Sights of San Antonio…

The national columnists are abuzz over VCU and the CAA. They are furiously churning out extremely high quality perspective and I’ve enjoyed most of them. And I mean that–there are some tremendous writers learning what we’ve known for awhile now. I’ve particularly enjoyed watching them discover the CAA and weave that discovery into words. But they didn’t see everything. Here’s a handful of things I saw. Some you know, some you don’t. All are great reminders of an unforgettable trip to San Antonio: VCU assistant Will Wade elbowed fellow assistant Mike Jones during a gripping sequence of the Kansas game, splitting Jones’s tooth in half. Jones arrived back on the team bus with a snaggly grin. Where’s the tooth? “Somewhere on the Alamodome floor.” Note: Wade will not be suspended by the CAA for flagrant action under the CAAs Sportsmanship Rule. Jamie Skeen climbed just two steps up on the ladder and reached up as far as he possibly could to take his snip of the net, complete with two teammates holding the ladder, because Skeen—the goofball of all goofballs—is deathly afraid of heights. Shaka Smart received a congratulatory text from LeBron James. Smart worked with Akron coach Keith Dambrot, who coached LeBron in high school. Heath Houston’s Knock ‘Em Out dance, but this time instead of breaking down the tomahawk chop, he catches and eats a jayhawk bird. Or Brandon Rozzell being coaxed from his locker to cook a little, or “make the pizza.” Shaka Smart, talking about his technical foul saying: “I kind of lost it a little bit, disagreeing with a couple of calls. I didn’t even say anything, but I guess I charged out there and ran a little bit faster than I should have….I’ve got to control my pace as I move toward the officials.” You saw this, but giving Kansas the first six points of the game, easy, and going on a 36-13 run…leading Kansas for 34 straight minutes, dominating the game. Skeen explained the main motto of VCUs three point prowess: “we say hand down, man down.” If you don’t close out a shooter with a hand in your face, they will shoot. Ed Nixon, in the fray of the postgame celebration, walking towards the stage saying “man I’m tired, I’ve got to sit down.” Shaka Smart telling his team: “We’re hard on you but you delivered. Every one of you delivered.” One of the Morris twins told Joey Rodriguez pregame that VCU has had a good run but it’s time to go home. How’d that work out? Brad Burgess to assistant coach Mike Rhoades’s son: “You ever been to Houston before? Me neither.” Retro nugget: #3Bids4CAA, mocked by many as not being rooted in reality, proved the power of believe and what can be. VCU had to postpone its men’s basketball banquet, originally scheduled for March 29, because it made the Final Four. VCU met every Kansas punch with a counter punch, and then Joey Rodriguez and Jamie Skeen delivered knockout blows. VCU controlled 35 minutes of that game. This was no fluke. Jamie Skeen, in a college basketball press conference first, used the word “buttholes.” Brandon Rozzell, thanked a reporter for wishing him happy birthday, using sir. He tipped his cap when the left the dais. The Mayor of Richmond indeed. *** I watched Bill Self watch Shaka Smart, championship net draped around Smart’s neck, walking down the ramp to get on the team bus. The blank look on Self’s face was somewhere between what could’ve been and how did I lose.

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