BigmanU wrote:Looks like VCU is falling apart at the seams. Multiple transfers & decommits along with the Mo Alie-Cox charges.
VCU was Shaka Smart. They will be competitive but never at the level he had the program. Glad the BEast didn't hitch itself to that wagon.
Completely uneducated post.
Going down the list...
1)
"VCU was Shaka Smart" - Once upon a time VCU was also Jeff Capel. Then VCU was Anthony Grant. Now VCU was Shaka Smart. The reality is Will Wade was a SoCon Coach of the Year and literally implemented VCU's pressing system that Shaka Smart hung his hat on (ask Briante Weber, the poster-child of havoc, who is quoted saying so). People forget that Shaka Smart never won a conference Coach of the Year award and never won a regular season title yet was somehow always the first name that popped up for every job opening. Shaka Smart did a great job at VCU but went to the Final 4 with Anthony Grant's recruits in 2011 (Rodriguez, Burgess, Skeen, Rozzell, Nixon). He was 7-2 in NCAA tournaments before assistant Will Wade left for UT Chattanooga (was the underdog in all but one of those games) then was 0-2 without Wade and was the seed favorite in both of those games (a 5 in 2014 that fell to 12th-seeded SFA and a 7 this past season).
2)
Recruit decommits - VCU's 2015 class was ranked 25th nationally if I'm not mistaken by ESPN. Here's the reality of recruiting classes: they aren't proven one bit (see: Larrier, Terry). VCU's 2014 class was ranked 14th nationally by ESPN but they were basically a non-factor during VCU's 2015 A-10 tournament championship run (Treveon Graham, Mo Alie-Cox, Doug Brooks, JeQuan Lewis, etc...those were the guys who won the trophy for VCU). The only player that played any minutes was Terry Larrier (who'll be headed to a Big East school, btw, so there's that bit of breaking news for you Big East fans...I'll allow you all to guess where he's going), and Larrier was literally one of the worst shooting Rams over the past decade in terms of effective field goal percentage at under 42% (41.8% if I remember correctly). He was also VCU's highest rated recruit since Kendrick Warren but at 6'8 shot more threes than twos, and I shit you not...had two dunks on the season at 6'8 and as a top-50 recruit. The reality is statistically VCU was able to keep their two best freshmen: Justin Tillman and Mike Gilmore, two former top-100 recruits, Gilmore being a top-80 guy but Tillman being a guy that got more minutes. Both were way more efficient than Larrier but Larrier had a higher high school ranking next to his name so naturally he's what matters.
3) Nothing is happening to Mo Alie-Cox - Nothing happened the first time this case came up and now that the girl has taken it to civil court, once again, nothing will happen. Read the girls story.
4) Back to the recruiting - VCU loses Tevin Mack and one other top-100 recruit but replace them with Korey Billbury, who may not be a top-100 recruit, but averaged over 14 points in D1 college basketball (not high school) the past two seasons. They will also add another transfer next week that was ranked higher out of high school (according to Rivals) than Tevin Mack. Will it take some time for Will Wade to prove himself to the top-100s of the world? Yes. But in the meantime he has an incredibly talented team, a team that will include three more top-100s on the roster than Shaka Smart had when he went to a Final 4 in 2011.
5) Learn from your own past - You guys remember Brad Stevens right? Was he Butler basketball? The Bulldogs took a slight dip with Roosevelt out but then bounced back big last season. The reality is good programs find a way to stay toward the top, and that's exactly what VCU has done over literally their last three coaches, winning CAA and A-10 titles under each and every one. VCU now also will have a brand new practice facility that will open this fall to recruit to, AND...a REALLY good coach who turned a SoCon bottom feeder into one of the better teams in that league virtually overnight. That isn't easy to do. Ask DePaul fans.
Sleep on VCU if you want, but the Rams are going to be REAL good next season, and don't be shocked if they actually get better under Will Wade, just like they did with the three previous coaches before him.