Ahead of the pack: men’s basketball buyant about conference-opening victory

Adam Stern
Sports Editor

Never look back.

That was the message VCU second-year head coach Shaka Smart aspired to instill in his players in the locker room following their tough, grind-it-out victory over William & Mary in the CAA’s first weekend of conference action.

The match – a 59-55 win which was only secured in the final seconds of the second half – came with a noon tip-off time while all other games in the conference started later on in the afternoon, and thus was the first game to go final in the CAA this season. So, with his team all alone atop the leader boards for just a few hours, Smart decided to utilize the schedule quirk to deliver his team a meaningful message.

“After the game I told the team … we’re all alone in first place right now,” Smart said. “Obviously after tonight they’ll be six teams tied [at 1-0] but I told the team … were by ourselves in first place and that’s where we want to be in early March.”

The message seemed to rub off; when junior guard Bradford Burgess limped into his post-game press conference, he repeated to assembled media what we his coaches had told him minutes earlier.

“I guess we’re in first place right now since we were the only game at 12,” Burgess said with a laugh.

But, particularly for a team that began last season’s conference slate with a loss, how important is getting off on the right foot really?

“Its real important man,” Burgess said. “Either your 0-1 or 1-0 for about a month so it’s just real important game.”

It was a game that VCU hardly dictated, though. The Rams’ trademark, hyper-intense system had to be shelved for the afternoon as William & Mary utilized a perplexing zone that reduced VCU to mostly contested three-point attempts and were able to crack the Rams’ defensive press persistently on the other end.

The statistics backed it up. The Tribe held a commanding 25-11 rebounding advantage at half time and had reduced the Rams to 33 percent shooting.
Indeed, it seemed to be the finest formula for Tribe head coach Tony Shaver and his team if they wanted to walk out of the Siegel Center with a victory for what would have been only the second time ever. But, even with the loss, Shaver took solace in the way his team played.

“We haven’t brought a team here who played this well (in a while),” Shaver said. “We’ve had some pretty good teams who have come here and gotten pounded.”

The Rams have now won 16 of the past 18 meetings between the two schools, although it’s worth pointing out that the Tribe’s two wins have come in the past three years.

They’ve also now proven that they can win when not playing their best or not being able to utilize their usual style of play. In addition, they’ve begun to prove they have what it takes when the going gets tough.

We want to play fast … but we understand later in the season we’ll have to dig in and play defense in the half court and win these games in the 50s and 60s,” freshman guard Rob Brandenburg said. “So this win tells you ‘you can do it’ (when the situation occurs again) later on in the season.”