Jim Swing
Sports Editor
The Commonwealth Times Sports’ Twitter
There’s a sign posted on the wall inside the VCU volleyball team’s locker room that reads “2011 CAA Champs.”
It’s not just there to gander at, dream about or even for superstitious value. And it’s partnered there with a key ingredient: building blocks.
Non-conference games are colored black, conference games gold and postseason white. After a win, a brick is added up toward the sign. After a loss, a brick is left out to show where mistakes were made.
It’s all part of seventh-year head coach James Finley’s plan to show his team how to structure a season around their ultimate goal.
“We did that to remind them,” Finley said, “that the preseason is building a foundation for the conference and the conference is building the foundation for the championships.”
“Our team loved it,” junior outside hitter Kristin Boyd said. “We didn’t know what it was about at first, but when he explained it we thought it was a really good idea because we could see where we are and what we need to work on, kind of just use it as motivation to get closer and closer to where we want to be.”
In 2010, Finley and his staff constructed one of the nation’s toughest schedules that included trips to national powers Kentucky, Penn State and Ohio State. The outcome resulted in a 4-15 out-of-conference mark that would deter most from taking a similar route the following season.
But Finley and his squad aren’t once bitten, twice shy.
A season later, their schedule is highlighted by the likes of 2010 NCAA quarterfinalist Purdue, as well as Maryland, Baylor, Michigan State and Wake Forest.
At the end of the 2010 season, Finley approached his players and asked them what they wanted him to do about this year’s schedule.
“Absolutely do not change it,” they said.
The battle-tested team now knows what it takes to win against some of the country’s best teams.
“They are excited about the schedule, and they are happy we didn’t change it,” Finley said. “So I think that’s good in that I have an expectation that we’re going to be successful in the preseason.”
Said Boyd: “We don’t want to get scraped, but I think we can play with them and learn a lot from playing the upper teams.”
When referring to the out-of-conference slate, which takes place mostly in the first half of the season, Finley labels it the “preseason.” Usually the high-level competition the Rams will wrangle with is best used in preparation for Colonial Athletic Association play.
But it can also be used to gain a bit of assurance come the end of the season.
If VCU can muster up a couple wins against a few quality opponents in its non-conference play, the pressure of winning in the CAA tournament could be relieved by the hopes of an at-large bid.
“Our ultimate goal,” Finley said, “is that we want to be at a place that in that last weekend when we play in the conference tournament, no matter what happens, we know we’re going to the NCAA tournament, and it doesn’t all come down to what happens in the last two days of the season.”
Every year Finley and his squad establish a goal of clinching an NCAA tournament berth and then making it to the Sweet 16.
Now that they know what it takes to win against high-caliber opponents, it will only take a couple building blocks.
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Photo by: Kyle LaFerriere/VCU Athletics