VCU who?

“I’m one of those last minute fans…I didn’t care about VCU basketball until we started winning” – these are comments I heard all over campus. Sure, the Rams have their diehard fans, but the history-making events of late have drawn in people who cared little or nothing about sports before VCU made it to the semi-finals.

April 3, 2011; 12:54 PM • by Pat Kardian

“I’m one of those last minute fans…I didn’t care about VCU basketball until we started winning” – these are comments I heard all over campus. Sure, the Rams have their diehard fans, but the history-making events of late have drawn in people who cared little or nothing about sports before VCU made it to the semi-finals.

I turned on the game against Kansas on accident. I was taking a study break and I don’t have cable, so I took my pick of an infomercial, some obscure B-movie, or basketball; and I’d heard the buzz about how well the Rams were doing, so I decided to go ahead and tune in. I wasn’t really paying attention until I heard the commentator mention that Kansas was the number one seed and I asked myself, “Then, how is VCU beating them?” Then, once I saw the final score, my lack of basketball knowledge had me thinking we must have really lost. The word “win” in basketball actually means “lose,” like how “love” in tennis means “zero.” This can’t be real.

So, I went back to my studies. Suddenly, I heard screams and honking all around me. As I sat at my desk, trying to concentrate on Shakespeare, the party on Broad Street reached me two blocks back on Clay Street. Another friend of mine, down in Church Hill, said she could hear the crowd from her house.

Finally, I realize: This is big. This is not just a cause for celebration, this is something I’m going to be able to tell my grandkids about. “Grandma, tell us about the time your school made it to the Final Four and there were riots in the streets and businesses all over town sporting their Ram Pride!” Well, something like that.

I ran over to the Siegel Center at midnight to welcome the team back after their win against Kansas, where hundreds jumped in unison to the beat of, “VCU! VCU!” The Bottom and Back Bus was parked on Broad blasting Journey out to the masses, and I’m singing along with the crowd: “Don’t stop believin’!” I’m all decked out in black and gold, feeling like a traitor because in my four years at VCU, I only went to one basketball game and nearly fell asleep.

I’m not asleep anymore. I waited in the rain to get into the Siegel Center two hours before the game against Butler. I screamed my lungs out every time we made a basket or a rebound. My heart was pounding the whole night along with everyone else in the city, along with all of our new fans around the country.

Now, admittedly, I was never much of a basketball fan before (which may have something to do with trying out for the team three years in a row, in middle school, and never making the cut), but I was heartbroken when we lost. I wanted us to win so badly, just to see what would happen. If an entire city can join together just because the home team made it to the semi-finals, imagine what would happen if we had won?

But we didn’t. Boo. VCU students weren’t fazed, though. Hundreds gathered on Broad Street after the defeat. We were going to celebrate anyway. Milk this for all it’s worth. I forgot my disappointment as fireworks erupted overhead and my fellow classmates were cheering and dancing all around me. Even though the Rams didn’t go all the way, the diehard fans and even us last-minute ones won’t give up on them that easily.

No one is going to be asking “VCU who?” anytime soon. We beat the odds this year, we can do it again. And next year, I will definitely be following the Rams much more closely.

April 3, 2011 12:54 PM 0