Shaka Smart reacts to “We want Reco” chants

Jim Swing
Sports Editor
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They can arrive anywhere between the halfway mark of the second half up until the final buzzer in a game when VCU is carrying a comfortable lead.

You can always feel when their about to arrive, then right on queue, “We want Reco,” chants blare from both student sections and occasionally the sections on the side.

The crooning is, of course, for Reco McCarter, VCU’s flashy redshirt freshman who doesn’t mind trying to pipe on an opponent in the final minutes of a game.

“I hear them every time,” Rams head coach Shaka Smart said. “I usually don’t hear the crowd and what they say but I guess by that point in the game when they’re saying Reco’s name.”

And the fans aren’t the only ones beckoning for McCarter to come onto the floor. The movement has stretched all the way to the VCU bench.

“Our guys are already on the bench, before the crowd is even saying anything, our guys have said ‘Put Reco in the game,'” Smart said. “Brad (Burgess) controls most of the substitutions more than anybody so…”

With just over three and a half minutes remaining in a game all but won against Towson Wednesday night, McCarter strolled out to midcourt waiting to be whistled into the game. He glanced up at the student section and shared a smile before entering the floor.

As if McCarter wasn’t already hyped up by fans, he made a routine pass around the perimeter followed by one student yelling “That was the best pass I’ve ever seen.”

A couple minutes later, the fans got what they bargained for. McCarter grabbed a steal and took it the length of the court for a two-handed jam, bringing the crowd to its feet. Smart had to have been frightened by the possibilities of McCarter with the ball in his hands in the open court. But in the end, the coach was delighted to see a player who receives lesser minutes get time.

“I hear them and we got him there and he had a great breakaway dunk,” Smart said. “The guy works his butt off in practice so it’s good to be able to put some of those guys in the game that don’t typically get as many minutes.”