Shaka Smart, the Florida first-year assistant coach who is considered one of the hottest recruiters and up-an-coming young coaches in the business, is expected to become the next head coach at VCU.

Smart, who will turn 32 on April 8, has never been a head coach.  He will replace Anthony Grant, another former UF assistant who was hired last week to replace Mark Gottfried as the head coach at Alabama.

Smart is a 1999 graduate of Kenyon College where he was a four-year starter and served as captain for three years. He came to UF from Clemson, where he spent two seasons as an assistant coach. He has also been an assistant at California (Pa.) University and at Akron.

He will be the third assistant in four years that UF coach Billy Donovan has lost. A fourth, Grant, left the program following Florida's 2006 national championship run after 10 seasons with Donovan at UF.