Professors of the press, Huggins & Smart share mutual admiration

Last March, to reach the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament, West Virginia utilized its patented press defense to perfection, beating Maryland, 69-59 during the round of 32 at Nationwide Arena in Columbus.

As a team, West Virginia racked up 15 steals while forcing Maryland to turn the ball over 23 times. Standout Maryland guards Dez Wells and Melo Trimble combined to give up the ball eleven times versus the suffocating full court pressure.

It was during the month of March, when West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins reached out to then-VCU head coach Shaka Smart. In 2011, under the tutelage of Smart, the Rams went all the way to the Final Four using a similar full court pressure defense.

Following the Final Four appearance, Smart’s scheme allowed VCU to lead the nation in team steals for each of the next three seasons. Since Huggins installed the press at West Virginia, the Mountaineers led the country in team steals last season and currently lead the statistical category this year.

“We actually called him (Smart) last year to talk a little bit about pressure during the NCAA tournament to see if he had any different insight for us in what we were doing,” Huggins said. “He’s a great guy.”

“When we talked in March, we talked about a specific opponent,” Smart recalled.

“He (Huggins) was getting my thoughts on the specifics of pressing that team. A lot of it, when you have a pressing team is really about understanding your opponent’s personnel and how to best takeaway some of the things that they do best. You want to make guys in that system do things that they aren’t comfortable doing.”

Just weeks after the conversation took place, Smart moved on from VCU and was named the head coach at Texas.

Tomorrow night at the Coliseum in Morgantown, Smart and Texas will meet Huggins and West Virginia. Though the two coaches are friendly with each other, the game marks the first time that Smart and Huggins will matchup against one another.

West Virginia is turning its opponents over more than 20 times per game, but Texas has protected the ball well, only giving it away eleven times per contest.

Despite taking care of the ball, Smart feels there isn’t any good way to prepare for West Virginia’s pressure.

“We used to kind of laugh when were at VCU and other coaches would say they put six, seven or eight guys on the other side of the floor in preparation for us, so I know opponents do that to prepare for West Virginia,” Smart said.

“That’s not realistic because the beauty of the way West Virginia plays is having five guys out there, while making it look like six, seven or eight guys. You can try to use some gimmicks to prepare, but one of the great things about this style of play is that it’s basically impossible to simulate in practice.”

Five West Virginia players – Jevon Carter, Tarik Phillip, Daxter Miles Jr., Esa Ahmad and Jon Holton – average greater than a steal per game.

At Texas, Smart is currently trying to implement a press like he had at VCU and what West Virginia runs now.

“West Virginia is by far the best pressing team in the country,” Smart said. “And to be honest, we’re a long way from where we want to be with the way we want to impact people with our full court press.”

“We’re in our first year trying to implement it. It’s more of a mentality, than anything Xs and Os wise. It’s something that Coach Huggins has done a phenomenal job creating at West Virginia.”

Oddly enough, Smart’s affection for full court defense came from current University of Akron coach Keith Dambrot, who knows Huggins well. Huggins, Smart and Dambrot all have ties to the state of Ohio. Smart played basketball at Kenyon College, located northeast of Columbus. Dambrot coached perennial NBA all-star LeBron James at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron. Finally, Huggins grew up in Ohio and had stops during his coaching career at Ohio State, Walsh, Akron and Cincinnati.

Smart learned about the press from Dambrot before furthering his knowledge as an assistant coach for Oliver Purnell at Clemson and Billy Donavan at Florida.