VCU's Sanders had his guard up

By: | Richmond Times Dispatch
Published: March 09, 2009

VCU's Sanders had his guard up

Larry Sanders didn't guard Gerald Lee the last time Virginia Commonwealth and Old Dominion met. Lee, the Monarchs' all-CAA 6-10 forward, had 18 points in ODU's 69-65 victory.

So Sanders approached VCU coach Anthony Grant before the game and said he wanted the assignment.

Lee had 30 points in the Monarchs' quarterfinal win. Bothered by the long-armed 6-10 Sanders and an ankle he sprained in the first half, he had five points in VCU's 61-53 victory in the Colonial Athletic Association semifinals yesterday.

Lee was 1 of 7 from the field.

"By watching his film, a lot of players give him angles to the basket, and he goes up and finishes," Sanders said. "I just tried to get my body between him and the basket. He's very skilled."

Lee said his ankle injury got stiff at halftime and was painful. "It was very tough," he said. "They have good defense and good defensive players. Give all the credit to them. They played good defense tonight."

Rodriguez finds range with big 3-pointer

Joey Rodriguez is VCU's top 3-point shooter. The 5-10 sophomore guard hits 41.5 percent from behind the arc.

But he was 0 for 5 - 0 for 7 overall - and getting frustrated, especially after missing everything on a 15-footer.

"I was like, 'Geez, I shot a 15-foot airball,'" Rodriguez said. "On three of my misses, Larry dunked them, so I was like hey, it's a sense."

Rodriguez finally made a shot - at just the right moment. With 2:57 left, he nailed a 3-pointer that gave the Rams a nine-point lead.

"Thank God," he said. "I looked up the air like, 'Thank you.' It was a great one to hit."

Eric Maynor walked over the Rodriguez and gave him a pat on the head."I told him, 'That's the one we needed,'" Maynor said. "When he missed the air ball, he ran up to me and said, 'Man, I can't make a shot.' I've been in situations like that. You've got to keep shooting."

Life's hard in the post

Old Dominion coach Blaine Taylor would like to see the physical nature of post play change. In Taylor's opinion, the way to do that is to officiate the game in the paint the same way the game is officiated on the perimeter.

He made that point after watching his 6-10 forward Gerald Lee absorb a number of blows in the CAA tournament.

"One of the inequities in college basketball, and basketball in general, is the protection the guard gets vs. the big guy," Taylor said. "Guards get hand-checked, the whistle blows. Big guys have got to be really tough. "Gerald got hit in the head 15 times yesterday [Saturday], and he's got to show up today.

"A guard gets hand-checked and everybody goes "oooh"."It's difficult for big kids to survive what they have to endure because the other team's strategy is to take a guy and say foul him as much as you can and hope they don't call it."

- Tim Pearrell and Paul Woody