Originally Posted by mlmpetert
Yeah i think you were saying VT should have gotten the nod over VCU? The VCU selection was definitely a stretch but I still think VT, even though a household name, from the ACC and with their upset against Duke, would have been more of a stretch. There was another team (maybe Colorado) that I thought would have been the more reasonable choice. I have no idea how selection committees work, but can you imagine the heat they felt from colleagues, followed by the you guys got lucky jokes? I would love to see the minutes or hear the rationale they had picking VCU over the more politically friendly choices. They had to know it was going to be a unpopular choice, maybe not to the extent it was, but still a unpopular choice.
I like FL a lot, and am very thankful for Billy Donovan. Shaka Smart, our current coach, was also one of his proteges. Smart’s coaching style is wreck havoc on defense and take a shot when you want to. Donovan uses a press a lot, Grant uses/used it more than Donovan, but no one uses it more the Smart. Its aggressive hard defense the whole time with VCU. It catches teams off guard, wears them out and allows Davids to beat Goliaths. I think we’ll start to see it spread through the NCAA simply because of the success its given VCU over big programs for the last 5+ years. If youre a smaller program in a big conference, like VT, youd be foolish not to use it. As long as you have a athletic bench youre good.
Im not a big fan of Smart’s offensive philosophy which is basically shoot if youre feeling it. When we are up by 8 have 3 minutes left and our guard takes a shot from 4 feet behind the 3 point line with 25+ seconds left on the shot clock you cringed. But everyone says this is part of what helps us get a lot of highly ranked recruits. We let players play and develop their own game, win & have fun and let them try to make a name for themselves so they can go to Europe or maybe even the NBA when their done here.
Something else I don’t like is that we rarely set up and look to work down low even though we have 2 sophomores that could become really good. DJ Haley is a athletic 7 foot true center, that’s also American (kind of rare for mid majors). Im a little worried about his hands and overall strength, but he was highly prized and could be good. He’s supposed to be really smart and choose VCU because of a unique engineering program we have. Javonte Reddic is a 6-9 forward who plays more of a 4 but can shoot and is versatile enough to play the 3. He reminds me a lot of Jamie Skeen.
Im not hating on Smart, I just liked Grant’s style of coaching a little more. But Smart is apparently genius smart, works hard as hell and has a great track record. Its pretty easy to put a lot of faith and trust into people like that, so I am, along with everyone else down here, 100% behind him.
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