Return Fire! Shaka Smart Goes On ESPN, Says Joe Lunardi Is Not “Be All And End All” Of Bracketology

(By Dan Fogarty, SportsGrid) - When VCU Rams head coach Shaka Smart appeared on ESPN2 this morning, he was clearly prepared to fight if he had to.

At some point, Smart knew it would come up: that, despite a so-so resume, his VCU Rams were selected to the NCAA tournament, even after going 3-5 in February. And although ESPN wasn’t the only critic of VCU’s selection, they were by far the most vocal, with analyst Jay Bilas calling their selection “indefensible.”

So he may have felt, at least on some level, that he was on enemy territory. Or, at the very least, that he was dealing with a media outlet that may not respect his program.

Which explains why Smart played his ace-in-the-hole in an interview on 'First Take' this morning.