[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]

Shaka has developed a pretty solid pipeline for talented players at VCU. But to translate that to Illinois he would have had to be successful recruiting in Chicago. Several sources are reporting that Shaka had concerns about recruiting in Chicago, and I'll post a couple of links below. Interestingly, the first link is a Chicago Tribune story that mentions concern about Illinois schools letting D.J. Cooper get away.

It's pretty interesting that first Mark Few at Gonzaga and then Brad Stevens at Butler and now Shaka at VCU have taken mid-major teams to high-major levels, they've all been pursued by high-major schools, and they've all to this point decided they were happy right where they were.

I have to believe that each of them has dream job head coaching positions at schools that they would not turn down, but that none has yet gotten the perfect offer.

Recruiting Chicago gives Shaka Smart pause

Shaka Smart Does Illinois A Favor, Says No