Vols tangle with Rams to begin season

Nov 14, 2014 - 5:02 PM Annapolis, MD (SportsNetwork.com) - A pair of 2014 NCAA Tournament squads will tip off the new campaign on a neutral court on Friday night, as the 15th- ranked Virginia Commonwealth Rams take on the Tennessee Volunteers as part of the Veterans Classic.

The Volunteers showed improvement in each of their three seasons under Cuonzo Martin, with the 2013-14 campaign the program's best since 2009-10, but Martin's 24-13 record with the Vols and the team's improbable Sweet 16 run allowed him to get poached away by Cal in the offseason. Donnie Tyndall, who has registered five 20-win campaigns in the past six seasons with Southern Miss and Morehead State, is the new head coach.

VCU has established itself as one of the nation's most consistent programs in five seasons under Shaka Smart, and the 2013-14 campaign was no different as it went 26-9 overall and 12-4 in the Atlantic 10. The Rams have made several deep runs in the NCAA Tournament in recent years as a Cinderella story, but last March it played the favorite in the second round as a No. 5 seed only to be upset by No. 12 seed Stephen F. Austin, 77-75 in overtime.

Tennessee has beaten VCU in all four previous meetings, most recently in November of 2010, 77-72.

Tyndall takes over a Vols team that outscored opponents by 10.5 ppg but will have to move on from four starters - Jordan McRae (18.7 ppg), Jarnell Stokes (15.1 ppg, 10.6 rpg), Jeronne Maymon (9.7 ppg, 8.1 rpg) and Antonio Barton (7.5 ppg). Josh Richardson (10.3 ppg) is the lone experienced player left. Graduate transfer Ian Chiles scored 15.8 ppg for IUPUI last season. Dominic Woodson (6-10, 280), a transfer from Memphis, was ruled eligible to play right away.

The Rams will need to overcome the loss of two key performers - Juvonte Reddic (11.8 ppg, 8.4 rpg) and Rob Brandenberg (9.6 ppg) - but the deep team welcomes back plenty of talent to ensure its status as one of the nation's best. Treveon Graham (15.8 ppg, 7.0 rpg) was the team's most effective performer a season ago and is expected to compete for A-10 Player of the year. Briante Weber (9.4 ppg, 3.9 apg) is an elite perimeter defender with an incredible 3.5 steals per game. Melvin Johnson (10.4 ppg) made good on nearly 40 percent of his 3-point attempts. Mo Alie-Cox (3.3 ppg) and Jordan Burgess (4.9 ppg, 2.6 bpg) are likely to see a big increase in minutes this season.