Just in case you haven’t noticed, the VCU basketball season gets its engines a-revin’ this Friday night with the men’s game against Bethune-Cookman University.
We still do not have a football team, so this is our time of year VCU-the time some of us have been waiting for since the final shot Eric Maynor launched in March in the loss to UCLA.
I know we have not been known to have the best student fan base in college sports, although we aren’t the worst, but I wanted to take time to put out a call to all my fellow VCU students out there.
I think this should be the year we turn it up and make the Stuart C. Siegel Center one of the toughest places to play in the country.
We already have one of the best mid-major teams. Why not become one of the best crowds as well?
In 2009, we have a schedule that features almost nothing but great games against some of the nation’s top talent. But the biggest difference is, this year we have them at home.
With teams like Oklahoma, Nevada, Rhode Island and Old Dominion coming to Richmond, we’ll be pathetic if we cannot show our championship-winning basketball team that we are behind them and we take pride in our school.
I am not talking about that 1960s cornball rah-rah “be true to your school” bull crap. But when I see the student sections at places like ODU and Mason putting us to shame when it comes to consistent enthusiasm – when we consistently have better teams – it makes me sick and should evoke the same emotion in you.
So that’s right VCU students, I am calling you out.
I don’t really care if you like basketball or not. Whether sports is your thing is not the issue. I am not asking any of you to suddenly become sports people.
However, whether you like it or not, you are still a part of Ram Nation and trust me: When the Siegel Center is packed and at fever pitch, it is one of the loudest venues I have ever been in.
The responsibility of the crowd noise and environment is solely on the people that are currently the closest to the university: the student body. And that is what makes college basketball both unique and exhilarating.
So come out and show that you have some pride in something. I am begging you to show that you give a crap.
Caring and showing some semblance of pride in your school’s sports teams is a tradition and an important part of college life. And these guys are good, so it is easy to get into it.
And while you’re there, cheer and yell like you have a condition or something-you have to use your energy for something, right?
As someone who absolutely loves the atmosphere of a great sports venue, I am pleading with you, VCU students: Come out to the games; you get in free and it is a lot of fun.
You should be there and your friends should be there too.
I understand missing one or two games-that’s OK. But there simply is no excuse for having a great resource like one of the top mid-major teams and venues in America and leaving it for dead, like you know the majority of you have.
No excuse.