A Few Minutes with VMI’s Duggar Baucom
By Jamie Lay (posted 11-25-08)

Some call it a gimmick. Others dismiss it as a fad. These same people claimed the spread offense in college football was just another trend. Now they are the ones scrambling to defend against it. Virginia Military Institute’s run-and-shoot offense installed by Duggar Baucom is like the spread on amphetamines. While more and more offenses in college basketball are moving toward the three-guard, fast-paced, Rick Pitino style of play, none of them compare to VMI.

During the past two seasons, the Keydets have averaged 100 points per game, taken more three pointers than any other team in Division I and had the NCAA scoring leader twice. Having graduated Reggie Williams, there was some worry VMI would be rebuilding. But this year’s team features a group of veteran players who can shoot. Twins Chavis and Travis Holmes jumped to fourth on the NCAA twin’s scoring list with 2,600 career points in VMI’s upset of Kentucky two weeks ago. Travis had 30 points, seven rebounds, four steals and three assists in the win.

Before the season I talked with Coach Baucom about his style of play, how he recruits players to VMI and if it is “just another trend.”

On how he developed his offensive strategy
When I was a JV coach at North Mecklenburg [High School] in Charlotte back in the early '90s, we played very fast and used the three-point line as a weapon. That was when [Rick] Pitino was doing it at Kentucky. We watched those guys play and watched Loyola [Marymount] play when they were in their heyday with [Hank] Gathers and [Bo] Kimble.

I knew as a player I always liked to play fast. When I was a high school coach we played a team. Every time you scored they’d take it and throw it down there as fast as they could. If you did any kind of celebration what so ever they were going to shoot a lay up on the other end. I said when I was a head coach that’s they way I’m going to play. Ironically, when I got my head job at Tusculum [College in Greenville, Tenn.] I took over a team that was the lowest scoring team in the league – they played Princeton style – wait until the end of the shot clock and try to get a back door cut or something like that.

I walked in the first day and said guys you’ll go from the lowest scoring team in the league – I think they averaged 61 points a game – to the highest scoring team in the league in one year. They looked at me like I was crazy. With that is going to come a lot of conditioning, preparation. We’re going to shoot a lot of threes but it’ll be a fun style to play. We were picked sixth in the preseason and we won the league for the first time in school history my first year. We went from averaging 61 points a game to 80 points a game and led the league in scoring and field goal percentage. We didn’t shoot as many threes then but we were up-tempo. We had a decent post player so we could get the ball into him, but we shot a high percentage. We still scored 80 points with a packed defense.

Basically, you guard the basket and don’t create any live turnovers. It’s a very conservative defense for a grueling tempo. We played very fast offensively and basically very slow defensively meaning that teams would take a lot off the shot clock to get a good shot. It was kind of dual tempo and we still averaged 80. Where the year before we averaged 100 because we pressed and trapped and there are so many more possessions in a game.

On how his philosophy is different from the fast-paced three-guard style
[In 2006] we lost two players at the beginning of the season – our starting point guard and our starting 6-9 post player to honor violations. That’s when I really took it to the extreme of playing fast. We carried it into [2007]. Even though our numbers were down because we play more zone defense. Offensively, we were just as fast. We still shoot a bunch of three and our spacing and methodology was the same. Even though we were not scoring quite as many points.

On how he recruits shooters to VMI
Last year they asked, 'how did y’all get such a great shooter?' I would say, 'We didn’t have great shooter and we still don’t to some degree.' Now we’ve recruited two freshmen that can really shoot it and it was paramount that they could shoot it when we signed them. In [2006], we took a team they really hadn’t been a great three point shooting team and just tried to convince them that they were and that’s the weapon we were going to use. If you shoot enough of them, enough are going to go in. Our philosophy on offense now is, I say it jokingly but it’s true, 'We try to shoot it before we turn it over.' We think even a lefty shot or a quick shot is better than turning the ball over. If we shoot it we’re trying to go and get it off the offensive boards and good things can happen then. Whereas if throw it out of bounds or off of our foot, they go back and shoot a lay up off of us then nobody wins

On how VMI’s practice differs from other teams
A lot of coaches will work on post moves on their offense. We work on shooting – 60 to 70 percent of our practice is offense. We going to recruit guys and preach to our guys that we’re still going to utilize that line.

On why VMI’s style is not “just another trend” in college basketball
Last year we played Charleston Southern and we scored 68 in the first half. We made 16 threes and the score was 68-35 at halftime. I looked at the games that night on the ticker and so many teams none of them scored 68 points.

Some people like winning 62-55. I’d much rather. In 2006 we played Penn State. It was a guaranteed game – they paid us $65,000 for us to come play that game. They’re a Big 10 team and we’re a Big South team. We were picked last in the Big South. They were picked in the lower part of the Big 10. We go and play and lose by 18 but the score was 129-111 – much more of an entertaining game for the fans than us getting beat 68-50. We made 19 threes in game. They shot 53 FT to our 20. We lost by 18. From a coaching standpoint I’d rather go down fighting.