In November, if you’re the coach of a college basketball team you want to see lots of potential.

The roles aren’t completely set. The freshmen will get better. Because the team’s unique chemistry for the season ahead has yet to form, it’s still easier to see the abilities of individuals. It takes real competition for a group of individual egos to become a team with its own identity.

Then, in March, to win against good teams your squad has to be more than a collection of abilities; it has to have heart.

Like their rookie head coach, Shaka Smart, the VCU men’s basketball players who watched the NCAA Basketball Championship Selection Show on Sunday evening must have felt the loss of what could have been — what got away from them during the 2009-10 season.

Then, as the evening wore on, missing out on an NIT bid may have come as a bit of a shock.

The Rams, as led by Coach Smart, showed a startling potential when they beat (then No. 17) Oklahoma, 82-69, at the Siegel Center on Nov. 21. What the VCU team lacked as it entered the Colonial Athletic Association’s tournament on Mar. 5 wasn’t good players with lots of athleticism. It was heart.

That isn’t to say the Rams didn’t hustle in the 125 minutes of play they lasted in the conference’s tournament. In particular, guards Ed Nixon and Joey Rodriguez left their all on the floor.

For the most part, while they didn’t always play with savvy and common purpose, the Rams played hard. What VCU lacked wasn’t individual effort so much as it was collective heart — the bona fide confidence/esprit de corps a team builds up by proving to itself in competition that it is better than the sum of its parts.

The Anthony Grant-coached VCU outfit that upset Duke in the first round of the NCAAs on Mar. 15, 2007, was just such a purposeful unit. When Eric Maynor released the jump shot that won the game, 79-77, he had an assortment of trustworthy role-players on the floor with him — Jesse Pellot-Rosa and B.A. Walker chief among them.

Grant left VCU after three seasons. Maynor, Pellot-Rosa and Walker were all brought in by Grant’s predecessor, Jeff Capel. While Grant’s credentials as a coach aren’t in question, here, it’s worth remembering that he didn’t recruit the leaders who made sure VCU had the gravitas to beat Duke.

On the flipside, Grant recruited fizzlers Lance Kearse and Jay Gavin. No one will ever confuse them with Pellot-Rosa, style-wise. Grant also recruited Larry Sanders, who improved so much in his first two seasons he was viewed as a potential first-round NBA pick, coming into this season.

But Sanders’ third season on W. Broad St. has been so inconsistent, it’s hard to say he’s a better player today than he was in November. Yes, he has shown a few dazzling new moves this season, but he also revealed a puzzling nonchalance. It was puzzling, unless one cynically assumes Sanders was saving himself for his pro career. If his teammates saw it that way it had to be demoralizing.

Sanders is a likable 21-year old student-athlete with an easy smile. He’s a sociology major who likes art. As a basketball player, Sanders remains rather immature.

In general, Capel’s best players had a genuine toughness; Grant’s had more raw athleticism. But remember, Grant’s most important victory relied heavily on the grit of Capel’s recruits. Had he not become Alabama’s coach, could Grant have taken Sanders’ mind off of the press notices gushing over his wingspan and lottery draft choice potential?

Maybe.

Could Grant or Capel have transferred their own abilities to focus on a common goal to Sanders, the future millionaire?

Maybe not.

Back to reality: Coaching in his first year at Alabama, Grant went 17-15. The Crimson Tide’s season is over. At Oklahoma in his fourth year, Capel’s Sooners swooned to 13-18.

Regardless of who coached them the Rams obviously missed Maynor this year. Most teams would miss a first-round draft choice. But more than his points, this season VCU missed Maynor’s leadership on the floor in the second halves of games, especially on the road. As a group, with Maynor on the floor, the Rams believed they could do whatever needed to be done.

Beyond Sanders and Rodriguez, the two most versatile and fundamentally sound starters, Nixon and Brad Burgess, weren’t assertive enough — personality-wise — to take on the role of THE go-to guy on this year’s Rams team. Like Sanders, Jamie Skeen, the transfer from Wake Forest, also was too easily intimidated by big men who were more aggressive around the basket.

Why the NIT snubbed VCU (22-9) is a mystery at this desk, but maybe the committee looked at the Rams record of coughing up big second-half leads on the road. For whatever reasons, VCU dropped down to the pay-to-play level of the College Basketball Invitational.

The Rams are matched up against George Washington (16-14) of the A-10. The game will be played on Tues. (at 7 p.m.) at the Smith Center in DeeCee.

So, this year’s Rams team has been granted a last chance to leave VCU fans with more to remember than the gaudy potential of what could have been. Still, to win at this time of year, in any tournament, it’s gonna take heart.

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