As Rodriguez goes, so do Rams

Benjamin Ashauer
Contributing Writer
Commonwealth Times Sports’ Twitter

There are multiple times throughout the game where no matter how hard you try, you might not be able to see him.

The 5’10” senior Joey Rodriguez looks like a Pomeranian among a pack of Great Danes, but he’s often the one who comes up with the big plays in the most important moments of the game.

After a setback loss against Northeastern University (4-9 in CAA play), J-Rod refused to let another win escape his grasp.

The Dukes of James Madison University mounted a comeback and were ready to send their huge crowd home happy with a win over the Rams.

Though he hadn’t hit a field goal the entire game – focusing mainly on distributing the ball – Rodriguez received a pass from fellow senior Ed Nixon in the corner of the floor and swished a jumper with a under a minute left to put VCU up for good with a four-point lead.

“In terms of hitting a late shot, Joey is used to doing that, and he’s really got a lot of guts,” said VCU head coach Shaka Smart. “He’s a guy that you want him to step up and take that shot because he’s a guy that knows he can make it.”

One of Rodriguez’s signature moments this year came against Drexel University. Off a kick-out pass from Brandon Rozzell, Rodriguez helped secure arguably the biggest win of the season for the Rams with a 3-pointer. The win on Jan. 5 reeled off a streak of nine straight wins, which didn’t end until the Northeastern match last week.

The team has fed off of his swagger, leadership and maybe even his new mohawk.

However, even with some of those characteristics present early in the season, Rodriguez was ineffective for much of the beginning portion of the schedule, most likely as a result of a lingering ankle injury.

The significance of his health to the team was evident during losses to the University of South Florida, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, University of Richmond and finally, a crushing blow from Georgia State immediately before the huge win against Drexel. Even during that stretch when the Rams won, it was clear that something wasn’t right with his physicality and psyche.

But as the leader of the team, Rodriguez is finally stepping up and making a case to be on the First-Team All-CAA squad at the end of the season.

“He’s our leader so we ask him to do a lot of things besides score,” Smart said. “He’s got to run the team, he played point guard, ran the point for 33 minutes in the game, and they were working him the whole time.”

Rodriguez and the Rams will have their work cut out for them to close out the season; four of the five remaining CAA games on the schedule are against teams in the top half of the standings. Though they have their sights set on winning the CAA Tournament in order to reach the NCAA Tournament, VCU needs a strong finish if they want to keep their hopes alive for an at-large bid.

“I think we have a lot of opportunities coming up where we can build our resume; we got to take it one game at a time,” Rodriguez said.

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Photo by: Chris Conway