With the Friday night win over Bethune-Cookman, VCU kicked off coach Shaka Smart’s coaching career with an impressive win and sent a message to its fans that this could be a fun season in Richmond.
It is an old coach’s adage: “whatever your next game is, that’s the biggest game of the season.” However, in my opinion, we will find out more about this team in Wednesday night’s game at Western Michigan than we will in any other game in the non-conference portion of the season.
For one, it is on the road where the merit of an inexperienced, although talented group of guards will be seriously tested and the ability of a young head coach to keep his team sane will be the focal point-particularly when the opponent is not a push over.
The Rams did beat the Broncos in Richmond last year by a score of 79-62. But those were two very different teams in a different venue.
Although Western Michigan was 10-21 last season, they play in a conference that is on the level of the CAA and have one of the top players VCU will see this season in David Kool.
Kool was named to the collegeinsider.com preseason All-American list, much like VCU’s Larry Sanders. He is a deadly outside shooter and has the ability to take over a game.
With the talent level and the road venue on the mind, there is one more reason why this could be a very difficult game for VCU-the fact that just four days later, Jeff Capel and his Oklahoma Sooners are coming to the capital city.
If you’re keeping score at home, that is the same Jeff Capel that led VCU to a CAA title and recruited Eric Maynor to be a Ram.
The idea that the biggest game in the history of the Siegel Center is the next game would scare me as a VCU fan. Western Michigan is good enough to get us if we are staring into our crystal ball.
If the Rams are able to focus and play well, they should crush Western Michigan-don’t get me wrong . VCU is the much better team. This win will be a good tune-up before the Sooners, Boomer their way on into Richmond.
Let’s just hope coach Smart can keep his guys as hungry as they looked in Friday nights’ opener-because VCU will be tough to beat if they play that way.