Lewis finds his role in VCU’s lineup

By PAUL GOTHAM

There’s no questioning the correlation between the VCU Rams current 10-game winning streak and the improved play of JeQuan Lewis.

The junior point guard leads his team (15-5/7-0) with 99 total assists (more than double Melvin Johnson‘s 46 – the Rams second leading assist man). Over the last month Lewis is doing it with more control.

“He’s certainly playing lights out right now,” first year VCU coach Will Wade said during the Atlatnic 10’s weekly tele-conference. “We need him to continue that if we’re going to keep progressing as a team.”

For the season, Lewis averages five assists a game to three turnovers. Since the North Florida game on December 30th he has cut those miscues to almost two a game, and handed out more than half (50) of his assists this season in those eight contests.

Last week, Lewis handed out a total of 15 assists with just one turnover in wins over Duquesne (93-71) and St. Bonaventure (84-76). He also scored 37 points and grabbed four steals.

The combined 13 turnovers in back-to-back games earlier this season seem like a distant memory.

“It just takes some time to get a great feel for the point guard position and for exactly what your head coach wants and what your teammates dictate,” Wade added.  “It’s also just a light that understands you got to prepare the right way. When you study the game, study your opponents and prepare the right way, good things typically happen to you.”

Per KenPom, Lewis ranks 57th in the nation with an assist rate (a percentage of assists to team baskets scored while the player is on the floor) of 32.9. To put this into context, Briante Weber‘s best assist rate in a VCU uniform was 31.9.

“JeQuan is just playing with so much more confidence right now,” Duquesne head coach Jim Ferry stated. “I think it took him a little while maybe to make the adjustment to a new coach or a different style.”

Lewis needed just four shots to finish with 11 points while handing out eight assists in the win over Duquesne. KenPom scored the effort with a 182 offensive rating (an estimate of points produced by the player if there were 100 possessions). Oklahoma’s Buddy Hield leads the nation with an overall ORtg of 124.7.

“He had great control over our game, and he was just so quick and so difficult to contain off the dribble. He was the most important player in that game, just getting everybody involved. I just thought he looked more comfortable and playing with great confidence. When he’s like that, he’s breaking people down their offense becomes a little bit easier for themselves.”

He followed that performance with 26 points on 8-of-15 shooting to go with seven assists and zero turnovers in the win over St. Bonaventure.

“Seven assists, no turnovers and 26 points you can’t play better than that,” St. Bonaventure’s Mark Schmidt commented. “He really was the engine. He made them go. He played with a lot of confidence. He shot the ball well from beyond the arc. He got into the paint.

“He presents a lot of problems. When he plays well, VCU is that much better. He’s got the ball in his hands most of the time and is making good decisions. When he’s scoring the way he scored against us, they’re hard to beat.”

Lewis averages 10.8 points on the season to go 1.6 steals.

VCU travels to play at Davidson on Friday night. The 6 p.m. broadcast will be carried on ESPN2.