Smart keeps calm and carries on
VCU didn’t have the best shooting night versus St. Francis Friday, and that’s putting it as kindly as can be.
Shaka Smart said he tried to remain "patient, I guess is the right word," during VCU's narrow win over St. Francis (Pa.).
Adam Stern
Executive Editor
Commonwealth Times Sports’ Twitter
VCU didn’t have the best shooting night versus St. Francis Friday, and that’s putting it as kindly as can be.
Bradford Burgess was 0-12, which marked only the seventh game of what is now a 111-game, four-year collegiate career in which he hasn’t scored a field goal. Troy Daniels was money from downtown when he needed to be, but missed 10 other behind-the-arc attempts throughout the game. And, in general, VCU’s offense just didn’t overwhelm.
But throughout the entirety of VCU’s 63-57 win over St. Francis, head coach Shaka Smart remained his calm— and it wasn’t a mistake.
“I try to really remain patient, I guess is right word,” Smart said. “Because with a young team, there will be mistakes and some growing pains and that will be for a while, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be a really good team.
“You just have to understand young guys will have certain lapses that other guys didn’t have. And that’s okay.”
With the 10th youngest squad out of over some 330 teams in Division I, Smart understood that growing pains were inevitable Friday night. Now, he’s just looking to improve from the situation.
“As long as we return to the practice foor with a renewed sense of what we need to improve on, we’ll watch the tape, and I think we’ll be able to move forward,” Smart said. “The next time we play, we’ll have to be better; that’s okay (because) we can be better and we will be better.”
—
Photo by Chris Conway
