VCU was riding high. Their men’s basketball team had been steadily growing in national stature under head coach and Mike Krzyzewski disciple Jeff Capel, who had recently reached terms on a contract extension with the school that inked him until 2012.

But then a chain of events that began with Mike Davis’ firing from Indiana and Kelvin Sampson’s subsequent decision to leave Oklahoma to take the Hoosiers’ job in turn thrusted Jeff Capel from his perch in Richmond to the bigger stage of the Big 12 and Norman. VCU was suddenly without a coach. Although it was always expected that a coach with Capel’s promise and pedigree would one day leave for more prominent pastures, the Rams had thought that day was still a few years off.

Although stunned, VCU acted quickly and followed the same strategy they implemented when they first hired Capel in targeting a promising young assistant coach from a top national program with tutoring from a coaching great. Enter Anthony Grant.

Grant, who was Billy Donovan’s top assistant at National Champion Florida, had been considered a top coaching candidate but still had not snagged that elusive head coaching job.

VCU and Grant turned out to be a perfect match. A program that was looking to continue to build and a promising coach looking for a place he could make a name for himself.

Hired as the Rams’ head coach in April, Grant has thrust himself into the school and community. He seems to be making all the right moves, including even buying pizzas for students studying for Spring finals.

VCU has had moments of success in the past, but the program has been building to something that can be consistently great. Richmond offers a potentially strong recruiting base at the cross-sections of DC, Baltimore, the Tidewater area, and the Carolinas from which Grant, recognized as one of Donovan’s top recruiters during his ten seasons with the Gators, can take advantage of. VCU also has a great arena and growing fanbase, along with membership in the CAA which after last season’s NCAA’s and NIT will garner increased national attention.

VCU’s hope is that Grant will not only bring more success VCU’s way, which I think is a certainty, but that he’ll actually stick around  for more than a few years. That’s the constant struggle of being a mid-major in that consistent success by one of your coaches will ultimately lead to him getting cherry picked by another program.  That’s a problem for the future though, and VCU feels very happy with their present.