Sweet 16 NCDS: Will Wade, Asst. Coach - VCU

It has been one incredible week so far.  As I write this, we are on the plane en route to San Antonio, Texas to take on the Florida State Seminoles in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.  It is hard to believe that we are really about to play on this kind of stage, but we are elated and know that we have been very fortunate and that our guys have earned every bit of this opportunity.  The past few days have been a whirlwind so let me fill you in on what has taken place so far on this wild ride.

Just 10 days ago, we were sitting in our office on Sunday afternoon playing the waiting game – we were on the bubble (barely) of getting into the NCAA Tournament.  It was uncertain whether or not we would be selected to participate in March Madness.  We had not finished the regular season very strong as we lost 4 of our last 5 games leading up to the CAA Tournament.  As the four seed, we made a strong showing in the conference tournament (beating some teams that had just beaten us the week before) and lost in the conference final in a hard fought game against Old Dominion.  Would this resume be attractive enough to get into the Big Dance? We didn’t know and didn’t get our hopes up.  We emphasized that there was a very slim chance (mainly resting on Jerry Palm’s bracketology predictions) that we would be in the NCAA’s; otherwise, just get ready to win some games in the NIT fellas.

So you can imagine the surprise, excitement, and pure elation that erupted when we saw “VCU” on the selection show in one of the First Four games in Dayton, Ohio.  I wish we could pull the surveillance camera footage of the chaos that ensued in the hallways…..absolute happiness!   As a coach, this is one of the times when you realize that all your hard work is paying off.  What a great reward and opportunity for our team.  Let’s make the most of it.

After we settled down and went back to the brackets to see who had been announced as our opponent (did not gather that information at first glance as you could imagine),the mad scramble that is NCAA Tournament preparation begun with travel plans and scouting our PAC-10 opponent USC.  We found that they had twin towers in Nikola Vucevic and Alex Stepheson and who, with talented guards, posed a formidable challenge for our team.  But our team was motivated by much more than just playing a BCS conference team in the NCAA Tournament.  Our guys were out to prove some people wrong.

If you did not catch the selection analysis that ensued on Selection Sunday, the college basketball “experts” at ESPN and other places spent literally 30 minutes giving reasons on why we should not be included in this years’ field of 68 teams.  Every reason imaginable was brought up and by the end of the program, one might be led to believe that we didn’t belong.  We were out to prove otherwise.

Our team came out with a chip on their shoulder which translated to great defensive intensity from the get go against USC.  We held them to just 22 points in the first half and although we were not making many shots ourselves, this was a big step for us.  Our defense was not predicated on our offensive performance.  Whether or not we made shots was not determining if we sat down and guarded on the other end.  Rather, we were getting stops no matter what and that is what it was going to take to win.  We came out with a 59 – 46 victory and boarded the plane that night to head to the United Center in Chicago to take on the 6 seed Georgetown from the Big East.  It was Head Coach Shaka Smart’s first tournament victory and VCU’s first win since 2007 and we were excited to play another game against a big time opponent.

Georgetown’s style of play is not like ours at VCU.  John Thompson III has done a great job implementing his Princeton-style offense and has talented players that can break from the pattern to go get a bucket when necessary.  They love to be physical and grind out the game on the defensive end of the floor.  Chris Wright also made his return to playing (injured his hand) in our game and Austin Freeman and crew had survived a rugged Big East schedule.  This game presented a clash of styles – HAVOC of VCU versus the methodical Hoyas.

The defensive end of the floor was once again the key for the Rams.  We held Georgetown to 38% shooting and came out with a 74 – 56 win on Friday night.  It didn’t hurt that Senior guard Brandon Rozzell went off and had six 3-pointers and finished with 26 points and our offense was clicking on all cylinders.  We found a bit of a groove and were so excited to get the win.  It seemed just like icing on the cake, but we were (and are) not done yet.

All the experts that had given every reason in the world why we should not have made it now seemed to be changing their tune slightly (one would think).  Still the naysayers remained as we marched on to face Purdue on Sunday evening in Chicago for a chance to advance to the Sweet 16.  Purdue featured the tandem of prolific scorers in E’Twaun Moore and JaJuan Johnson, both All-Americans, as well as a bevy of complimentary players that had a motion-style offensive scheme and pressure oriented half court defensive game plan.  But we stuck to our game plan that Coach Smart had given the team before the start of the tournament.  Three words – Aggressive, Confident, Loose.  Aggressive in our full court pressure and half court defense – finishing everything with a rebound.  Aggressive on offense as well – attacking off ball screens and finishing at the rim.  Confidence shows in knocking down shots inside and from 3, in the half court and transition as well as our demeanor on the court, knowing that we belong and can play with anyone.  Loose means just to go out there and play your game and enjoy the whole experience – live in the moment because every second is so special and a ton of fun.  Our team took this approach to knock off Purdue 94–76 and advance to VCU’s first ever Sweet 16.

We thought that when we got back to Richmond we could settle down and prepare for our next game just like we always do but we were a bit mistaken.  The media attention brought on this team has been unbelievable and the college basketball world seems to have descended on Richmond, Virginia.  It felt like Coach Smart did phone interviews all day Monday and I know our players, especially our Seniors, had quite the media obligations themselves.  Our SID Scott Day did a great job handling all of the requests and making sure everything went smoothly.  Praise from the media is great but we have to be careful not to get a big head.  We realized that the same people who are patting everyone on their back for a great job this past week were some of the same people who were grilling us after our skid late in the regular season and even criticized us after we were selected for the NCAA Tournament.   We reminded our team of this at practice both yesterday and today to make sure that we still had the correct approach for this upcoming weekend.  We had great practices during our few days in Richmond and we expect our team to continue to be focused on the game at hand and to stay aggressive, confident and loose.

We are going to approach this game against Florida State with the same focus we have had for the past week.  FSU has a very long and athletic team who has had great success defensively this season holding opponents to the lowest field goal percentage in the nation this year.  It will be great to be a part of such an exciting Sweet 16 matchup.  Our fans have been great in traveling and supporting the VCU Rams so far this postseason and I’m sure that the Ram faithful with come out with a strong showing in San Antonio.  Many thanks to everyone who has supported us thus far and hopefully we can keep it rolling in the games to come.

GO RAMS!

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