Wade’s World: Q&A with men’s head coach Will Wade

Photo by Brooke Marsh
Photo by Brooke Marsh
Photo by Brooke Marsh
Photo by Brooke Marsh

After a season which saw the VCU men’s basketball team lose two standout players in guards Briante Weber and Treveon Graham and head coach Shaka Smart, pundits predicted a finish as low as fifth place for the Rams in the Atlantic-10 conference. Enter Will Wade, the former coach of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and a Shaka Smart assistant in the infamous 2011 team which produced a historic run to the final four of the NCAA tournament.

Wade guided the relatively young Rams to their first ever share of the A-10 regular conference title and a second-place finish in the conference tournament. The Rams went on to win their first NCAA tournament win in more than two years when they defeated the University of Oregon in the first round of the tournament before falling to the University of Oklahoma in the proceeding matchup.

When The Commonwealth Times spoke to Wade, the former Big South coach of the year reflected on his first season at the helm of the men’s basketball program.

After an exciting first season as head coach at VCU, what were some of the highlights of the season for you?

“Number one was watching our team grow. As a coach, you want your team to get better as the season moves along and I think we were certainly better at the end of the season. Personally, I thought the win over Oregon State in the NCAA tournament was a highlight. That was a great for us to get back to the tournament, not only to get back but to win a game in the NCAA tournament.”

Speaking of the NCAA tournament, the first half was a little rough. Coming into the second half, what was the mentality of the team? What did you say to them to let a fire under them to get things going?

“I thought we played on our heels. We’re not very good when we’re not aggressive and going at people and I thought we were on our heels too much in the first half of the Oklahoma game. If you’re gonna go down, you better go down swinging with everything you got. I didn’t think we were doing that especially in the first half of the game, but I thought second half we did that. Even in the last 10 minutes of the first half we were a little bit more competitive and fought a little more harder, but that second half we certainly fought.”

What did you learn last season that worked for the program that you want to continue to implement moving forward?

“Our attention to detail was better. I thought we did a better job handling the little things off the court. We need to continue to handle the little things off the court better with all the minor details and own those everyday. We did it for an extended period of time last year but now we need to do that everyday, it’s a daily challenge to do that.”

What are aspects of the game that you want to improve on over the summer?

“We want to continue to work on our shooting, we need to become a better shooting team. We’re going to spend a lot of time on defense. I think we left some points out there defensively. We gave up too many easy baskets. There’s some things in the half court, especially in our three-point defense, toward to the end of the year that took a little of a nosedive. And then we want to work on our half-court offense execution. We were tremendous in transition. We were a good offensive rebounding team. We need to be good when we’re playing against a set defense. We were right on the average about 1.02 points per possession when we’re playing against a set defense so we can improve that and get better there.”

How will the new practice facility enhance summer workouts and the offseason?

“It’s great we have everything in one place. In the past we’ve had to eat in one place, practice one place, rehab in another place but here we’ve got practice, we’ve got weights, we’ve got eating, we’ve got film, we’ve got the training room, we have everything on one roof. We’re not bouncing around like before to four or five different places. Now we’ve got grand central station here. That will certainly help our guys consolidate their schedule, it will be more timely for them and we’ll be more efficient with what we do.”

Besides the usual lifting and practice, how else will the team be practicing this summer?

“We’re going to Spain on a foreign tour so we’re going to use some of that time for team bonding exercises in addition to practice. We’re trying to keep our camaraderie good, be a tight, connected, close team.  We’re going to spend some times continuing to develop some bonds with our team this summer.

Besides team bonding, why is Spain beneficial for the team?

“It’s a great educational experience for our guys. They get to go overseas and learn a different culture and foods and visit in a different country for ten days so it’s a tremendous educational opportunity.”

‘Secondly, it gives us the opportunity to practice ten times here which will give us a head start with our team and it gives us the opportunity to play against professional teams over there who will give us good competition. It’s different when we practice against each other than when we’re facing live bullets with someone else.’

What did you find enticing about Malik that made you want to sign him?

“One he can really shoot the ball. Anytime you have someone who can make shots, that’s a positive. Second thing is he’s a very good rebounder. He goes and rebounds outside of his area, he can make plays out of his area. The third thing is he’s versatile. He can play multiple positions and guard multiple positions on defense. He’s long, he’s athletic. When you have someone who can make shots and rebounds, that’s a pretty good combination.”

At what point will Malik be introduced into the practice routine and begin working out with the team?
“He’ll be here for summer school at the end of May and then we’ll start weights and workouts at the end of May. He’ll be part of the team and be ready to go.”


Staff Writer, Sophia Belletti

Sophia Belletti, Photo by Brooke MarshSophia is a sophomore print/online journalism major with a minor in gender, sexuality and women’s studies. She enjoys writing about current events and sports and hopes to one day be a sports reporter, covering soccer, basketball and baseball. You can usually find Sophia drinking way too much coffee and laughing at her own jokes. // Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn

bellettisr@commonwealthtimes.org

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