With its most important game in two days, the demeanor of Virginia Commonwealth’s players is far from stressed.
Senior point guard Joey Rodriguez is the Rams’ floor general, and was a virtual unknown on his campus and the basketball world before VCU’s run. Now he is soaking up his experience as a celebrity.
“The day we got back after we beat Kansas we went to Quiznos in our bookstore, but they started selling Final Four T-shirts,” Rodriguez said. “Instead of going in for 15 minutes I was in there for about two hours, taking pictures with people. Two weeks ago, maybe one or two people would walk up and say good game, now it’s everybody on the streets. It’s been fun.
“When you wake up in the morning and see yourself on Sportscenter is always good. That’s what everybody dreams about.”
With his new-found fame, people from Rodriguez’s past have resurfaced.
“A lot more people know who I am just from this experience,” Rodriguez said. “Twitter and Facebook have been crazy. My phone’s been ringing from people I didn’t even know from high school.”
The time will come Saturday when the the mood gets more serious, but for now the Rams are simply enjoying the experience.
“You can’t be all tight because it’s the Final Four,” senior forward Jamie Skeen said. “We’re happy to be here, but we’ll get our game faces on Saturday. As of right now, we’re just going to embrace the moment and be happy to be here so when we grow up and have kids we can tell them we had a great time being here.”
-John Brannen
