Adam Stern
Executive Editor
A journey from Richmond to Portland is just a smidgen under 3,000 miles, one way. And yet, when VCU takes the court Thursday night on the West Coast, they’ll do so with hundreds if not thousands of Rams fans who have made the journey across the entire country to cheer them on.
Of course, VCU’s fan base– from students to alumni– has been regarded as stellar for a while, yet the passion has grown even greater recently as the team has made consecutive Big Dances for the first time since 1983-1985. That notion was backed up by VCU becoming one of only five teams in the entire country to sell out every home game this season.
So as the squad gets ready to head to Portland Tuesday to prepare for their match-up versus No. 5-seeded Wichita State, they do so knowing they’ll have a lot of support along the way. And, according to third-year head coach Shaka Smart, they also do so with a great degree of appreciation for it.
“I tell our guys all the time how fortunate we are,” Smart said. “(The fan support) is really something we should have a high level of appreciation for because there’s a lot of people who play college basketball who don’t get to be a part of something so special.
“And every time we take the floor here at the Siegel Center and even last week at the Coliseum: There’s so many people there in black and gold, it mean’s so much to us.
It was huge (being) one of five teams in the whole country (to sell out of every game): I think it says so much about the following we have here, the special group of fans; it’s a special time at VCU and really an unprecedented run of sell outs and interest in what our team is doing.”