Walnut and Bronze eluded Dave Macedo on his first trip to Salem, as an assistant coach, but the second time around brought hardware. Photo by Pat Coleman, D3sports.com

By Pat Coleman
D3hoops.com

SALEM — To hear the pundits and the fans talk, Dave Macedo’s second trip to the Final Four wasn’t going to be much different than the first.

That previous trip, in 1998, came on the heels of an incredible sectional round in which the two Sweet 16 games each went to overtime and Wilkes emerged after defeating Rowan in the Elite Eight. Wilkes, with alumnus Macedo as an assistant coach, reached Salem, only to have Hope blow the doors off by jumping out to a 22-6 lead en route to a 20-point win in the national semifinals. Wilkes lost the third-place game as well.

So to see Marques Fitch emerge from the locker room wearing the Salem Civic Center’s net around his neck meant something. It’s the peak of a long climb for Virginia Wesleyan.

“We didn’t push the panic button. We chipped away at the lead and found a way to win. They (the players) don’t think it’s an upset. They expect to win.”

Macedo could have said that after either game in the Final Four, but he actually said it more than four years earlier. That was when his Marlins celebrated the grand opening of their new gymnasium by defeating No. 5 Randolph-Macon 65-64. Macedo’s three keys to winning any game are defense, rebounding and leadership, but you can pretty much distill that down into “They expect to win.”

That expectation didn’t come around overnight. When Macedo took over the head coaching job, he was still relatively new to the program, after a playing career and two years as an assistant coach at Wilkes, including that 1998 team. He came to Virginia Wesleyan as an assistant under Terry Butterfield, then took over when Butterfield left. What he inherited was a team that played second fiddle in its own area and couldn’t beat the big boys in its conference.

“It was Christopher Newport, it was Hampden-Sydney and Randolph-Macon my first three years,” Macedo says. “We could never win the big game. We always got there. We beat the teams we should’ve beat but we could never beat those three teams. We just got some good players, who were able to make plays against those type of teams, we got our first couple wins under our belt and things started changing.“

The gymnasium changed, too. Instead of playing at an area high school they had an on-campus facility that opened early in 2002.

“We finally didn’t have to show blueprints of the facility, we started walking kids through,” Macedo recalls. “Then we started getting some local recruits, everybody started opening their eyes and saying, ‘maybe we should take a look at Virginia Wesleyan.’ Once we landed Marques Fitch, Brandon (Adair), Ton Ton (Balenga), it was, ‘Wow, these big-time guys are going to Virginia Wesleyan,’ and then we got a couple freshmen right now who are playing roles for us.”

Virginia Wesleyan made the Salem Civic Center its second home. Photo by Pat Coleman, D3sports.com

The second point of realization came last year, in a second-round loss at York (Pa.). “Against us they made big-time plays in big-time situations and made tough shots,” Macedo says. “If you look at our NCAA Tournament run we did that through the whole thing. When we needed a bucket or a stop we did that. We just kept fighting and clawing.

“I always think you need two go-to guys on the team, Ton Ton and Brandon for us, to make those type of plays and the rest of the guys just do their part and we have a chance.”

As Virginia Wesleyan has improved (16, 18, 20, 24 and 30 wins), Wilkes and coach Jerry Rickrode have been out of the NCAA Tournament (15, 17, 18, 15 and 14 wins). As the program’s paths have diverged, however, the coaches remain close. “Jerry’s the guy who gave me my start in this profession,” Macedo says. “We had a lot of success together, at Wilkes, as a player and coach. There’s probably not a big decision in my life that I haven’t talked to him about.”

That includes the national championship game itself. “He called me twice today, we talked about the scouting report, he’s somebody I can always rely on.

“He watched it live on the video, we just talked about some things he thought I needed to do, liked what we did and how we coached. We just talked a little X’s and O’s.”

For now, it’s a little rest and celebration when Virginia Wesleyan’s students come back from break next Monday. But with the Walnut and Bronze comes a heavy burden as well, and with four starters returning next year, the defending national champ will likely come into the 2006-07 season with the preseason No. 1 ranking.

“We know we’re obviously going to get everyone’s A game, and you’re going to have to be ready night in and night out. Everyone’s got that game circled. So we better have a great offseason, a great recruiting year, and work that much harder come Oct. 15.”