The Rams can beat the Blue Devils

VCU Rams senior guard B.A. Walker

While I don’t want to say that VCU is a better basketball team than Duke, every day of the week, or that you should bet the farm the Rams will beat the Blue Devils on Thursday night. But if I had to wager $100 of your money on this game, I’d take the 6½ points VCU is getting.

On top of that, this year’s VCU team is good enough to beat this year’s Duke team, maybe four out of ten times. And, this time around the Rams may well be more motivated than their opponents.

The Rams guards are smart and versatile enough. They are quick and athletic enough. They are more experienced -- Duke doesn’t have savvy seniors like B.A. Walker and Jesse Pellot-Rosa. Sophomore Eric Maynor, the Rams point guard, may actually be a better pro prospect than any of the Blue Devils guards.

OK. Duke may be stronger inside than the Rams, at least on paper. But so was Drexel. So were other teams that totally wilted under the pressure VCU can put on the ballhandler. In the ACC nobody plays a full-court press quite like VCU does.

Photo: SLANT