[Dave in Green]

Without having the Zips to root for in the NCAA tournament, I'm returning to last year's form and cheering for Shaka Smart and VCU.

#12 seed VCU just finished upsetting #5 seed Wichita State, 62-59. Hate to see one good mid-major knocking off another in the first round. But at least the right team won.

[Dave in Green]

VCU up by 5 with less than 4 minutes left.

Man, I just have to say how much I love VCU's style of play. One of the announcers just summed it up pretty well when he noted that VCU is "relentless" on both offense and defense.

I really like that term relentless. I like it when the players are always sharp and crisp, lunging for balls on defense all the time and moving so fast on offense all the time that someone is always open.

I would love to see the Zips play this style of ball. I would love it if KD spent some time with Shaka trying to emulate that style of play.

The one thing that concerns me is that the Zips players just don't seem to be in great athletic shape. I don't mean they aren't athletic, because they are. But they seem to lack endurance. In spite of many slow, deliberate offensive possessions and in spite of all the subbing that goes on, I frequently see Zips players sucking air and bending over as if they've been running a marathon.

If I could wish for one thing, it would be that KD would put all the Zips players on a serious endurance training program so that they could play flat out on offense and defense for the whole game without tiring out. I want to see Zips players begging to stay in instead of asking to be subbed out.

Otherwise I fear that the Zips may not be spending much time in the NCAA tournament, and that I'll end up watching my second favorite team (VCU) making a run through the tournament every season because they are physically fit enough to be relentless all the time.

[GP1]

Man, I just have to say how much I love VCU's style of play. One of the announcers just summed it up pretty well when he noted that VCU is "relentless" on both offense and defense.

If I could wish for one thing, it would be that KD would put all the Zips players on a serious endurance training program so that they could play flat out on offense and defense for the whole game without tiring out. I want to see Zips players begging to stay in instead of asking to be subbed out.

Smart learned a lot at Clemson and Florida where he gained experience working with teams with a ton of athletic talent. He knows how to take that athletic talent and do something with it. That is what a young coach really learns at big time programs. We don't have anyone on our staff with that kind of experience.

Here is how you get players in game shape beyond just weight training. Instead of playing every player under the sun during the OOC schedule, get 7-8 guys in game shape by playing them more minutes. We don't need a nine man rotation. We need 7 good guys and two to take up minutes. Figure that out and the players conditioning won't be a problem.