Smart, new VCU team still working

AKRON, Ohio -- With VCU trailing by 12 points in the second half Thursday night, Akron dominating the glass and a crowd of 4,000 on its feet, getting louder with each positive play the home team made, at least one thing was clear. VCU wasn't in -- er, playing -- Kansas anymore. But VCU coach Shaka Smart doesn't have time to think about anything that happened last year, and at that moment his thoughts were pretty basic. His team was struggling to get stops, really struggling to score and yet another team that saw the game VCU as its Super Bowl was on the verge of breaking that Super Bowl wide open. "I just kept telling our guys there was a lot of time left but we needed to string some stops together," Smart said. "Akron killed us on the glass. Finally, our guys started getting aggressive and got to the offensive glass. That's how we got back in it." Those couple stops came via steals and some easy buckets. A few shots finally dropped. A free-throw shooter who hit just two of his first seven drained to huge ones to send the game to overtime, and as the overtime seconds ticked away Bradford Burgess bullied through a double team that had killed the designed play and hit a cutting Darius Theus for the winning layup. VCU 76, Akron 75. Those five double-digit wins in the NCAA Tournament last March came much easier. It's a new year for one of college basketball's all-time Cinderella stories. VCU has a new roster, new go-to guys, a new set of challenges and situations. Never has VCU been the hunted -- outside of Eastern Virginia, anyway. But it is now, and Thursday night marked this new team's seventh-straight victory. It's one that could eventually put the Rams right back on the right side of the NCAA Tournament bubble, right where they were last year when they went from 11 seed playing a play-in game all the way to the Final Four. From Dayton to Chicago to San Antonio all the way to Houston, the feelgood story of a young and rising coach, a bunch of irreplaceable seniors and guys up and down the scoresheet making timely plays, pushing a Colonial Athletic Association team to the Final Four for the second time in five years. A few guys from that team are left, starting with Burgess. He's a senior and VCU's all-time leader in games started at 123 and counting. Trailing by a point with 20 seconds left in overtime, Smart drew up a play to get Burgess the ball at the high post. Everybody in the gym -- including Smart's close friend and mentor, Akron coach Keith Dambrot -- knew Burgess was going to get it. "I know that all those big games we played in last year helped tonight," Burgess said. "We kept our composure. We kept battling. We have some new guys but we still have a lot of guys who know these big situations and thrive on them. "I don't get tired of talking about last year. We have a lot to be proud of. It was a great run, a lot of great wins and great memories. This team can't look at it like anything but as a positive. Let's just keep moving forward and see where we are when it's time to try to do it again." Thursday night's win moved VCU to 10-3 on the season. The previous six in this win streak were by an average of 19 points. A road game off a week's break against a solid opponent presented a new challenge, one this young Rams team -- finally but assertively -- answered. "We talked a lot early in the year about how last year was over, how it might mean something that gets teams we play (this year) excited but it means nothing to the path this team is taking," Smart said. "We're playing better defense. Guys are getting more comfortable with their roles. We learned from those early losses, and as a coach you like that. "We have a pretty unselfish group. We're getting better at the play smart of it. We always play hard and we stuck in it tonight." Akron is a quality basketball team, one that's been in the NCAA Tournament twice in the past three years and one that won at No. 14 Mississippi State earlier this year. Akron center Zeke Marshall is a 7-footer who's becoming a game-changing basketball player, and his presence in the paint was keeping VCU from getting anything resembling an easy shot Thursday night. "The stat sheet says (Marshall) blocked six shots," Smart said. "I felt like it was more like 18. He altered that many. We had to work for everything." Akron overcame an early five-point hole to push its lead to four at halftime, 10 for much of the first five minutes of the second half and as much as 12. Akron point guard Alex Abreu, who wasn't expected to play after having his knee scoped just a week ago, provided the energy and several big shots. Marshall and Nikola Cvetinovic owned the paint for much of the night. The irony of Abreu, a Puerto Rican point guard, trying to bury VCU wasn't lost on anybody who knows VCU's story. "Abreu is a lot like Joey (Rodriguez), who just made so many huge plays for us last year," Smart said. He's quick, low to the ground, and he made some big shots. There's not a play he doesn't think he can make. He's going to be great here. Akron is really on the verge of being something special. They're going to be very good this year and scary in the future." Smart, an assistant at Akron from 2003-06, bucked the trend of coaches winning and bolting when he signed an eight-year extension in the wake of last year's run. He has players in his program he likes, a young team that's learning to win, a chance at sustained success. The crash back to reality of mid-major basketball includes the fact VCU is guaranteed just two more national TV games this season. Thursday night's game could only be seen though a webcast on the Mid-American Conference website. Smart doesn't think much about that. He acknowledges that VCU's run last March could and should help in recruiting, but knows that kids want to play on television all the time. "When coaches can say 'Big East, Big 12, Big Ten,' kids are drawn to that," Smart said. "That's understandable. Recruiting has never been easy. All we can do is think we have a lot to sell, keep working, keep selling that." This new VCU team bought what its coach was selling Thursday night in overcoming a double-digit deficit. The winning is something VCU is now used to -- even if it doesn't come easy. "We're just trying to put wins together and get better," Smart said. "As a young team, when it was early and we were struggling and even now after some wins, I'm looking game to game. Clearly there are a lot of areas we can improve. We didn't shoot it particularly well (at Akron). But as long as we make that continued improvement we'll be where we want to be in March. March. When nobody wants to see the VCU Rams. Whoever they are.