Transfer Billbury ready to bring “bully” mentality to VCU

Excitement: the feeling Korey Billbury has as the season approaches.

Billbury a redshirt senior guard who transferred from Oral Roberts University came to VCU and surprised everyone with his level of play. While basketball is fun for Billbury, he is also focused.

For him, this is business.

Billbury’s excitement for the season to start was validated when he took the court for VCU’s Annual Black and Gold game and heard the fans for the first time.

“The amount of love is crazy that they give us and the support they give us,” Billbury said. “5,500 people showing up to our scrimmage is absolutely crazy. I never thought that would happen.”

Billbury said he hopes to show fans the team is still the same highly energetic team that they have been in previous years.

“Just for them to come out and support us like that,” Billbury said. “We owe it to them to come out on the floor every game and bust our behinds and get wins and be the program that we’ve always been.”

It should come as no surprise that Billbury has emerged as a sound player for the Rams, he averaged 14.4 points and 7.4 rebounds per contest as well as leading ORU with 206 total rebounds last season. Billbury wants to be viewed by his teammates as someone who leads by example.

“I’m pretty chill and I’m not really like an angry person,” Billbury said. “I don’t yell and all that kind of stuff. I’d rather let them see me doing something than hear me talking about it, so I feel like that carries a lot of weight with the guys.”

His senior status, experience and quality play has led him to become one of the team leaders. He tries to keep himself consistent to ensure that his teammates know what the standard is.

“They know what they are going to get from me,” Billbury said. “They know they are not going to get an up-and-down leader. I’m going to do what I’m supposed to do and handle my business.”

Billbury has also been regarded as a “bully” on the court, due to his aggressive attitude and ability to take smaller defenders to the rim without hesitation. His relentlessness to win has asserted him to finding success in the Rams exhibition game. He registered his first double-double of the season with 10 points and a game-high 11 rebounds.

“It felt really good, it felt like home,” Billbury said after Friday night’s contest. “I haven’t played on a team since February so it was just good to get out with the guys I actually like playing with and have good chemistry with.”

Article by: Erika Robinson, Contributing Writer