Game one versus St. Louis maybe Sanders’ swan song

Adam Stern
Sports Editor

After dispatching St. Louis 68-56 in the first game of the three-game College Basketball Insider series final, VCU’s players relinquished a feeling virtually every other college basketball player in the nation has already long let go of: No more home games this season.

For Larry Sanders (Fort Pierce, Fla./Port St. Lucie), VCU’s flashy forward who is weighing the option of bypassing his senior season to enter the NBA Draft, the feeling hangs heavy.

Sanders, who has stated he is undecided about leaving but is said to be leaning toward leaving, has developed a special relationship with VCU fans in his three-year stay in Richmond.

“I love my fans, I love the fans here. I don’t think there’s another place like this, because we have a relationship with our fans—personal relationships,” Sanders said.

“That’s tradition, that’s just how it is here at VCU.”

The Rams finished off the season 18-1 at home, made all the more crucial because of the team’s struggles on the road this season. The mark is good for best in the state, albeit partially due to VCU having played one more home game than second-placed Virginia Tech.

It’s the second year in a row VCU lost only one game at home and the Rams haven’t lost more than one home game in CAA play since Jeff Capel’s last season before going to Oklahoma after the 2005-2006 campaign. During Sanders’ tenure in Richmond, he’s tasted defeat at the Siegel Center fewer times than he can count on one hand (four).

Yet this season hasn’t been perfect for the 6-foot-11-inch big man: He’s gone up in scoring and rebounding but gotten less of his patented blocks and, though he has improved, hasn’t solved his propensity to get into foul trouble early and often in games. Sanders was also suspended midway through the season for one game after hitting a Drexel player in the head while jostling with the player in the team’s match up in Philadelphia in early January.

“This is how I feel personally: We came up short a lot this season,” Sanders said. “This (CBI Championship) is kind of a chance to redeem ourselves and end the season with a win and a championship—and finish off some of what we started instead of coming up short.”

If Monday night’s game is to be Sander’s last ever game at home, he went out in style. Sanders had the Ram’s first eight points of the game and 10 of the first 12. He notched his 14th double-double of the season and best of all, he had no fouls—a feat he performed only three times in his collegiate career.

Though they’re unlikely to exert much influence in his final decision, Sanders’ fans let him know what decision they thought he should make midway through the second half when they began chanting, “one more year.”

“I can’t say enough (about the fans), I’m going to truly miss it—until next year,” Sanders said, leaving a drawn-out pause before adding the last part.