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This week’s episode of The Passing Game with Fletcher Arritt features one of the youngest head coaches in Division I basketball, Shaka Smart.  Coach Smart is Virginia Commonwealth University’s thirty-three year old head men’s basketball coach.  Shaka, who is named after an African king, played his college ball at Kenyon College in Ohio.  At Kenyon, he earned all NCAC honors and still holds the school’s single-season and career assist record.  Coach Smart began his coaching career at the California University of Pennsylvania where he served as an assistant basketball coach while earning his master’s degree.   From there, Smart moved on to the University of Dayton, where he served as Director of Basketball Operations.  Two years later, after a short stint as Director of Basketball Operations at Clemson, Coach Smart took a coaching position at the University of Akron.  While at Akron, Smart helped lead the Zips to a 42-20 record in two seasons.  From Akron, he then returned to Clemson, this time as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator, a position he held for two years before spending a year at the University of Florida under Coach Billy Donavan.

               On March 31, 2009 Shaka Smart was named as head coach of the VCU Rams.  In his first press conference, Smart introduced his philosophy of “wreaking havoc” through an up tempo style that utilizes the full court press to its utmost potential.  In his first year at the helm, Shaka led the Rams to a CBI championship and a 27-9 record.

(LISTEN) Ron Everhart (Virginia Tech '85) is on the phone with Coach Arritt and Brooks Berry in this week's edition of The Passing Game with Fletcher Arritt.  Everhart, who is originally from Fairmont, WV has been a head coach at the D-I level since 1994.  He is currently entering his 5th season at Duquesne where he led the Dukes to the 2009 A-10 championship game.

Everhart has earned the respect of his coaching peers by turning around faltering programs--McNeese State (1994-2001), Northeastern (2001-2006), and now Duquesne.  In September 2006, Everhart's first season with the Dukes, the program was rocked by a "random act of violence" when 5 players were shot on campus while trying to calm a local man who had been disrtuptive following a school dance.  The five players eventually recovered, and 3 seasons later, Everhart has his program moving up the ranks in the Atlantic 10.  He shares lessons learned in during his life in basketball as well as thoughts on coaching in today's game and building a winning program.

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Joe Gallagher, a coaching veteran of over 30 years is on the phone with Fletcher Arritt and Brooks Berry in this week's edition of The Passing Game.  Gallagher spent decades at the collegiate and NBA levels, including head coaching stints at his alma mater UNC Pembroke (1975-1978), Methodist College (1973-1975), and Belmont Abbey (1991-1992).  As an NBA assistant, Coach Gallagher (left with his wife Sharon and family) made stops in Boston and Philadelphia where he established himself as an expert on post play. He also served as an assistant at UNC Greensboro, the University of Richmond, Boston College, and Campbell University.

As an assistant at the University of Richmond (1979-1986 and 1992-1996), Coach Gallagher helped the Spiders to two NCAA Tournaments and two NIT berths--defeating Charles Barkley's Auburn Tigers in the first round of the 1986 NCAA Tournament.

Coach Gallagher is a native of Philadelphia and a 1968 graduate of Pembroke State (now UNC Pembroke), where he averaged 20.1 points and 13.3 rebounds for the Braves.  He was inducted into the Pembroke Hall of Fame in 1980.

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Former UPenn head coach and GM of the back-to-back NBA Champion Houston Rockets (1994, 1995), Bob Weinhauer is our featured on this edition of The Passing Game with Fletcher Arritt.  Coach Weinhauer joined Chuck Daly's UPenn staff in 1973 and helped the squad to 5 straight Ivy League titles, 4 NCAA tournaments, and 1 NIT.  When Coach Daly made the jump to the NBA in 1977, Coach Weinhauer was the obvious choice to take over the storied Philadelphia program.

In 1979, Weinhauer's Penn Quakers entered the NCAA Tournament's 40 team field seeded 9th.  They defeated a Jim Valvano Iona team in the first-round, and then went on to take down UNC (Dean Smith) and Syracuse (Jim Boeheim) before reaching the Final Four in Salt Lake City, UT.  In what is considered by some to be one of the greatest tournaments in history, Coach Weinhauer's Quakers fell to Magic Johnson and the Michigan State Spartans--who went on to defeat Larry Bird's Indiana State team in the final game.

Like Daly, Weinhauer found success at the NBA level, assisting the Sixers, Hawks, and Timberwolves before becoming the General Manager of the Houston Rockets in 1994.  Coach Weinhauer won two NBA Championships with the Rockets.  He was named GM of the Milwaukee Bucks in 1997, where he stayed until 1999.

In this episode, Coach Weinhauer is on the phone from his home in Savannah, GA, talking with Coach Arritt and Brooks Berry about his collegiate and NBA experiences.

As always, the show is available on the site and iTunes.

(LISTEN)  Former Temple University and NBA head coach Don Casey will be making an appearance on this week's installment of The Passing Game with Fletcher Arritt.  Known as "the Czar of the Zone," Casey spent 9 seasons at the helm of the Temple program (1973-1982) before jumping to the NBA as an assistant with Paul Westhead and the Chicago Bulls.  He was named head coach of the Los Angeles Clippers where he coached for one season (1989-1990) before spending 6 seasons with the Boston Celtics (1990-1997).  In 1998, he replaced John Calipari as the head coach of the New Jersey Nets (2000).

Casey also spent many seasons as a head coach in Europe.  Primarily Italy, where he was named Coach of the Year in the Italian Basketball League after taking his Milan squad to the finals in 1979.  He is an expert on zone defense and offense, and is instrumental in preparing Team USA players for international competition (Left, Derek Rose and Don Casey). 

Casey was appointed by President Bill Clinton as Vice Chairman of The President's Council on Physical Fitness in 2000.  He served that position until 2002.

His book, Own the Zone: executing and attacking zone defenses, was published by McGraw Hill in 2007.  He currently resides in San Diego, CA and is working on the 3rd edition.  A gifted raconteur, Casey will be telling old Celtics stories and talking NBA, Europe, and international competition with Coach Arritt and Brooks Berry.  Tune in 9 AM Saturday to ESPN 950 in Richmond or 102.1 FM in VA Beach.  As always, the podcast will be available on this website and iTunes.