Jim Swing
Sports Editor
Commonwealth Times’ Sports Twitter
Whenever Toby Veal peers down at his Final Four ring, he is reminded of the remarkable run he was a part of in his one year at VCU.
“I think about it a lot, I have the ring and everything,” the former Rams forward said. “Every time I look at it and see that, it makes me think a whole bunch of it.”
It was nearly nine months ago that Veal’s six-point, five-rebound performance against Kansas’ highly-touted Morris twins came up bigger than numbers, helping VCU record one of the largest upsets in NCAA Tournament history.
But after his junior season, Veal left VCU. He said the reasoning for his departure from the program wasn’t his choice, but preferred to make no further comment.
“It was hard to leave,” he said. “But like my grandmother always says ‘God does a lot of things for certain reasons’ so I guess it’s something that he wants me to do.”
Nowadays Veal finds himself spending time with his newborn daughter, working out on VCU’s campus and occasionally attending a few men’s basketball games. He was in attendance for the Rams’ wins over St. Francis (Pa.) and Richmond, and so far he likes what he sees.
“They’re doing pretty good, some of the freshman are going to be real good, they’re just young right now and they don’t really understand too much of it,” Veal said. “But once they combine as winners I think they’ll be unstoppable.”
But Veal’s career on the hardwood isn’t over quite yet. In January, he’ll venture to play Division II basketball at Paine College, a private school located in Augusta, Georgia about two and a half hours north of his hometown of Savannah. Veal will be redshirted in the coming spring semester and then sit out the first four games in the fall before he’s allowed to play. In the meantime, he’ll be a full-time student working on closing out his Sociology degree.
“I’m going down to Paine College and try to be a captain out there,” Veal said, “and try to win a championship out there.”
Veal said once his senior season is over at Paine, he will look to pursue options playing basketball overseas.
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