VCU’s Fermin, Belle growing into roles ahead of Radford game [Video]

After sophomore forward Christian Fermin’s rebound and put-back gave VCU its first lead at 56-54 with about 7 minutes to play in Friday’s win over Samford, Fermin let out a roar toward the Siegel Center faithful, asking for more noise.

The high-motor post man appeared in just 14 games as a freshman with an average of 3.4 minutes per contest.

In that key moment on Friday, Fermin, who has started each of VCU’s first two games and against Samford played a career-high 24:27, said he was thinking about how far he’s come in such a short time.

And after the game, Fermin joined senior guard Zeb Jackson, redshirt-sophomore guard Jason Nelson and coach Ryan Odom in praising freshman wing Michael Belle, the second of Odom’s somewhat surprising starters to begin the year. 

“Right now, both of those guys (Fermin and Belle) have the opportunity to really continue to grow at a much faster rate than if they were backing someone up,” Odom said. 

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