[romeeezybabyParticipant]

Looks like another VCU Coach is going to be one of the hottest Coaching commodities this coming off season. At first it was Jeff Capel, who led VCU to a 79-41 record in his 4 years. Eventually signed a $1.5 mil contract with Oklahoma to replace Kelvin Sampson. Capel unfortunately has recently been fired by Oklahoma, but that is beside the point lol.

After Capel, came Anthony Grant who served as an assitant under Billy Donovan at Florida. He was a bit more successful at VCU than Capel and guided them to a 1st round upset over Duke in 2006 on a game winning shot by Eric Maynor who is now in the NBA. Grant also had two of his players (Eric Maynor, and Larry Sanders) drafted in the first round of the NBA draft. After his success at VCU, he went on to agree to become the Head Coach at Alabama replacing Mark Gottfried.

Today they continue to have another Coach in Shaka Smart (33) who is going to be a huge commodity this offseason. I honesly have never heard of Shaka Smart until his current run in NCAA Tournament. I did some research on him, and he ends up being another Billy Donovan Assistant who ended up at VCU – similiar to the same route that Anthony Grant took.

With that being said, regardless of how imposing the other teams have been, this guy really gets his kids ready to play. Many "experts" went on a tirade on how VCU simply didn’t belong in the tournament, since then they have beaten USC, Georgetown, Florida State, and are currently dominating Kansas as I type this post.

It’s only going to be a matter of time before Shaka is going to get hefty raise. The only question is, which program is going to take a chance?

 

[BKKnicksfanParticipant]

I don’t think Smart is going anywhere this year. Next season is the test. I feel Tennessee is a terrible job for him and Georgia Tech is a little to big for him IMO

[romeeezybabyParticipant]

I can see that. I really hope USC will give him a look, depending on how Coach Kevin O’Neil (who’s been a .500 career Coach). Mizzou supposedly isn’t going to give him a look to replace Mike Anderson.

[The lake show2]

better strike while the iron is hot because you never know if you’re team is gonna be as good next year or the year after then you’re gonna look back thinking " damn i should have left when i had a chance"

[BeenieParticipant]

smart guy that I have the chance to talk with several times, I mean interesting talks and I really believe He will make the best decision. there’s one thing about him though, the guy dreams big and He wouldn’t be scared of replacing coach K if He decided to call it quit. He is here to stay!

[knicksfan7Participant]

At first after VCU made it to the sweet sixteen I thought he was as good as gone, but now that he has made the final four I hope he stays. I hope he stays because it raises the CAA’s profile soooo much. To have 2 teams from a mid-major conference make the Final Four in the last 5 years is impressive. Also this is going to help recruiting for VCU, but also for the rest of the conference. The CAA, VCU especially, has produced NBA talent (2 first rounders in the last 2 drafts), and Charles Jenkins of Hofstra has a shot at getting drafted, so it could be 3 years in a row a CAA player gets drafted. You add Jose Juan Barea and Gary Neal former CAA players to the mix it raises the profile a lot as well. I am really proud of what the CAA has done, and they will be here to stay for a while. I know I went off tangent, but in all I hope Coach Smart stays we need him for the conference to continue to get better.

[Da1potParticipant]

 Brad Stevens didn’t leave last year from Butler and just took a hefty raise and I figure that Smart will do the same, unless he has a really good situation at Tennesee( which I doubt he will)

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