They call it "fake it until you feel it."
It's a little catchphrase that VCU coach Shaka Smart hopes will ward off the practice doldrums that hit point guard Briante Weber -- and, in turn, spread to the Rams -- last season.
"Basically it means to pretend like I'm alright, clap or whatever, until eventually I feel alright,'' Weber said. "It's like a way to trick myself.''
For VCU, ranked 17th in ESPN.com's Power Rankings, to realize its potential Weber will have to be a masterful magician. The senior is not the Rams' best player. That distinction falls to Treveon Graham, who in all likelihood will surpass Eric Maynor and become the school's all-time leading scorer this year.
But Weber, who stands 66th in our #CBBrank of the top 100 players in college basketball, is the most critical player. His style of play wreaks the havoc that is the Rams' HAVOC, but even more, Weber is the team's pulse. When he is on and all-in, VCU is on and all-in.
And when he's not?
Well, that's what happened at the end of last season, when the Rams took early exits in both the Atlantic 10 and NCAA tournaments.
The blame for those losses doesn't fall entirely at Weber's feet, but he at least shared a large part of it.
"He's a lightning rod,'' Smart said. "He's like a Deion Sanders type. I remember they quoted Deion a long time ago. He said, 'They don't pay me to be humble.' That's Bri. I don't think he's going to win any awards for humility, but hopefully he's getting better in that area. In terms of us being connected, he's the center of that, but he hast to make it about his teammates and not himself.''
Life dealt Weber a good heaping of humble pie this offseason. This summer, he was suspended for the Rams' exhibition game and season opener for a violation of team rules. The Richmond Times-Dispatch, citing a VCU police report, said Weber had been charged with misdemeanor petit larceny for stealing an iPhone 5 from the gym.
It will make for some terrific road game fodder, no doubt. VCU's all-time steals leader and the nation's leader in steals the last three years arrested for stealing is a setup that doesn't require much cleverness on the part of opposing fans.
"In terms of us being connected, he's the center of that, but he hast to make it about his teammates and not himself."Shaka Smart, on Briante Weber
But whether or not this becomes a redemptive story is to be determined.
Because the act of thievery -- petty in legal terms, stupid and immature in Weber's terms -- is, in fact, a selfish act. And that is exactly the kind of thing Weber has to get over.
Weber is a lot of great things. From his trademark headband to his wicked quick hands, he is one of the biggest on-court personalities in college basketball. He plays with a ferociousness that any coach in the country would welcome to his roster. And he's got a swagger that just teeters on the border of arrogance.
All great athletes do. Properly channeled arrogance can be a powerful weapon. It's when it becomes less of an attitude and more of an action that it becomes a problem.
And that's the line Weber started to cross a year ago.
He's the first to admit it. Ask him why he needs "to fake it until he feels it," and Weber explains it's because toward the end of last season, he neither felt it nor faked it. Some of it was fatigue -- the Rams don't condition so much as they practice as they play, which becomes inherent conditioning -- but a lot of it was just him, no excuses.
"At the end of the season, I wasn't practicing as hard, really practice was dreadful,'' he said. "If I wasn't going to lead or try to get better that day, everyone else pretty much took the same attitude as me. It would be like, 'Man, we don't want to be here, either.'''
Weber fell victim to a common athlete affliction -- he started to read and believe his own press clips. He liked what people were saying about him, both in the media and in his inner circle.
Understandably so, because not only was there plenty of good to say, but also Weber hadn't really had the chance to bask in his own glory before.
The basketball bandit has led the nation in steals percentage for three years in a row and owns VCU's career steals record, but he was only marginally recruited out of high school.
Though talented -- Weber averaged 17 points, five assists and four steals in his senior year at Great Bridge High School in Chesapeake, Virginia, -- he also was skinny and his sleight of hand defense couldn't make up for his slight frame. He was neither coddled nor told from middle school how great he was or would become. Other than VCU, no major schools made him a scholarship offer. And the Rams' offer came in 2010, before the Final Four run, so they weren't exactly the big brand they've since become, either.
But Smart, still mining the recruiting trails for under-the-radar players, thought Weber could fit his style of play.
Weber has more than fit it, of course. He's come to define it. You'd be hard pressed to find a player and a system more copacetic anywhere in the country.
"I can't honestly come up with the words to describe how much I love playing the way we play,'' Weber said. "The first time we actually get into the press, I can tell if a team can handle it or if they're ready to fold up. You can sense it in the crowd, too. If it's on the road, they're just holding their breath. It's just ... I don't know. It's me.''
Now the trick is to turn me into we, to take that swagger and spread the love around to the rest of the team.
Weber is working on it.
He's already politely told the outsiders to stop talking about what he should do and could do -- 'I don't try to put them down, but at the same time I just say, 'if you know so much, why aren't you a college coach right now?' -- and he's working toward living up to Smart's five core values: appreciation, enthusiasm, competitiveness, accountability and unselfishness.
He already, by his coach's definition, epitomizes two -- enthusiasm and competitiveness.
"And when I say epitomizes, there may be someone else out there as enthusiastic and competitive as Bri, but there's nobody more,'' Smart said.
And certainly Weber sounds appreciative when he talks about his VCU experience.
The misdemeanor has been a lesson in accountability.
Now, the question is can Weber master the last one, the unselfishness? He believes he can.
"At times last year, I know I got caught up in myself too much,'' he said, "and that came up to bite us as a team. I have to be better at that this year. I've learned from my mistakes.''
Weber swears he's feeling that.
Not faking it.