Smart’s success no surprise to some
Former players like what they see in Year 1 at MU
Joey Rodriguez likes what he sees when he tunes in to Marquette men’s basketball games this season.
Shaka Smart, who coached Rodriguez to great heights at Virginia Commonwealth, has already surpassed expectations in his first season in charge of the Golden Eagles.
MU (13-6, 5-3 Big East) is riding a five-game winning streak into its matchup with Xavier (14-3, 4-2) at 1 p.m. Sunday at Fiserv Forum. The game will be televised on FS1.
The hiring of Smart was greeted with much fanfare last spring, but expectations for Year 1 were tempered by a roster that included nine newcomers. The Golden Eagles were picked to finish ninth in the 11-team Big East.
Nobody could have foreseen a team that could win for the first time in program history at Villanova’s Finneran Pavilion. But Rodriguez isn’t surprised.
“That’s the best version of Shaka,” Rodriguez said. “The underdog Shaka.”
Rodriguez, now an assistant coach at Florida International, has seen Smart work wonders in a debut season with a team. So has Javan Felix, who played for Smart in the coach’s first season at Texas.
“I can tell you from personal experience that those expectations don’t mean nothing to Shaka and nobody in that building,” said Felix, a 5-foot-10 guard with Texas and now an assistant coach at Loyola University in New Orleans. “The only expectations that matter to them is the ones that they put on themselves.”
In the 2009-10 season, Rodriguez was a scrappy 5-10 junior guard when Smart became a head coach for the first time at VCU.
“Great energy,” Rodriguez said of his first impressions. “You can tell he’s a big-time relationship builder.”
The Rams had talent on the roster, including future Milwaukee Bucks player Larry Sanders, but Smart had to figure out how to motivate everybody.
“At the beginning we were kind of fighting it and fighting it and fighting it,” Rodriguez said. “I think that’s natural for a lot of teams. But he just brought it every day and when you see that constantly, you’re like, OK, this guy is really about what he’s preaching and we loved it.”
Rodriguez said Smart built trust by forging tight bonds with his roster. At VCU, Smart would dominate his charges on the Versa-Climber conditioning machine and pull-up contests.
“More than any other coach I was ever around, he was always in the weight room,” Rodriguez said. “Conditioning, he was always there. Breakfast check, he was always there. You just saw him everywhere and he was such a part of your day, every single day of your life and knew everything that was going on. I think that stuff just translates with college kids.”
College basketball fans remember Rodriguez and Smart making the Final Four in their second season together. But the foundation for that success was built the year before, when VCU won the much less heralded College Basketball Invitational.
“This is a testament to him now that I coach,” Rodriguez said. “But us as players it was like, we’re going to the (CBI)? We don’t want to do this. Why are we doing this?”
The Rams beat Saint Louis, coached by Rick Majerus, in the best-of-three CBI finals.
“That was one of the best coaching jobs I’ve seen,” Rodriguez said. “Getting that group of guys who were strongwilled, strong personalities, to play and compete in that CBI and he did it.”
Smart made the leap to Texas in the 2015-16 season. He started the same way he did at VCU, by building quick relationships with the returning players. Felix recalled Smart visiting his apartment soon after he was hired, something no coach had done before. Then the work started and Smart literally got his hands dirty.
“For preseason conditioning we actually did SEAL team training,” Felix said. “And to see him getting down and dirty, there was like a lake that we had to jump in, to see him do all that and participate was big-time for us.”
The Longhorns finished 20-13 that season, including an upset over No. 3 North Carolina on Felix’s shot. That was a big moment for a player who had struggled through concussions in previous seasons.
“He did a great job helping me mentally just as a person,” Felix said. “Just started to chip away at stuff that was in my control. Just made sure I stayed down with that. And then just helping me learn the benefits of just always being diligent. Always holding myself accountable.”
Texas was bounced in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at the buzzer by Northern Iowa. The Longhorns didn’t have NCAA success in Smart’s six seasons, so he jumped to MU.
Every job is different. Unlike VCU and Texas, Smart had to make it work at MU with a hastily assembled roster. But the core philosophy has remained the same: Getting players to buy in quickly by building strong relationships.
“This probably would have been the case even if we inherited more guys, but it’s more of a focus on culture,” Smart said before the season.
Rodriguez sees his former coach as a good fit with the Golden Eagles.
“It was cool to watch him early in the year,” Rodriguez said. “Just watching him on the sideline. His excitement level.
“I was joking with him that he’s got his swag back. It’s fun to watch. And they’re good. They’re connected. They play hard. They got good players. It’s impressive and I’m sure it’s only going to keep rolling from here.”