VCU defeats Florida Atlantic 66-46 for their 4th Straight victory (12-15-21)
By: Tyrone Montgomery Jr.
Headline Photo Credit: Darrell Owens-LMS Network
Many people would say one of the most beautiful places in the world is the Bahamas. I went there on my honeymoon, and I didn’t want to come back home. It was like paradise and now I can see why people refer to it as Paradise Island. When VCU went to the Bahamas for the Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament, they finished with a record of 1-2. While they failed to obtain a winning record on Paradise Island, they did manage to find something better than a few regular season victories. What they managed to acquire was chemistry. They gained confidence. Beating a school like Syracuse was huge for the Rams. They found a rhythm offensively. And now VCU seems to be shining like gold.
When the Rams started their season, their defense was lethal as usual. Havoc has and will always be the defensive mentality for VCU. That half-court trap makes up for the lack of offense that sometimes isn’t being produced. Guys like Jayden Nunn and Keshawn Curry have been finding their groove. Even the big man, Levi Stockard lll has been finding his strides. A large part of this acceleration of offense is because of a guy named Ace Baldwin. In the game of basketball nowadays, offense matters. Defense is a forgotten thing at times, and if you can’t score, you don’t belong on the floor and you won’t get many minutes at all. You can ask Ben Simmons over in Philadelphia about that. Remember Andre Roberson over in OKC? He’s nowhere to be found now. Just the other night, an offensive scoring record was broken. Steph Curry officially became the Greatest Shooter of ALL TIME, surpassing Ray Allen on most 3’s made currently at 2,977 and counting. Everyone wants to score now. Everyone wants to make a jump shot, particularly a 3-point jump shot. The bottom line is not everyone is gifted to be great scorers. Not everyone can shoot off the dribble. VCU has moved on to find their 4th victory in a row defeating the Owls 66-46 improving to 7-4 on the season.
They are red hot and a large part of that is because of Ace Baldwin. Ace isn’t a one-trick pony. He can score too. But what stands out the most with Ace is his leadership on the court. He is a true floor general that will find his teammates and make them better. There were a lot of alley-oops in this game from the Rams. There were also just a lot of easy looks as Ace was able to help his teammates find easy opportunities to score at the basket. But Ace also looks to score when he has to as well. Ace has been successful in creating easy scoring opportunities for this VCU Rams team and that has been huge for this program. The offense looks different when he’s off the floor. Ace Baldwin Jr. may be one of the most selfless players in the country. He has a veteran mentality when it comes to winning and playing the game of basketball. Look for VCU to continue trending upward as they will host Penn State this Saturday at 3:30 PM.
