On Jan. 31, everything started to change for the VCU Rams.
Playing at home against in-state rival Richmond, starting point guard Briante Weber, who was on his way to breaking the NCAA all-time steals record and represented the anchor to the Rams’ pressure defense, went down with a torn ACL, MCL and meniscus. Sitting with a 17-4 record and a No. 18 ranking after the loss to the Spiders, the wheels began to fall off the wagon.
VCU lost five of their next nine games, highlighted by a 27-point blowout loss at Davidson. Weber’s absence was felt on the court in a big way. Opponents no longer feared “Havoc” and picked apart the stagnant half court defense of the Rams.
Then things began to turn around. VCU won its final game of the regular season and ran through the Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament, coming away with the championship and an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament. The tournament win was Shaka Smart’s first conference title, tournament or regular season, in his career.
Entering the NCAA Tournament as a 7-seed going against Ohio State, VCU opened up a 12-point advantage before allowing the Buckeyes to make a comeback, dropping the game 75-72 in overtime in its tourney opener, effectively ending their season.
Little did they know, VCU was about to lose much more than just a game.
On Apr. 2, Smart took over as head coach of the Texas Longhorns. VCU had managed to keep Smart away from the likes of UCLA and Minnesota in recent years, but when the Longhorns came calling, Smart knew it was time to make a change.
With his departure came much bigger losses along the way. Weber and Treveon Graham, a two-time All-A-10 First Teamer and second all-time leading scorer in VCU history, are now gone. Their two best performers over the last four years together are no longer a factor. The coach that brought them together and made them into a national power is also gone.
So what’s next for the Rams?
That’s a question that still sits in the air with no real answer in sight.
VCU didn’t waste much time finding their next head coach, which is good news moving forward. They went out and got Will Wade from Chattanooga, where he posted a 40-25 record in the last two seasons. He’s young (32 years old), and played a similar style defense as Smart employed at VCU, but he called it “Chaos.”
Weber and Graham were known to be on their way out, but losing Smart also meant losing a few more players, including former-in-coming recruit Tevin Mack, who asked for a release from his National Letter of Intent as soon as Smart going to Texas was announced.
Mack, the 48th ranked recruiting according to ESPN Recruiting, was expected to pick up where Graham left off. A 6-foot-7, 200-pound small forward, Mack chose to play for VCU over offers from the likes of Connecticut, Georgia, Auburn and Virginia Tech…as long as Smart was the coach. Now, Mack is looking at other options.
Former VCU signee Tevin Mack unofficially visits Texas this weekend. Told ESPN it will likely be his only visit before making a decision.
— Jeff Borzello (@jeffborzello) May 8, 2015
VCU also lost a commitment from Kenny Williams III, who announced his intentions to attend North Carolina last week.
It’s bad enough to lose recruits due to a coaching change, but losing current players is also something that comes with this territory and the Rams have felt that as well.
BREAKING: VCU's Terry Larrier will transfer, sources told @CBSSports. Story coming.
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) April 29, 2015
Larrier only averaged 6.6 points last season, but he was expected to take on a much bigger role during the 2015-16 season. He showed flashes of ability to be a scoring threat and could’ve benefitted from being a featured player in Wade’s system. Now, he’ll be taking his talents somewhere else.
On top of that, Moe Alie-Cox was charged with misdemeanor assault and battery for allegedly punching a woman in a nightclub incident, something that, sadly, has become a trend in college sports recently. Last year, Weber was suspended a game for allegedly stealing an iPhone, but that was under Smart. Alie-Cox could face some sort of suspension, but it’s too early to tell at this point.
To put the cherry on top of the turd sundae VCU has been dealing with this offseason, now the athletic program is in the middle of a dispute over the use of the term “Havoc” with Texas. Texas has since dropped its bid to trademark the term, but they can still use it how they please.
“Havoc” has been used as a marketing tool by VCU ever since their run to the Final Four in 2011, promoted heavily by the school’s sports information department, much in the same way Florida Gulf Coast has used “Dunk City” since their 2013 NCAA Tournament run.
All of this combines into one difficult offseason for the VCU Rams. Their team will look much different. Any success will be considered a bit of a surprise rather than an expectation. Nobody’s quite sure what to expect from the Rams moving forward.
It’s the start to a bit of a rebuilding process for VCU. After this, the Rams may just be hoping to get the season started and let the chips fall where they may. They’ve built from the ground up before, but this isn’t the same. This is a retooling phase, and how they handle this season will be a nice indicator to where this next phase will take them.
Who would’ve thought that one game in January would’ve been the start of a bad stretch that could translate into years of regrouping?
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