Virginia Commonwealth coach Shaka Smart didn't immediately command the same kind of respect as his predecessor, Anthony Grant. Players were intimidated by Grant. Some of them actually would laugh when Smart got mad.
"With coach Smart being different, guys felt he didn't know what he was talking about and didn't know what he was doing, because he wasn't running it like coach Grant," junior guard Bradford Burgess said.
But Smart won them over by building relationships. One of the guiding principles of sports is that what's good for individuals is secondary to what's good for the team. Smart takes a slightly different approach.
He said his core philosophy is to develop players to the best of their ability on and off the court. If you do that, Smart said, team success will follow.
"If you spend time with your guys, they know that you have their back," Smart said. "They know that you care about them and care about their families. Then when they do get on the court and you ask them to do something, and we ask a lot, then they're more likely to do it."