February 11, 2009

David Fox
Rivals.com College Basketball Staff Writer

The daily routine for students at Virginia Military Institute starts before 7 a.m., with a wake-up call into the barracks.

"Barracks" is an accurate description of what there is on the Lexington, Va., campus. This is no regular college dorm room. Four or five cadets share a room ? without air conditioning ? and sleep on cots. No refrigerators. No TVs. No iPods.

The day ends with a playing of "Taps," with lights out before midnight.

For VMI basketball players these days, the routine sometimes includes chucking "3s," running roughshod over opponents and hanging 100 points on the scoreboard.

"Military is our middle name," VMI coach Duggar Baucom said. "It's kind of going to summer camp ? but you can't take fun stuff with you."

Classes are tough, and so is the discipline at VMI. Unlike at the service academies, VMI graduates are not required to serve in the military upon graduation. But it's still a military academy, and in this age of one-and-dones and pampered prep superstars, try selling that to recruits.

Despite all the hurdles, VMI is entering seldom-traveled territory. The Keydets beat Charleston Southern 82-76 on Monday for their 20th victory; it's VMI's first 20-win season since 1977-78. In between, VMI won only 33.8 percent of its games and posted single-digit wins in 11 seasons.

VMI leads the nation in scoring (95.8 ppg), 3-pointers (322) and steals (339), and with their breakneck style of play, the Keydets are challenging for their first NCAA tournament berth since 1977. VMI has to win the Big South tourney to get an NCAA bid, but the Keydets (20-4 overall, 11-2 Big South) are tied for the first in the league and beat co-leader Radford on the road.

If VMI reaches the tournament, there's precedent for a Cinderella story.

In a first-round game in the East Regional in the 1976 tournament, VMI shocked Tennessee 81-75. Led by Bernard King and Ernie Grunfeld, the Volunteers were ranked 13th in the country and went 21-5 that season. In the regional semifinal, the Keydets stunned 17th-ranked DePaul 71-66 in overtime. A bid to the Final Four ended with a 91-75 loss to undefeated Rutgers in the regional final. The star Keydets were swingmen Will Bynum and Ron Carter. Carter, who later played two seasons in the NBA, picked up four first-half fouls in the loss to Rutgers, which obviously hampered VMI in the second half. Bynum scored 34 in the loss to the Scarlet Knights.

The Keydets haven't been back a postseason tournament ? NCAA or NIT ? since.

This season's Keydets team is relying on the highest-scoring set of twins in NCAA history. Chavis Holmes ranks 14th in the country at 22.2 points per game; Travis Holmes ranks 38th at 19.5 points per game. The brothers, who are from Charlotte, N.C., are 6-foot-4 seniors; Chavis is a guard and Travis a forward.

The tournament teams of 1976 and '77 had only one regular taller than 6-6. This season, VMI's tallest starter is 6-6, and the average height of the Keydets' top eight scorers is just over 6-3½. But the team is stocked with offensive-minded players, and ingrained with the discipline of a military academy, the players are keenly receptive to coaching.

"You have to understand they are bright players," said Blair, also a former NBA head coach who now is retired in Hilton Head, S.C. "And these guys have enough ability to do it. You can throw out anything and they can handle it."

Blair and Schmaus were the leading scorers on VMI's first NCAA team, in 1964, when the Keydets lost to Bill Bradley-led Princeton. Blair coached the tournament team in 1976; Schmaus was an assistant in '76 and was coach in '77.

"We had a really outstanding shooting team," Blair said of the '76 team, "We might not get biggest guys and most athletic, so we figured we had to recruit shooters."

VMI in 2008-09 has a similar mind-set, though the Keydets take it to the extreme. Baucom, 47, said the goal is to take the first open shot, then crash the boards for an offensive rebound.

"I'm a frustrated football coach," Baucom said. "I love to watch Texas Tech and Missouri, even Arizona and the no-huddle. I think that it's the same philosophy. Texas Tech is going to make defenses adjust to them."

Modeling his style of play from the Loyola Marymount teams from the late 1980s and early '90s, Baucom ran a similar system at Division II Tusculum College in Greenville, Tenn., before arriving at VMI in time for the 2005-06 season.

Under Baucom, Tusculum used a traditional post player and averaged 80 points a game. After going 7-20 with that formula in his first season at VMI and realizing he was unlikely to be able to sign enough traditional post players, the Keydets abandoned the big man almost completely in Baucom's second season. VMI averaged 100.9 points per game that year.

"We said if we're going to be different, let's be dramatically different," Baucom said.

VMI led the nation in scoring for two seasons but didn't cause a stir until this year's opener, a 111-103 win at Kentucky. The landmark win was a textbook game for the Keydets' system.

Baucom wants his teams to attempt nearly 80 field goals whenever possible. Against the Wildcats, VMI was 35-of-72 from the field and 13-of-31 from beyond the arc. VMI also hit other important benchmarks against Kentucky, including double-digit offensive rebounds (10) and at least 20 forced turnovers (25, including 13 steals).

"We won playing our style," Baucom said. "To go in there and score 111 on Billy Gillispie was pretty satisfying because he's such a good coach. It made guys believe in our system more."

Kentucky may only be the start. If VMI ends its tourney drought this season, "it will be monumental, no question about it," Schmaus said. "When we did it, we were on top of the world.

"To be able to go to NCAAs, that's what every kid's goal is."

David Fox is a national writer for Rivals.com. He can be reached at dfox@rivals.com.