THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 14, 1996 TAG: 9603140519
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE CARLSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: INDIANAPOLIS LENGTH: Long : 110 lines
Virginia Commonwealth basketball coach and country music aficionado Sonny Smith loves a stage, so it should not be surprising that he once sang at the Grand Ole Opry.
What the Opry is to country music, the NCAA tournament is to college basketball. But during the previous six seasons at VCU, Smith had been singing in the equivalent of back-road honky-tonks - the kind with chicken wire in front of the stage to ward off the missiles a dissatisfied crowd might direct at a performer.
There have been plenty directed at Smith, who had a pedestrian .509 winning percentage in his first six seasons in Richmond.
This week, he is back on the big stage. And loving every minute of it.
Smith, in his seventh season, will lead VCU into its first NCAA tournament game since 1985 tonight at 7:40 against Mississippi State in the Southeast Regional.
On Sunday night, after the pairings were announced, Digger Phelps said on ESPN that with VCU (24-8) in the tournament, Sonny Smith is back where he belongs.
``Actually, that's what I always thought, it's where I belong,'' Smith said while lounging in his hotel room Wednesday. ``I felt good he said that, but it drove home a point, too.''
The point being, he belonged back in the tournament sooner than this. No one at VCU would have projected it would take seven years.
Smith acknowledged upon winning the CAA tournament that he's felt heat for that failure.
``But most of the heat has come from one stove,'' Smith said, referring to a persistent letter writer to the Richmond newspaper, along with a columnist.
Had the Rams not made it this year, perhaps the 59-year-old Smith would have been written off by VCU. Or, he said, he might have just resigned because he wasn't getting it done.
The Rams made five NCAA tournament appearances in six seasons from 1980 to 1985 under J.D. Barnett. Smith was brought in from Auburn - which he took to five NCAA tournaments in the 1980s - to stoke the program's fire, which nearly flickered out under Barnett's replacement, Mike Pollio.
``It's really created some hard feelings that we're not able to get there,'' Smith said. ``There's been a tremendous amount of pressure to get in.''
Once he got back on the big stage, the show started.
Smith flew to Chicago on Monday to tape an ESPN program featuring round-table discussion of coaches, which host John Saunders at one point called ``The Sonny Smith Show.''
``I was going crazy,'' Smith said. ``I had fun.''
He is back in his element. Wednesday, he regaled a smattering of media members here with his homespun, self-deprecating brand of Tennessee country-boy humor. He almost seemed disappointed at one point during his news conference about the uninspired line of questioning.
``Y'all aren't full of questions. Get up there and ask me something,'' Smith said.
``He's virtually got an act,'' Los Angeles Lakers coach Del Harris said this week. Harris and Smith were teammates at Milligan College in Tennessee and served as the best man in each other's wedding.
``He's a stand-up comedian,'' Harris said. ``Or a sit-down comedian - he's funny at all times. That's part of his charm.
``He's very bright, but wants you to think the opposite so he acts like he's not. It's part of his act. It's just a way of disarming people, I guess.''
The 12th-seeded Rams will have trouble disarming fifth-seeded Mississippi State, which is fresh off a win over Kentucky in the Southeastern Conference tournament final. But VCU has a chance to match the inside power of the Bulldogs' 6-foot-11, 265-pound Erick Dampier and 6-10, 235-pound Russell Walters - at least in terms of girth.
``He's got him a team right now I know he likes,'' Harris said. ``This team is similar to the type of teams Sonny put together at Auburn. He likes the physical style and the tough defensive style these guys can play well.''
It was while he was at Auburn in the mid-1980s that Smith got to play country music's mecca. He and good friend Wimp Sanderson - then the coach at Alabama - were in Nashville for a benefit and were introduced to the Grand Ole Opry audience. Smith sang ``Rocky Top.''
``I was awful,'' Smith said. ``I have the tape, but I have it hid. Wimp said, `He's country, but he ain't no singer.' ''
Smith likely will never return to the national stage he enjoyed at Auburn, where he coached the likes of Charles Barkley and Chuck Person. But VCU athletic director Dick Sander said this week that as far as he's concerned, Smith can coach at VCU as long as he wants.
``We'd have to have rocks in our heads not to want Sonny Smith,'' Sander said.
Granted, it took a step down from the Metro Conference to the weaker Colonial Athletic Association for Smith to get VCU into the tournament. The Rams have won 17 of their last 19 games, but all of those were against CAA teams. VCU beat only two teams this season ranked among the top 120 in this week's RPI rating - UNC-Charlotte (61st) and Illinois State (71st).
But for Smith - who became coach of the year in a fourth conference this season, believed to be an NCAA first - just getting back on the big stage has been a grand ole time.
``It's been hectic and filled with interviews and the trip to Chicago and being on every radio call-in show in the country,'' Smith said. ``I got two hours of sleep the night before last, but it's been great.
``It's like getting a load off your back that you've carried for five or six years.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
VCU's Sonny Smith was on the hot seat. But tonight he'll face
Mississippi State (7:30, WTKR) in the NCAA tournament.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sonny Smith checks Patrick Lee's form. His 12th-seeded Rams face
Mississippi State tonight in a first-round game.
by CNB