Full court press for face time

VCU basketball is on a quality run. The women’s team lost its first game just last night, putting them at 6-1 this season. The men aren’t doing too shabby either at 5-2. All this winning is a new thing for this rookie editor. I’m just not used to it.

VCU’s fall campaign departed with mixed results. Field hockey had a horrible season. Volleyball batted just under .500, though they did take a ride to the CAA championship game. They lost to first-ranked Hofstra, though their effort was admirable.

I’m not saying our fall teams are bad. I’m saying our winter teams are better.

Don’t you feel the atmosphere? That 70-degree-weather you’re feeling is not global warming. No. It’s the mounting excitement, the heart-in-the-throat heroics that is a child of the courts. You feel it because VCU is good. We’re real good.

But off court things could be better.

Did you know that our basketball teams each opened the season with just three of their first 10 – a combined six in 20 – games at home?

I point this out for two reasons: VCU basketball is playing well on the road – something that every good team must do well to win.

But more importantly, by virtue of our lopsided schedule, VCU has lost an opportunity to parlay its early season success into cross-campus pandemonium – expectation, even – something that “power house” schools have.

Schools like Indiana and Georgetown, UCLA and North Carolina have students and boosters that stand unconditionally behind their teams. Indiana almost always has a great team, as does Georgetown.

This year Georgetown is struggling, yet its thousands (and thousands) of fans are still planted firmly ringside.

VCU has some of what I’ll call “spirit” because I lack a better term, but there is much room for spirit improvement. There’s room to shake off our reputation as an apathetic student population.

Yes, the Siegel Center was packed Saturday for the men’s 102-84 win against Houston. But there should have been lines of students vying to get into the game. They should be camping out for a chance to get a ticket. That’s spirit, let me tell you.

How can this school develop and foster this type of environment when 70 percent of the early games aren’t played in the Siegel Center? The answer is they can’t!

There has to be a connection between the student body and the basketball court, and the school needs to be behind the effort. The first step is evening out the schedule.

Thinking positively, more early away games this year means more home games later in the season. If VCU basketball continues to play like they have so far, home games clumped at the end could be a good thing for us.

What is more exciting than watching your team play its way into the NCAA tournament at home? I don’t want to jinx our early success by harping on about it, but I think this point is a valid one.

Fans can make good teams great.

There is no question that our basketball teams are good. Now our fans need to make them great.