning per outing, a quarter given up more and the other quarter given up less. They can throw some good pitchers out but none have proven to be shut down pitchers so runs can be scored late. Chris Shaklee is the exception here. He has 9 appearance with 15.1 innings pitched and he's allowed 4 runs (2 earned) off 12 hits and 7 walks. He has a WHIP of near 1.3. (This brings me back to my point about Will Campbell having a very low WHIP for a starter)

GSU at the Plate: The Panthers come into the series batting .317 with most starters above the .300 mark. Over the winning streak, the team BA has raised by 45 points from .272. Brett Maxwell and Brandon Williams are over the .400 mark at .429 and .407 respectively. Ryan Fleming continues to be the home run (5) and RBI (26) leader. Most of the lineup is hot right now so they'll be a good test for VCU's pitching staff. The team is scoring 7.6 runs per game. (I'm keeping this section short going forward since it's typically covered several times per week and I repeat most of what's said here.)

GSU on the Mound:


Aidan Francis (Sr., LH) gets the start in the series opener with a 3-0 record and a 4.91 ERA. Francis has faced some high-powered offenses with success against Mercer, Georgia Tech and Murray State so I don't expect him to have many issues against VCU. He's given up 5 of the staff's 8 home runs but considering who he has faced, it's not a concern in this game given VCU's lack of power. He's pitched 25.2 innings in his 5 starts and batters are .277 against him. He has allowed 9 walks and recorded 20 strikeouts. WHIP of 1.4.

Charley Olson (Sr., RH) will oppose Kyle Haynes on Saturday. Charley is 2-2 in 4 starts with a 3.51 ERA. Charley has an almost identical stat line as Francis beyond the record and ERA. Same innings pitched 25.2, same batting average against at .277, same WHIP at 1.4 and he has 2 more strikeouts on the season with 22. His last start came against Murray State where he pitched 6 innings and allowed only 2 runs.

Justin Malone (Jr., RH) gets the series wrap-up on Sunday. He enters the game with a 4-0 record and a 3.00 ERA after 5 starts. Justin has a WHIP of 1.3 after 30 innings pitched and allowing 14 runs (10 earned) on 31 hits and 7 walks. As I said earlier, all three starters have a strike-to-walk ratio of 3:1 or better. Batters are hitting .279 against him which is virtually the same as Francis and Olson. Malone's last outing was against Murray State where he pitched 5.2 innings and allowed 4 runs on 8 hits.

The great thing about these 3 starters (and throw in Will and Nick for that matter) is you know what to expect when each one takes the mound. They have been consistently great all season for the Panthers. I really like the pitching match-ups here as I think it gives us the best chance for a 3-game sweep. VCU has relied upon their pitching to get to the record they have but they haven't faced pitching to our caliber yet. They played James Madison close and JMU has an inferior pitching staff to GSU and the gap isn't even close. The VCU batting lineup isn't dangerous enough to worry about any one of our starters allowing more than their typical run allowance unless one just has a bad day. We likely see the best pitching from VCU and the lowest scoring game from both sides on Sunday. I have all the confidence in the world right now in our relievers so it's tough to bet against us for a sweep unless the Panther offense falls out of their hitting streak (knocking on wood).

It looks like rain could be around Saturday and Sunday so let's hope that it stays away long enough to let us move to 6-0 in the CAA. GO PANTHERS!!!

Will Campbell is Too Much for the Owls, Panthers Win

Will Campbell was dealing last night

Photo Courtesy of GSU Sports Communications

The Panthers Move to 19-4 on the season as Will Campbell went 7.1 strong innings to down the Owls, Panthers winning 6-3.

The star of the game is undoubtedly Will Campbell. Will pitched with excellence like he has in every other game he's pitched this season. He allowed only 4 hits and 3 runs (2 coming after he left the game) walking just 2 batters and striking out 2. His WHIP (walks & hits per inning) is now down to .88 on the season and batters are hitting only .180 against him. Those are numbers you expect to see in a shut down 9th inning closer, not your starting pitcher. Will is now a CAA-leading 5-0 on the season with an ERA of 3.13. Jake Dyer entered in the bottom of the 8th with 1 out and runners on 1st and 2nd. He finished the game allowing 2 hits and a walk and he struck out three in the outing. Jake continues to impress on the mound.

The Panthers collected 13 hits and 5 walks at the plate off of 4 KSU pitchers. Mark Micowski continued his hot hitting going 3-for-6, scored twice and picked up his 5th steal. Micowski is now hitting .347 on the season. Rob Lind and Brandon Williams also had a 3-hit evening for the Panthers. Brandon has pulled his average up almost .100 over the past two weeks and Rob appears to have found his swing as he's working to get back near his 2010 batting performance. Despite the win, leaving men on base was an issue last night as 13 were left stranded.

The Panthers team batting average is now up to .317. This is a huge improvement over a couple weeks back when the team was well below .300. The Panthers pitching staff remains top in the CAA with a 3.53 ERA and 4.3 runs allowed per game.

Up next for the Panthers is fellow CAA member VCU. VCU is 7-12 on the season and brings an offense and pitching staff sitting near the middle of the pack in the CAA. I believe their record shows worse than the team actually is. We'll look at them more in depth in the series preview coming soon.

Updated: Economics of the NCAA Tournament - CAA Style

Here's our breakdown on this year's tournament from today's Richmond Times-Dispatch:

The Colonial Athletic Association will get a handsome check — a payday that could increase — with three teams in the NCAA tournament for the first time.

CAA commissioner Tom Yeager said the conference will get at least $750,000 — $250,000 for each team — from the NCAA for the next year six years for getting VCU, Old Dominion and George Mason into the tournament. Another $250,000 will be added for each win those teams accumulate. The NCAA bid means VCU will get at least $350,000 next year from the CAA under a complicated revenue-sharing formula.

The Rams received just under $200,000 this year, Yeager said. The conference gets a check from the NCAA each season based on its performances in the NCAA tournament the previous six years.

Forty percent of that goes into the CAA's "excellence pool," which is divvied up based on shares that teams accumulate. The other 60 percent is divided equally among the conference's 12 schools.

VCU's First Four win netted us an extra $11K last night.

Long story, short: Root for CAA teams!

Panthers Losing Streak Hits 3

Really tough night in Richmond.  VCU is playing like the best team in the CAA right now.  This one got ugly quick.

A few items to note:

-Our men's team left last Wednesday, to travel to Harrisonburg, VA after not being able to leave on Tuesday afternoon. Visiting teams do not get priority when it comes to gym time. Unless Coach Barnes and someone in the athletic department could find a HS gym to utilize (BTW, they are playing game right now too), the team likely did not do more than a walk through for the last 7 days.

-As I continue to say and people are getting more frustrated, we had 7 new players to our team and 6 of them are new to Division 1 basketball. Add Jamar Taylor to that and you now have 7 out of 12 players who have never played Division 1 basketball.

-As has been mentioned, this 6 game stretch post Towson was/is brutal. VCU has an RPI of 73. George Mason has an RPI of 64. James Madison is now at 66. These are the best teams in the best mid-major league in America.

-We are still without our starting PG. Injuries happen but we are more than competitive in each of these games and may have gotten 1 win on this 3 game trip with White in the lineup. We'll never know.

-Eric Buckner seems to have hit a wall. CAA Conference play is extremely physically challenging and he seems to have faded. I kept my mouth shut for a while about this fear because he was performing at such a high level. In the JUCO ranks, you'll likely have 3-4 days between games. That isn't the case in our league. He has put tremendous work in the weight room since arriving (he showed up at about 195lbs and now is 210 or so). When you are worn down, you don't play at a consistent level. I really hope getting back home and getting some semblance of normalcy will spark the team this weekend.

CAA Official Men's Basketball Preview

This gave me heartburn.  Some of the highlights (really shouldn't call them that):
-George Mason returns their entire starting lineup from 2009-10.  ODU and VCU return 4 out of 5 starters.  There's the Top 3 teams in the league for 2010-11.
-We do not return a single person in any major statistical category.  Again, not a good sign.
-The Preview:

Senior point guard Marques Johnson is Georgia State’s lone returning starter. The N.C. State transfer started 20 of the Panthers’ final 24 contests and was second on the team with 73 assists.


Junior guard Jihad Ali averaged 8.9 ppg and 3.6 rpg over GSU’s final nine games last season. He poured in a career-best 22 points in the Panthers’ 61-57 victory over George Mason, including the game-winning three pointer with 42 seconds left.


The Panthers face the difficult task of replacing their top five scorers from a year ago, who combined to average 47.2 ppg. GSU has added seven new players to this year’s roster, including three junior college transfers.
 
Ugh, more bad news considering we were one of the worst scoring teams in the conference.

CAA Link