In my six years as a VCU student, I never went to one of their basketball games. Perhaps it was my grudge that they didn’t have a football program, but I like to blame the countless hours spent in the art studio instead.

So Tod, Mauricio, Isabel and myself got set up to go to this CAA semi-final game that turns out to be VCU versus William and Mary. Mauricio is particularly excited. “I’ve been watching the Rams games. They should take the Tribe easily!”

Saturday afternoon, my phone rings and it’s Tod. “Hey, Dwayne. My wife is having contractions, so I should probably skip the game in case her water breaks and we have to bolt to the hospital.” I tell him that’s totally understandable and wish him and Corey well.

The original plan was to meet at Mauricio’s before the game so I give him a call to find out what’s up and tell him Tod’s out. He hesitates before responding, “...Uh, well you know that soccer game I was playing this morning? It got canceled and now we have a scrimmage set for three o’clock.”

Okay. Two down, so I call Isabel in the hopes something hasn’t come up on her end to interfere with the game. “What punks! Of course I’m still in!” she exclaims. “Now we have two extra tickets. What should we do with those?”

“I don’t know. See if your sisters would like to go,” I respond. She does and her sister, Sharon, decided to join us. “Is this the good twin or the evil twin you were telling me about?”

“The evil one,” Isabel laughs. “Just don’t tell her I said that!”

So we meet up and walk over to the Coliseum and are amazed at how many people are walking the same direction. As we are considering how packed this event will be Isabel exclaims, “Oh! The Auto Show is here this weekend, too! Maybe we won’t be so crammed after all.”

Once we go through the ticket line and security, we make our way to the section designated on the ticket. “14 U. Bet these seats are in the nose-bleed section,” I guessed.

Sure enough, we go through the doors marked 14 U and start climbing, coming to a stop only six rows from the top with almost no one seated anywhere near us. As we sit down and began making ourselves comfy, I get startled out of my seat by an unexpected “wwhoooooooooooooooooo! Go VCU!” coming from Sharon as the VCU basketball team came running out for pre-game workouts.

William and Mary came out right after to a chorus of boos from the crowd, as the VCU fan base is the majority by far.

As we watch the warm ups it isn’t looking very good for the Rams. “Hey, Isabel. Is it me or is the Tribe hitting almost all of their shots and the Rams are making about half of theirs?”

She watch for a few minutes before commenting, “Yeah, it does look like William and Mary is shooting much better, but this is just warm-ups. I’m sure VCU will do well once the game starts.”

With the tip off come more screams for VCU. “Gooooo Maynor! Come on Eric!” Sharon isn’t the only one making noise as Isabel calls up her college cheerleading skills, more than matching Sharon’s volume.

As I sit there about seven minutes into the game pondering the hearing loss I might be incurring in my left ear and being grateful that I’m not seated between the Ramos sisters, Isabel turns to me, “All right, let’s go find beer!”

We wander downstairs where we’re told there’s a special room in the basement and we’d have to finish our drinks there. Disappointed, Sharon decides to go back up to our seats to watch the game while Isabel and I go forward with out quest.

After nearly walking into the VIP room, we find where we were supposed to be. We grab a couple tall boys, find a sofa in front of a big screen television with the game on and plop down. It is nearing half-time and Isabel educates me on various dances fans are doing for the cameras including the “Superman.”

Once halftime hits, the basement becomes a flood of people. Sharon comes down to join us and goes for a 22 herself. Some of their friends are there so we talk to them while waiting for the second half.

“Oh, crap! We’re missing it!” Sharon realizes as the game resumes on the television. “Time to chug!”

Sharon downs the rest of her beer with some assistance from Isabel and we get up to go back to our seats when Sharon starts leading us in another direction.

“Guys! This way. Come on!” We walk through large double doors and find ourselves at the edge of the basketball court. “Come on. Follow me!”

We follow as Sharon nearly leads us into the locker rooms before being blocked by Coliseum employees. “Oops. Sorry!” We continue on behind where the teams sit. As we’re passing the Rams bench, I hear Sharon telling Isabel, “Grant is so hot. You know, the VCU coach? Yeah…too bad he’s married.”

We get back to more doors, and I turn to look across the Coliseum. “Sharon? Aren’t our seats on the opposite side from here?”

“Yes they are, but wasn’t that fun?!” She laughs as we walk back around to our seats.

We sit back down with just under five minutes left and VCU trailing. More ear-splitting screams as a quick comeback by the Rams ties things up with less than a minute to go. One miss by VCU gives the Tribe one last possession with under 30 seconds left. After running down the clock, they get the basket to put them in the lead with 2.6 seconds remaining. A failed prayer-of-a-shot from VCU ends their bid at the CAA title for this year.

“Aw, this sucks! This is so depressing!” Sharon pouts as we make our way out of the Coliseum. “At least it was a close game that came down to the wire.”

I find that sadness doesn’t stick around long with the Ramos sisters around. Two blocks away, all signs of depression are gone as everyone is joking and laughing again.

Sorry, VCU. There’s always next year.