“In today's [Friday] practice we avoided any contact for the first time all year. We basically reviewed our offenses, reviewed our defensive coverages, talked a little bit about [Saturday's opponent] Virginia Union and got lots of shots up.

“We're really getting to the point where we're starting to understand what we want to do offensively. We talked our way through a lot of the set things and then also a lot of the motion we're trying to run.

“I think we'll review some of the things from last year's [Union] game at tomorrow morning's shoot-a-round. And then assume our game day routine in preparation for our big exhibition game, which as I said before, will be a good measuring stick for exactly how we are. We'll probably play it more like a regular season game with our substitution pattern and so forth---more like a true game rather than what we did against New Zealand in our first exhibition.”

Mack's Minutes will continue until the season begins. Fans can keep up with VCU basketball during the season through the weekly practice reports and Cantafio's Corner - an inside look at VCU basketball from Director of Basketball Operations: Joe Cantafio. Also don't miss the RamBeat exclusively on the VCU Rams website. If you have a question for Coach McCarthy, e-mail it to sid@vcu.edu and he will answer it on the next RamBeat.