VMI

VMI ( 75) vs. Citadel (70) 01/18/2025

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Game #136 of 364 37% complete

Occasionally, I will put together a quickie trip involving a morning arrival, an early afternoon game and a late afternoon or night game. One night in a hotel followed by a return trip the following morning adds a quick two game addition to Operation 351. The problem with this scenario is that it involves no time for fun or tourist stuff. It was much to my dismay that a Topgolf facility existed next to my hotel. A quick check in to the hotel between basketball games prevented any time to hit golf balls. Additionally, downtown Charleston is a great visit to place but had to be skipped on this trip, as well as a walk around the beautiful Citadel campus due to time constraints.

This series of games between the two main military schools of the south is billed as the “The Military Classic of the South”. I expected a huge crowd with much give and take between the cadets from both schools. Instead the crowd was small and not particularly involved in the game. The Citadel basketball team is ranked #352 out of 364 Division 1 schools so I guess that basketball is not a high priority in the Charleston area.

The gentlemen above are graduates of the 1974 class of Citadel. They raised 10.5 million dollars for the school and were honored during the game. My first thought is that they should use some of that money for NIL compensation to bring in better players.

I was very impressed with VMI junior Rickey Bradley Jr. The Georgia State transfer scored 29 points and seemed to score at will. He is currently second in the SoCon league by scoring at 19.2 ppg. The VMI team seemed to have much more talent than Citadel despite the five point margin. Augustinas Kiudulas added 13 points but I remember seeing him somewhere. An after the game check revealed that he was on the Indiana State team that reached the NIT championship last year.

When I see folks sitting in a section by themselves despite the presence of many good seats below, I would love to ask them why are they sitting there.

The traditional t-shirt toss was performed during the game. One shirt landed off the hand of an old Citadel graduate in front of me and landed between me and another old graduate. We both grabbed for the t-shirt at the same time. My thinking was that he was probably a season ticket holder who has been here many times and probably has caught a t-shirt or two in his day. When we grabbed the shirt simultaneously, he tightened his grip. Not wanting a confrontation, I let go. He said he was sorry and laughed. Still he kept the shirt. I don’t need another t-shirt but it would made a nice memento of my trip.

Next is the College of Charleston game in downtown Charleston. It is pouring rain but much better than the snowstorm in Connecticut.

Gardner Webb (61) vs. Virginia Military Institute (64) 12/11/2021

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Game #100 of 358 29% complete

Six years ago, I began this journey not quite sure if it was the best way to spend my retirement time. The goal seemed so far away yet after the first few games, it became my passion. The joy of traveling and seeing this great country of ours combined with my love of ANY college basketball game has never receded despite pitfalls and curves along the way. This mission has taught me patience and the ability to pivot when plans go awry especially in this COVID era. Today is my 100th game! Many others on this same journey have far exceeded that number, so I am in good company.

I have been trying to get three schools on one trip to minimize travel and hotel costs as I venture further and further away from Connecticut. On this Virgina trip, I saw VMI, Richmond and William & Mary. Since I flew into Richmond and stayed there, the first game at VMI was a 2-hour trip by car in the opposite direction, in the western part of the state. Putting on my podcasts and enjoying the rolling hillsides, I pulled in about 11AM, a couple of hours before game time.

Finding a parking spot in a public area after driving around for a few minutes, I ended up near my tourist visit to Stonewall Jackson’s house. The house was small, and the self-guided tour was done in about 45 minutes, but it was cool to see many of Jackson’s personal artifacts. The poor guy was accidently (or maybe not) shot and killed by one of his own soldiers during the civil war.

Walking around the downtown area, the small town of Lexington VA (about 7,000 folks) reminded me of an historic neighborhood in Boston with cobblestone streets and old buildings dating back to the 1700’s.

After grabbing a brew and steak sandwich at The Palms, I took the 10-minute walk over to Cameron Hall. Outside was a line of impeccably dressed cadets waiting to get in.

Known as the “West Point of the South” by honest Abe, half of the graduates last year received a commission in the armed forces.

From Wiki: Prospective cadets must be between 16 and 22 years of age. They must be unmarried, and have no legal dependents, be physically fit for enrollment in the ROTC, and be graduates of an accredited secondary school or have completed an approved homeschool curriculum. The Class of 2022 at VMI had an average high school GPA of 3.70 and a mean SAT score of 1210.[73]

That being said, I have never seen such a rowdy and loud output from a student section yet (I have not done Duke yet). I was out of earshot of their verbal onslaughts but reading lips occasionally brought to mind a dichotomy of the upright and proud image of a cadet vs. the unruly loud student fan.

Many schools are using virtual programs these days. One scans the OCR code to bring up the program in a browser. I get it with idea of saving paper and eliminating the pitfalls of COVID transmission, but I miss holding a paper in my hand giving the relatively small size of my IPHONE.

Gardner Webb put up a valiant battle this game only succumbing in the end. A game-tying 3-pointer from D’Maurian WIlliams rimmed out at the final buzzer. Jake Stephens, the Cadets huge 6’10” center was too overpowering underneath for the smaller Bulldogs. His foot work in the paint was impressive. The senior is a pre-season second team SoConn league pick.

VMI had won its previous two games on a west coast trip. The cadets earned John Rothstein’s “epitome of brutality” label by beating Portland. Like similar armed forces teams, you can tell that the VMI boys put in a lot of work at the gym.

The cadets are headed back to their dorms after the game.

That’s a wrap. Back to Richmond for a two-hour ride hoping to get there for a 6PM start!