THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 6, 1996 TAG: 9601060386
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Tom Robinson
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
Sonny Smith still goes places. And when he does, particularly somewhere in the South to joke his way through a banquet, invariably he is introduced as the guy who used to coach basketball at Auburn. Almost as if he had spent the last six seasons in a black hole.
Sad to say, in many ways, he did. Smith himself admits to a gnawing emptiness when he considers his tenure as coach at Virginia Commonwealth University.
The Rams, under Smith, have gone no place.
Zero NCAA tournament appearances. Zero conference championships. One brief appearance in the National Invitation Tournament three years ago. Overall, a 97-92 record entering tonight's game at Scope against Old Dominion.
Oh, the Rams are well-traveled, all right, in terms of league membership. A Colonial Athletic Association rookie, VCU is on its third stop since 1989, the Sun Belt and Metro being the others.
Address aside, Smith has never rekindled the momentum of the early '80s that waned under his predecessor, Mike Pollio.
Of course it pains Smith. He doesn't double-speak it or try to twist the numbers. He knows VCU made the NCAA tournament five times from 1979 to 1985. And he knows he has been a disappointment, to VCU and himself. No amount of Smith's prodigious glibness can sugarcoat it.
``It hurts me that I haven't gotten it done,'' drawls Smith, a 59-year-old Tennessean who won his 300th game Thursday at William and Mary. ``I don't care how it affects my reputation. I'm not an ego guy. My only concern is performance. When somebody pays me to do a job and I don't think I've done it, that bothers me.''
This is Smith's 20th season as a head coach - he spent 11 at Auburn - and you have to suspect there are favorable odds it will be his last. Because it's time. Probably overdue.
But Smith has stuck it out, taking the barbs of VCU fans who'd prefer to see him in the TV booth, which is where he'll eventually end up.
That perseverance flies in the face of the steadfast anti-Smith faction, those who figure Smith used the name Charles Barkley and Chuck Person made for him at Auburn to leverage himself a tidy golden parachute at VCU.
Mention that to Smith if you want to see his eyes narrow.
``That's insulting when I hear that, but I know people say it - `Sonny came here to retire, not to coach,' '' says Smith, whose 20-10 mark in 1992-93 earned him his fourth league coach of the year award. ``There's more pressure on me at VCU than there was at Auburn, because basketball is the No. 1 sport at VCU. ...
``I put more pressure on me than anybody else does. I haven't gotten it done, but not from lack of effort.''
If Smith really is set to quit, the irony is that VCU stands a decent chance to return to the NCAAs. Hard as it is to believe, the CAA is even weaker than usual. And though Smith gives ODU the nod for best talent, he still has a bunch of players who were recruited to compete in the Metro.
When that league dissolved, the Rams - after snubs by the Atlantic 10 and Conference USA - landed in the CAA and were quickly voted top contenders, along with ODU, to win the CAA tournament.
Which, as always, is a CAA team's only path to the NCAA field.
``Four days in March,'' Smith says, hold the Rams' fate. And for Smith, they might mark the difference between a redemptive goodbye and good riddance. ILLUSTRATION: Sonny Smith won his 300th game on Thursday, but he'll be the
first to admit he's fallen short of his goals with the VCU Rams.
KEYWORDS: PROFILE by CNB