Day 1 begins now for Smart, VCU

SPORTS BLOG: Read more from VCU Coach Shaka Smart

The 6½-month wait ends today for Shaka Smart. Virginia Commonwealth's basketball coach, hired in April, will direct his first basketball practice as the Rams start preparations for their Nov. 13 opener against Bethune-Cookman.

Smart, 32, takes over a team that will be expected to contend for a fourth consecutive Colonial Athletic Association regular-season title. VCU will be without one of the best players in the program's history, first-round NBA draft pick Eric Maynor. But the Rams return four starters, including another potential first-round NBA pick in junior forward Larry Sanders, plus experience and talented transfers.

Smart sat down with The Times-Dispatch this week to discuss a variety of topics.

Excited? Nervous? Calm? Describe your emotions with the season about to start.

Definitely really excited. We've been working hard to prepare. Our guys have had a good preseason. You always wish you had more time to prepare.

You've had to deal with a lot since you were hired, from a player leaving and returning, to an assistant coach leaving, to recruiting. How would you describe the first 6½ months?

Busy. Hectic. It's been fun, though. . . . I'm really excited about getting into practice and games. We've been here for over six months, but we haven't had a practice or played a game. When you get into this business of coaching, that's why, to help players get better and to be a part of the strategy and to be a part of the competition.

What were your impressions of the preseason group workouts?

Guys worked hard, but we've got a long way to go. I think we're going to have a lot of depth this year. I want to play a lot of guys. I think we're going to be able to play a lot of guys. I think we'll have competition at every position. . . . I've been impressed with some of our players' ability to play through fatigue. Others need to get better in that area. Our style that we want to play is going to be such that you really have to first push yourself to fatigue, and then push yourself through fatigue.

What's the same and what's different in the style of play?

It's not different in that we do want to press, quite a bit. Previous teams here have wanted to press a lot, but we want to do it more. We really want to create havoc for our opponents. That's a word you'll hear quite a bit coming out of our program. Offensively, we want to play as fast as we can. . . . Obviously, with the departure of Eric, the style changes in that one player can't dominate and make plays for everyone around him the same way he did. We do have some players on the inside that we want to take advantage of offensively and throw the ball to. Because of that and because Eric's not here, I think you'll see more touches in the paint.

A lot of people are going to look at your point guard situation and say, 'Well, they don't have Eric Maynor anymore.' When you look at it, what do you see?

What I see is a guy [junior Joey Rodriguez] who has done a lot of winning in his first two years here in a specific role. I see a challenge in front of him in terms of expanding that role and growing with that change. There's been a very good willingness on his part to do that. I really believe the relationship between a coaching staff and its point guards needs to be extremely good. Joey [and freshmen Issiah Grayson and Darius Theus], they need to spend a lot of time around us, soaking up everything we want to do, particularly with us being a new coaching staff, so that they can be an extension of us on the floor.

The program has elevated its national profile the past few years, which carries a lot of expectations. What are your expectations?

My expectations are for us to compete for championships. But even before that to understand what goes into winning, what goes into being a champion. I firmly believe the process has to be sound in order for the results to continually be what you want them to be. We have some work, like most teams, to do in that area. . . . I want us to play an exciting style of basketball. I want to put a product out on the floor that VCU fans can be proud of and really enjoy watching.