Head Coach Job Openings List...

[Bulldawg]

We'll see who VCU gets to replace him. New coach can hopefully keep a recruit or two, if not it's open season. Tough night, but we've been through it before - just not with this much media.

Yes, the sad part is the kids who committed to VCU be uase they wanted to play for Smart. They will most likely lose some incoming recruits as well as current players. These things usually screw up a program for a couple of years.

Ask any Butler fan about it, we've been through the same thing. We had 5 transfers the year after Brad left for a reason, its tough when you lose an iconic coach.

[billyjack]

Yeah, i really wish he stayed with VCU. Sorry to hear that he's leaving.

[Gopher+RamFan]

As much as I don't trust Jerry Meyer, he's reporting Will Wade as VCU's top target. He was an assistant at VCU under Smart for four years, currently the coach of UT-Chattanooga. It wouldn't be a dazzling hire for the national media (neither was Shaka 6 years ago) but he's a great coach.

[Hoyas]

looks like Wade did a nice job with the Mocs. took a program that was 11-21 and 13-19 the 2 prior years and they now went 18-15 and 22-10 the last 2 years.

Considering VCU has coming back a Senior and 3 Juniors in the starting lineup- he probably helped recruit all of those kids. So would likely be a seamless transition.

[stever20]

will be really interesting to see how VCU fares going forward. If they can keep the talent, they are going to be tough.

[admin]

It's interesting to me that he left for Texas now when it seemed as though he had better offers last year. You have to womder if he's concerned (even a little bit) about the long term viability of the A10 and how the league is going to handle cost of attendance.

[Irishdawg]

Honestly I'm not sure if Wade will wind up being the right guy for the job or not. The style of play seems to be a great match since he tried to implement the same "Havoc" type system with the Mocs, and Chattanooga's defense improved tremendously from 2014 to 2015, but the pace of play from last year to this year slowed down pretty substantially, and the strength of their defense this year wasn't in generating turnovers, it was in guarding the first shot. In Smart's second season at VCU, they were already unbelievable at generating turnovers and made their run to the Final 4 then.

No one wants to be the guy to follow "The Guy" too, because no matter what you do it's going to be compared to Smart's success at VCU, and it's very difficult to live up to those standards. I do think VCU will continue to be a successful program, but there could be a few more bumps in the road going forward, and while I think they're better equipped to deal with them more than most, it's definitely a possibility.

[hoyahooligan]

It's interesting to me that he left for Texas now when it seemed as though he had better offers last year. You have to womder if he's concerned (even a little bit) about the long term viability of the A10 and how the league is going to handle cost of attendance.

I think there's merit to what I posted earlier. Briante Weber going down and VCU's late season slide really hurt the team. If he failed to win his conference yet again and failed to make the second weekend again he'd get even less calls next year. If he succeeded next year he would've remained a commodity; but if not, then the doors to better jobs (not just high major but the ones like UCLA, Texas, Indiana, Marquette that he turned down in the past) likely would no longer be open to him.

[Hoyas]

It's interesting to me that he left for Texas now when it seemed as though he had better offers last year. You have to womder if he's concerned (even a little bit) about the long term viability of the A10 and how the league is going to handle cost of attendance.

What was really out there last year? Tennessee, California, Marquette? None of those are really all that comparable to Texas at all. Isn't Texas the #1 money program in the country right now?

[DudeAnon]

It's interesting to me that he left for Texas now when it seemed as though he had better offers last year. You have to womder if he's concerned (even a little bit) about the long term viability of the A10 and how the league is going to handle cost of attendance.

A-10 will be fine. I mean, they are easily a top 10 conference. If they can't afford any of the changes I would be shocked.