Why doesn’t VCU have Midnight Madness? Shaka Smart has the answer

Jim Swing
Sports Editor
Commonwealth Times’ Sports Twitter

So far this preseason, Shaka Smart has placed a large emphasis on moving forward from last year’s accomplishments.

Every time the words “Final Four” are mentioned in a question or comment, he sheds a look that seems to say “Not again.”

It’s not that the third-year men’s basketball coach wants to forget them, but he doesn’t want his team to get caught looking in the rearview mirror too often.

So, when asked why the team doesn’t have a “Midnight Madness” style preseason celebration event as many schools do, Smart said it’s not the time or place.

“A lot of schools do it, it’s exciting, you’re able to celebrate the last year,” he said. “But there’s a time and a place for that I think, and for me, the first day of practice is not the time and the place here at VCU.”

Schools in the CAA such as George Mason, Towson and Drexel all have events planned surrounding the start of the basketball season, but for Smart and company the focus is on getting down to business.

“It’s been brought up,” Smart said. “We could do it here but to be honest we just want to get to work. We want to practice, we want to get in the gym and improve at what we need to improve at.”

Smart isn’t foreign to the idea of a preseason function. When he was an assistant coach at Clemson, the team opened practice for fans to come and watch the team scrimmage prior to the season.

“I’ve been at some schools in the past where we’ve done a Midnight Madness sort of thing,” Smart said. “It’s okay, but from a team standpoint, you don’t get a whole lot out of it in terms of improving, and a big challenge for us is obviously going to be moving on from last year and focusing on this year’s team and the best way I know how to do that is lock the doors at the Franklin Street gym and get to work.”