VCU has added some shock value to its schedule the next two seasons, announcing a home-and-home series with Wichita State that will tip off this year at the E.J. Wade Arena at the Stuart C. Siegel Center.
VCU will host the Shockers, who reached the Final Four in 2013, on Dec. 22, 2018 at the Siegel Center. The Rams will play a return game at Koch Arena in Wichita, Kan. on Dec. 21, 2019.
The Shockers have played in the last seven NCAA Tournaments and finished 25-8 last season, their first in the American Athletic Conference. Wichita State welcomes 11 newcomers in 2018-19.
VCU and Wichita State have met four times previously, but this will be the first contest between the programs since the 2012-13 season. The all-time series is tied 2-2.
The Rams and Shockers played three hotly contested games from 2011-12. In 2011, VCU’s Joey Rodriguez hit a pair of free throws with 0.8 seconds remaining to give the Rams a 68-67 win at Koch Arena. That win helped propel VCU to an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament, which culminated in the Rams’ unforgettable Final Flour run. The following year, the 12th-seeded Rams toppled the fifth-seeded Shockers 62-59 in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament in Portland, Ore. thanks in large part to a late floater by Darius Theus, now VCU’s director of player development.
VCU’s full non-conference schedule will be released shortly, but previously released games include road contests at Texas and Virginia, as well as a match-ups with Temple and either Cal or St. John’s in the Legends Classic at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Led by second-year Coach Mike Rhoades, VCU returns three starters from last year’s 18-15 squad.
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