By PAUL GOTHAM
Mo Alie-Cox may qualify as a role player when it comes to offensive touches, but make no mistake the VCU center is the long arm of the law when it comes to influence on the court.
On a team ranked top 20 in the nation for steals, Alie-Cox provides rim protection. His 9.38 block percentage (metric that estimates the percentage of 2-points a player blocks while on the court) finds the 6-foot-7 senior at 32nd in the nation per KenPom, but those numbers don’t tell the whole story.
“A lot of things he does don’t show up in the box score,” George Washington coach Maurice Joseph said during the weekly Atlantic 10 tele-conference. “He does a tremendous job of not allowing bigs to post up and get deep post position. He’s making guys post up eight, nine feet away from the basket. He changes a bunch of shots at the rim that doesn’t show up in the box score. He’s a defensive presence.”
Despite getting touches on less than 20 percent of VCU’s possessions (the definition of a role player per KenPom), Alie-Cox is second on the Rams logging more than 26 minutes (64.2 percent) per game.
“He does a good job of guarding in ball screen coverages as well for a big guy,” Joseph added. “He moves his feet well. He’s tremendous player. He’s their rock or anchor defensively.”
In VCU’s 14-point victory over Davidson (a single-possession game at halftime) this past weekend, Alie-Cox collected two blocks in the second half and connected on all four of his shot attempts in the final 20 minutes. But his biggest contribution was as part of a trio of Rams who held Peyton Aldridge to six points on 2-of-13 shooting including one of five from behind the arc.
“He has a presence any time the ball gets to the paint,” Davidson coach Bob McKillop stated. “Somehow he finds a way, an alertness that he’s able to fulfill his responsibility in defending Peyton Aldridge at the arc but still put himself in position to make a block. He made a couple of pivotal blocks on Saturday night.”
VCU hosts Saint Joseph’s Tuesday night. Hawks coach Phil Martelli doesn’t need an introduction. Alie-Cox pasted a 14-spot on the eventual Atlantic 10 champs a year ago, a game in which the Alexandria, VA native hit six of seven on the night and scored eight straight in the final 2:11 of the game to help erase a five-point deficit in an 85-82 VCU win.
“He’s the sheriff at both ends of the floor,” Martelli said. “Mo Alie-Cox has taken one shot all year outside the lane. One shot! He probably warms up just shooting layups, and nobody does that anymore. Everybody’s got to run to the three-point line.
“He doesn’t crack a smile and that fierce looking build and the scowl. He’s the ultimate competitor. They get it. They’ve put him in position to say this is what you do, and they’re allowing him to excel at what he does. There’s no confusion with him. There’s no confusion that this is his game and without gyrations and banging of chests and all that kind of thing he seems to relish the idea of ‘I own this lane, and I own it at both ends of the floor.'”
Alie-Cox averages 10.2 points on 6.6 attempts per game. He connects on 56.6 percent of his shot attempts. He grabs 4.2 rebounds.
VCU’s steal percentage of 11.6 is good for 15th in the nation. The Rams collect 8.1 thefts per contest. West Virginia leads the nation at 11.1.
VCU and Saint Joseph’s tip off at 6 pm. CBS Sports Network will televise the game.
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