25th Anniversary Profile: VMI Men's Basketball
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – As part of the Big South Conference’s 25th Anniversary celebration in 2008-09, which is presented by Royal Purple, the Conference is profiling each week the Top 25 “Best of the Best” moments in League history. This week’s feature is the national record breaking VMI Men’s Basketball Program.
A video vignette around the Keydets’ NCAA records, featuring a retrospective from head coach Duggar Baucom, can be viewed on the Big South’s website, www.BigSouthSports.com, under the 25th Anniversary Media Center banner. In addition, video vignettes around all the Top 25 “Best of the Best” moments are available for viewing online.
In 2006-07, VMI’s men’s basketball team was coming off head coach Duggar Baucom’s first season and a 7-20 record, including a 2-14 mark in Big South play in the nine-team Conference. The Keydets finished last in the League in 2005-06 and did not qualify for the postseason tournament. Despite four starters returning and 10 letterwinners back in 2006-07, the preseason prognosticators predicted another last-place finish for VMI. During preseason practice, personnel losses of two key players forced Baucom to tweak his system. And tweak it he did.
The Keydets opened Baucom’s second season with a 107-69 loss at No. 4 Ohio State and a four-point loss against Princeton. In its third game of the year against South Dakota State, VMI won 104-89. But it was the Keydets’ next game that officially started what was to become a record-setting offensive juggernaut. On Nov. 15, 2006, VMI set a Big South single-game record for most points scored in its 156-95 win over Virginia Intermont. In that contest, Big South records were also set in three-point attempts (61), three-pointers made (21) and field goal attempts (118). The Keydets followed that game with a 144-127 victory over Southern Virginia, and their scoring onslaught and record book re-writing was on.
VMI’s new offensive system and defensive schemes created havoc for its opponents. VMI would go on to score more than 100 points in four more non-Conference games, and in other games, the Keydets’ new style kept them in more contests than ever before. Of VMI’s 10 non-Conference losses, seven were by seven points-or-less. By the end of December, VMI’s high-scoring offense, as well as the mastermind behind it, began receiving national attention from all corners of the United States.
The new year brought on the Big South schedule, and the Keydets’ new offense had the focus of each Big South coach. One of the main factors in the new offense was VMI’s pressure defense, which caused countless turnovers, hurried passes and missed second chances for the opposition. Although the Keydets lost more than they won in Conference, VMI finished sixth with a 5-9 record and averaged 101.7 points in League play, in addition to 12.21 three-pointers per game, 21.00 assists and 14.93 steals per game. Nationally, VMI broke the NCAA single-season record for three-pointers on Feb. 24, 2007, and would go on to establish new marks for steals and three-pointers per game. The Keydets made 19 three-pointers in a game eight times in 2006-07.
In the 2007 Advance Auto Parts Men’s Basketball Championship, VMI drew No. 3 Liberty for a quarterfinal road game in Lynchburg, Va. During the regular-season, the Flames swept the season series by scores of 122-117 and 118-108, and the meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 27 had all observers wondering how many Tournament records would fall and how high the score would be.
After watching the team pile up three-pointers and steals at an NCAA recording-breaking fashion, the Keydets changed things up in the Conference tournament. In a genius move, Baucom switched to a zone defense in the halfcourt after pressing and trapping in the full court throughout the season. The move baffled Liberty and allowed VMI to squeak past with a 79-78 victory to advance to the Semifinals against No. 2 High Point, which would be played on a neutral court in Rock Hill, S.C. Against the Panthers in front of national TV audience on ESPNU, VMI again held back its up-tempo game and managed a 91-81 win to reach the Big South Championship game against Winthrop. The Keydets were just the second No. 6 seed to advance to the Championship game in the Big South’s Tournament history.
VMI stayed close to Winthrop in the Championship Game, never trailing by more than nine points and remaining within a field goal on several occasions. The Keydets tied the game twice late in the contest, and with 9.7 seconds left trailed 84-81. VMI forced Winthrop into a shot clock violation and regained possession for the final shot with a chance to tie. The Keydets worked the ball to leading scorer Reggie Williams, who had curled up from the right baseline to take the basketball at mid-court. Williams tried to manuver in, but Winthrop defenders forced him to pull-up and attempt an off-balance 27-footer which sailed wide right as time expired.
Still, it was a banner year for VMI basketball in 2006-07. Using their unique up-tempo system for most of the season, the Keydets won the most games (14) in nine years and set NCAA season marks in three-pointers (442) and threes-attempted (1,383). They also set the standard with 13.4 three-pointers per game and steals with 490. In all, VMI set five NCAA Division I season records and 13 Big South single-season marks during the 2006-07 campaign. VMI also became the first Big South team in history to lead the NCAA in scoring, and its 100.9 points per game average shattered the previous Big South record. VMI was the first team in NCAA Division I to average 100.0 points per game since Southern University in 1994. The Keydets scored 100 points in 17 games, and had an additional eight games in the 90s.
In addition, the Keydets produced the individual national scoring champion in junior Reggie Williams. Williams averaged a League-record 28.1 points per game, and it marked just the 10th time since 1947-48 that one team led the NCAA in scoring offense and produced the nation’s individual scoring leader in the same season. Defensively, Travis Holmes became the first Keydet to lead NCAA Division I in steals with 3.4 per contest.
With an amazing championship run under its belt and four starters back in 2007-08 – including Williams and Holmes, VMI was predicted to finish third in the Big South. The Keydets’ style did not sneak up on anyone and they toned down the run-and-gun style.
VMI opened Conference play 2-0 in 2007-08 with road wins at Charleston Southern and Coastal Carolina. Williams was lost to injury for four of the first seven League games, but VMI managed a 5-5 record with four games to go. However, a strong finish was out of reach and VMI ended the Conference season 6-8 and 14-14 overall. VMI tied for fifth in the standings, earned the No. 5 seed via a tiebreaker and again drew Liberty in the quarterfinals. This time, the Keydets could not pull off the quarterfinal upset and were eliminated for the tournament.
While averaging less points than the year before, VMI’s 91.3 scoring average again led the nation, making VMI just the ninth men’s basketball team in NCAA Division I history to lead the country in scoring in consecutive seasons, and the first since Arizona in 2003 and 2004. The Keydets also paced the nation again in three-pointers per game (11.6) and steals per game (12.7). Williams followed suit and again was the individual scoring champion with his 27.3 points per contest, despite missing four games to injury, and concluded his career as the Big South’s all-time leading scorer.
VMI’s record-breaking basketball program is one of the Top 25 “Best of the Best” moments in League history. The Conference is conducting an online fan poll to help determine the Top Moment in the first 25 years of the Big South Conference. Voting is open on www.BigSouthSports.com and continues through March 25. Fan voting will be combined with the 25th Anniversary Committee’s votes to come up with the official rank order of the “Best of the Best” moments. The countdown will be unveiled at the concluding 25th Anniversary banquet in May 2009.
(Portions of this profile provided by VMI’s Sports Information Office)
Next week’s featured “Best of the Best” moment and vignette: Radford’s Women’s Basketball Dynasty.