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Rams Coach Shaka Smart threw out the first pitch at a Chicago Cubs game, attended the White House correspondents’ dinner and joined five of his players at the ESPY Awards in Los Angeles.
All summer, forward Bradford Burgess smiled for pictures and signed autographs after attending services at Spring Creek Baptist Church in Midlothian, Va.
And V.C.U. Athletic Director Norwood Teague said that during business trips, he no longer had to explain the university’s acronym.
Smart said: “So many people have told me our team was the best thing that’s ever happened to the city of Richmond. They said they’d remember it forever.”
But Smart’s greatest challenge this season was making his current team forget.
At a meeting early in the fall, he gave his players laminated black-and-gold cards that said “It’s over” on one side and “Own today” on the other.
The players carry the cards in their wallets, have them in their lockers and post them on their bedroom walls. They are constant reminders that this is a different season, a different team.
“Even though the Final Four was amazing,” the sophomore guard Rob Brandenberg said, “we have to show people what the follow-up is.”
Despite losing four of its top five scorers from last season, V.C.U. was 23-6 heading into Wednesday night’s game at North Carolina-Wilmington, once again at the fringe of N.C.A.A. tournament qualification.
But the Rams’ top victories outside the Colonial Athletic Association have come against South Florida, Akron and Northern Iowa, leaving their tournament portfolio short on sparkle. They are No. 70 in the Ratings Percentage Index, a ranking that is generally too low for a team hoping for an at-large bid.
“The problem is they just didn’t get it done out of conference,” said Jerry Palm, the publisher of CollegeRPI.com. “And the C.A.A. is way down this year.”
Of course, the Rams did not appear to have much of a chance last season either. A loss to Old Dominion in the conference tournament championship game put their record at 23-11, and they appeared to be on the wrong side of the N.C.A.A. bubble.
The team did not even gather to watch the tournament selection show. Then it received an at-large bid as a No. 11 seed, and possibility blossomed.
After winning an opening-round (or play-in) game against another No. 11 seed, Southern California, the Rams toppled Georgetown, Purdue, Florida State and top-seeded Kansas to reach the Final Four, where they lost to Butler.
“It was a game-changer, not only for the athletic department, but for the whole university,” Teague said. “It gave us brand recognition that was beyond belief.”
Teague said season-ticket sales increased from 2,000 to 3,000 this season, and 150 club seats and 3 suites were added to the Siegel Center, the team’s home arena. Each home game this season has been sold out.
“We’re literally to the point where I don’t even have four tickets in my back pocket in case someone important comes,” Teague said.
On the recruiting trail, V.C.U.’s coaches could skip the primer — this is how we play, this is the city we are in — that had regularly been needed.
“Certainly, kids are more open to us,” said Will Wade, an assistant coach. “They know who you are, they know about the program and the school.”
And they know about Smart. Days after the loss to Butler, Smart, 34, signed an eight-year contract extension.
“I didn’t want to leave these guys and what we’d started,” he said. “I felt like there was a lot left to accomplish, and it felt like I’d just gotten here.”
Smart’s wife, Maya, gave birth to their first child, Zora, four and a half months ago, and the couple have embraced the Richmond community.
A large group of elementary school students recently visited the Siegel Center as part of a field trip, and when they arrived, many just wanted to meet Smart.
“He came in, and it was like the Beatles had arrived,” Teague said. “I went down and grabbed him out of there, because he was almost getting physically mobbed.”
Whether Smart is dining on soul food at Croaker’s Spot or Mama J’s Kitchen, or greeting frenetic fifth-graders, the conversation inevitably returns to last year.
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