Image: VCUathletics.com
Mahanoy City native Mike Rhoades is the 2018-19 Atlantic 10 Conference Coach of the Year.
Rhoades, 46, led the Virginia Commonwealth University Rams to a 16-2 record in A-10 play this year. They’re 25-6 overall. His team was picked to finish 7th in the Atlantic 10 this year, according to the conference.
The 16 conference wins is the most in the A-10 since the 2005-6 season. They’re the top seed in this week’s conference tournament. However, it’s likely the Rams will secure an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament later this month even if they don’t win the conference tourney.
Image: VCUathletics.com
The Rams will play on Friday at noon. You can see Rhoades and his team in action on NBCSN. The tournament is at Barclays Center in Brooklyn if you have the time and means to get there.
This was Rhoades’ second season at the helm of VCU.
Mike Rhoades A10 Coach of the Year
Rhoades took over at VCU for the 2017-18 season. It was just two years after famed head coach Shaka Smart left the school for University of Texas.
Over his career, Rhoades has a 287-149 record as a coach. Before VCU, he was head coach at Rice University. He was 47-52 overall there, but 23-12 in his final season before returning to VCU. Prior to Rhoades’ arrival at Rice, the Owls were awful. So, his overall record there was a vast improvement.
He had been an assistant under Smart. Before that, he coached from 1999-2009 at Division III Randolph-Macon. There, he took the Yellow Jackets to 4 Division III tournaments, including a pair of consecutive trips the D3 Final Four.
Rhoades played for Lebanon Valley College from 1991-95. In 1994, his Flying Dutchmen team won the D3 National Championship. He’s the school record holder in assists,s teals, and free-throw percentage. The school retired his number 5. At LVC, Rhoades was coached by Pottsville’s Pat Flannery, who eventually went on to coach the Bucknell men’s team to national prominence.
VCU Prospects for March Madness
Right now, the Rams are picked as a 7 seed by SBnation.com. ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has the Rams as an 8 seed. CBS predicts the Rams will get a 7 seed.
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