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When VCU and Akron line up for their ESPNU BracketBusters contest at the Siegel Center on Saturday, Rams’ Coach Shaka Smart will do so with a bit of a heavy heart. Smart spent three seasons (2003-06) as an assistant coach with the Zips, two of which were under current Akron Coach Keith Dambrot. The two men are close friends and talk regularly. “Akron is a team that’s near and dear to my heart,” Smart said. “I spent three years working at Akron. I met my wife at Akron. Keith Dambrot, the head coach, is my best friend in coaching. I talk to him almost every day, although we’ve been talking a lot less since I found out I was playing him.” Whether or not ESPN chose to pit VCU and Akron against each other because of the two coaches’ history is debatable, but it does make for an intriguing storyline. That may play well on TV and with fans, but Smart isn’t in any hurry to lock horns with a good friend. “Not at all,” Smart said. “Because we’re both extremely competitive and at the end of the day, somebody has to lose the game. The first thing I do after our games is I check their scores and I check Clemson’s scores and I check Florida’s scores. I pull for those guys extremely hard because I know how this business is and how valuable wins are and how tough losses are. At the end of the game Saturday, somebody’s going to have a ‘W’ and somebody’s going to have an ‘L’ and you don’t want to go up against your friends in those types of situations.” Although Smart is in his first year with VCU, the Rams’ players are also very familiar with Akron. The Rams met the Zips in Akron, Ohio in the 2008 BracketBusters, as well as a return match-up last season at the Siegel Center. VCU won both contests. Akron is the reigning Mid American Conference Champion and reached the NCAA Tournament a year ago, where it fell to Gonzaga in the first round in Portland, Ore. This season, the Zips have picked up where they left off with a 20-7 record. They are also tied with Kent State for first in the MAC East Division with a 10-3 record. The Zips are led by 6-6 junior forward Brett McKnight (10.4 ppg, 4.6 rpg) and 6-5 senior forward Jimmy Conyers (9.6 ppg, 6.7 rpg). In last season’s meeting, McKnight scored 12 points and grabbed five boards off the bench, while Conyers struggled with foul trouble and was scoreless in 14 minutes. Akron ranks second in the MAC in scoring defense (63.3 ppg) and rebounding margin (+3.1 rpg).
ON THE REBOUND 1,000 IN HIS SIGHTS The Rams are guaranteed at least four more games, three regular season and one CAA Tournament matchup. Sanders would need to average 22 points over the next four games to reach the milestone. If VCU plays five games, Sanders would need to average 17.6. For six, it drops to 14.7 per, and so on and so forth. ROZZELL RETURNING TO FORM Rozzell (pictured, right), who lost his starting spot to Ed Nixon prior to the game, had been mired in a brutal slump. In his previous four games, Rozzell shot 3-of-21 (14 percent) and averaged 1.5 points per game. Rozzell had missed 11 straight 3-pointers before he canned his first attempt on Tuesday. “I thought Brandon came up big for us in terms of energy. He was locked in,” Smart said. “I thought he took a step defensively for us, which really contributed to our five-man effort on the defensive end. Sometimes our guys need a slight change to jolt them into playing a little bit better or with a little more focus. Brandon knows he’s a huge part of what we do, whether he’s starting or coming off the bench.” Questions or comments? E-mail us at aroundthehorns@yahoo.com or look us up on Facebook. |
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“You can expect an extremely hard playing bunch that’s very, very physical and tough,” Smart said. “They’ve got some guys that can make shots on the perimeter and some guys that love to sit down and guard. It’ll be a lot like playing Drexel, except the guy on the other end of the floor is a guy that I almost see as a brother.”All rights reserved.
