The 2020–21 VCU Rams men's basketball team represented Virginia Commonwealth University during the 2020–21 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. Their head coach was Mike Rhoades, in his fourth year as VCU head coach. The team played their home games at the Siegel Center in Richmond, Virginia, as a member of the Atlantic 10 Conference. In a season limited due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, they finished the season 19–7, 10–4 in A-10 play to finish in second place. The Rams defeated Dayton and Davidson in the A-10 tournament before losing to St. Bonaventure in the championship. They received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament as the No. 10 seed in the West region. Their game against Oregon in the first round was ruled a no-contest due to positive COVID-19 tests in the VCU program, thus ending their season and making VCU the first team ever to forfeit a game in the NCAA tournament.
Previous season The Rams finished the 2019–20 season 18–13, 8–10 in A-10 play to finish in a tie for eighth place. As the No. 8 seed in the A-10 tournament, they were to play UMass in the second round, but the tournament was canceled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
VCU began the season with a 6–0 record for the first time in program history, and were ranked as high as 20th in the nation. The Rams finished the season with a 2–7 record in their final nine games.
Offseason
Departures Name Number Pos. Height Weight Year Hometown Notes 0 G 190 Eutawville, South CarolinaGraduated 1 G/F 210 Richmond, VirginiaGraduated 2 G 190 Chesapeake, VirginiaGraduated 13 G 190 LaPlace, LouisianaGraduated 14 F 250 Taunton, Massachusetts Graduate transferred to Texas Tech 23 F 200 Bridgeport, ConnecticutGraduated
Incoming transfers Name Number Pos. Height Weight Year Hometown Notes 34 C 240 Baltimore, Maryland Transferred from Coppin State 35 F 245 St. Louis, Missouri Transferred from Kansas State
2020 recruiting class
2021 Recruiting class
Preseason
Atlantic 10 media poll The Atlantic 10 men's basketball media poll was released on November 9, 2020. VCU was picked to finish ninth.
A10 Preseason Poll1Richmond (19)2Saint Louis (7)3Dayton (2)4St. Bonaventure5Duquesne6Rhode Island7Davidson8UMass9VCU10 George Mason11George Washington12Saint Joseph's13La Salle14Fordham
Roster
Depth chart
Suspension of Jimmy Clark III On February 3, 2021, in a post-game conference, head coach Mike Rhoades said that Jimmy Clark III was absent for the Rams' game against Rhode Island due to a "university suspension." Rhoades then said that he would "leave it at that" for the time being. On February 4, the university confirmed that Clark was no longer with the program, not giving more detail and indicating they were "not allowed to comment further on this matter."
Schedule and results VCU originally had games scheduled against Charlotte, Tennessee, and LSU that were canceled due to positive COVID-19 tests. Additionally, a game against Louisiana that was canceled due to NCAA scheduling limitations.
!colspan=12 style=| Non-conference regular season
!colspan=12 style=|Atlantic 10 regular season
!colspan=12 style=|Atlantic 10 tournament
!colspan=12 style=|NCAA tournament
Notes
Rankings
*AP does not release post-NCAA Tournament rankings
Statistics
Player 0 Jamir Watkins 9 0 15.4 .476 .357 .722 2.8 0.222 0.777 0.1117.0 1 Ace Baldwin Jr. 9 9 25.6 5.2 2 Mikeal Brown-Jones 9 0 9.9 .500 3.9 5 Bones Hyland 9 9 27.9 .444 18.2 10 Vince Williams Jr. 9 5 26.2 10.6 11 KeShawn Curry 5 4 24.6 9.4 12 Jimmy Clark III 9 0 16.6 6.9 13 Corey Douglas 9 9 20.4 5.8 15 Arnold Henderson 3 0 1.7 0.0 20 Hason Ward 9 0 16.6 5.4 21 Jarren McAllister 0 0 0.0 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.0000.0 33 Josh Banks 9 0 10.2 3.3 34 Levi Stockard 9 9 13.9 5.8 35 Brendan Medley 6 0 4.7 0.2
See also 2020–21 VCU Rams women's basketball team
References
Notes
External links VCU Basketball