As I walked out of the Stuart C. Siegel Center Saturday night I couldn’t help but think that I had just been present for one of the most special moments in the history of a program,
I don’t want to make it more than it is: one game, but to think that just three nights before, this team played about as bad a game as it could have played is mind boggling.
When VCU lost at Western Michigan I thought to myself, “If the Rams don’t get blown out Saturday, then it is a win.”
Well not only did they not get blown out, they were the ones doing the blowing out as they crushed the 17th ranked team in the nation.
I am in an awkward position.
I am a journalist and therefore cannot make myself out as a fan, although it is human nature to be on a band wagon somehow.
But I am also a VCU student.
I am also someone who lives and breathes with the pride of this university and whatever this university accomplishes.
For only the second time since I started working for the Commonwealth Times, I wanted to be in the student section instead of on the media table.
The first was the other time I have been present watching black-and-gold-clad fans rush the court: the 2009 CAA tournament championship.
I am not afraid to say that I wanted to be a part of that.
Don’t get me wrong, I love my job and I love presenting the news and notes of VCU athletics whether good or not so good, but I am also attached to this program because I am a student.
So inside, I was cheering. On the outside I was professional and unbiased just like I always should be.
I am sorry to my fellow journalists.
I hope you all do not write me off as someone who cannot report on the team I am supposed to cover the right way.
But this was a moment I will hopefully be able to tell my grandchildren about one day: I was sitting courtside when VCU toppled mighty Oklahoma at the Siegel Center.
Congratulations to coach Shaka Smart and to the fans who got to witness it along with me, because it was a great moment and one of the best atmospheres I have ever been in.
My only hope is that I get to cover more events that I will never forget as long as I live, it is what makes this job really, really fun.