March 13, 2011.
I was sitting in this hole-in-the-wall bar in Buxton, NC, texting my dad on my friend Josh's phone as we watched the NCAA Selection Show. Down at the other end of the bar sat four Ohio State fans, eagerly awaiting their inevitable announcement as the overall #1 seed. Don't get me wrong, they were friendly and supportive, but it felt like it was just me, Josh, an orange soda, and this hope-beyond-hope that all the prognosticators would be wrong and VCU would get in the NCAA tournament.
Well, we know how that ended up.
That was 370 days ago today. 13 days later, VCU would shock the sports world and defeat mighty Kansas, the sole remaining 1 seed. Today, they fell to the Indiana Hoosiers in the Round of 32 of the 2012 NCAA Tournament. I take a great amount of pride in the fact that our loss came after we dealt a major blow to just about everyone's brackets by taking out Wichita St (and I've just now discovered that I've spent the last few days spelling Wichita incorrectly. Ah, the power of spell check).
And today stings just as bad as the loss to Butler last year.
But look at how far we've come.
Joey Rodriguez, Brandon Rozzell, Jamie Skeen, and Ed Nixon combined for 60% of the 2010-2012 squad's shooting. They led the Rams to a 4th place finish in the CAA, defeated Wichita St on the road, lost to James Madison on Senior Day, and lost a heartbreaker to ODU (as if there were any other way to lose to ODU) in the CAA Championship. They were the last team in, according to some sources, and then stormed their way to the Final Four, demolishing some of college basketball's most impressive programs before falling to Butler. The Rams could shoot you into next week, and their young coach was catapulted into superstardom (and in the same week, fatherhood, as he and his wife announced they were expecting the day they left for Houston). The Rams ended with a mark of 28-12, ranked 6th overall.
People labeled it a fluke. People said Shaka would be drawn away by the big dogs. People said next year would be a rebuilding year, and VCU would be competitive but not dominant in the CAA.
Turns out, people say a lot of things.
The 2012-2013 Rams were the 9th (or 10th, depending on where you look) youngest squad in the nation this year. And yet they managed to perfect an even crazier, more chaotic style of Havoc than their already warp speed game. Bradford Burgess and Darius Theus transformed a team of rookies into one of the teams to beat in their conference. They ended the year with a mark of 29-7, 2nd in the CAA, and CAA Tournament Champions. Though they exited the Tournament earlier than they did last year, they still went back; that alone is a testament to the way they played.
The bottom line: VCU is here to stay. There was no rebuilding year. We knocked out one of the pundits' darlings and were one shot away from beating Indi-freaking-ana, easily one of the greatest programs in the game's history. Shaka challenged his guys to "own today," and they definitely did so.
I'm more excited about VCU basketball after this season than I was last season. Yes, the Final Four was incredible. I'm not trying to take anything from that. But the mere fact that we were a force again speaks volumes about how far the program has come.
Get hype Ram Nation. The Black and Gold is here to stay. I can't wait for next year.
