Courtesy of the Hopewell News Patriot
By Ryan Lazo
Following another NCAA Tournament berth and an appearance in the Atlantic 10 Conference Championship game, the fifth time in seven years they made the conference championship, all eyes are on Virginia Commonwealth University’s men’s basketball team for this upcoming season.
In a preseason poll conducted by the league’s coaches, the Rams are predicted to finish first in the 13-team A-10 Conference, the first time they are bestowed the honor of preseason favorites in head coach Shaka Smart’s five-year tenure.
The A-10 has it right.
VCU is no longer the underdog overcoming long odds to make a national name for themselves. They are a brand all their own and it’s because of the talent and style of play they bring to the court.
The Rams are not only the ‘it’ program in the A-10, but also the best team in the conference. The preseason poll having ranked VCU No. 1 not only shows the amount of talent Smart has at his disposal, but the admiration for the work he’s put in to bring the program to this point.
Check the stats and it’s easy to see the culture he’s established is a winning one: 111-37. That’s not a typo.
Those numbers represent a coach who is 74 games above .500 and has VCU entering the 2013-14 season as one of just seven schools with at least one NCAA Tournament win in each of the past three seasons.
Even more?
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