Editor’s note: VCU would postpone games with Jacksonville and South Florida before returning to the court on Jan. 9, 1989 in Miami.

The next few days, the funeral, the next few games, and the remainder of the season were tough for us. We actually had two other deaths that same week that hit very close to our team. The six of us who played with Mike the previous season served as pallbearers, and we literally got on a bus from his funeral and drove to the airport to fly to Florida. His family decided to have him put to rest in his VCU game warm-up.

I don’t remember any remote discussion that we would not play the scheduled games in Florida. We flew to play Miami, followed by a game with South Florida, before returning home to play Old Dominion in front of our home fans. I distinctly remember the bus ride from the funeral, to fly to Miami, both the bus and plane trip were in almost complete silence. Chris Cheeks, Vince Wilson and I as leaders tried to keep everyone’s spirits up, but it’s hard to do that when you are devastated inside. We just didn’t know how to handle or process what we had just experienced. We had players that had to go through counseling as a result of that, reporters came to my apartment wanting to talk, everyone wanted to know what it was like for us to go through that, and how we were doing.

The next time we put on our team warm-up in Florida was tough. Nobody said anything, but as we prepared to play, we all pictured Mike being put to rest in his [warm-up]. We beat Miami by 10, South Florida by 14, and Old Dominion by 8 in OT at the Richmond Coliseum, a game in which Chris Cheeks and I both scored career highs (Cheeks had 42 and I had 24). We wore black patches with the number “20” on them. I’ve seen other sports teams wear their fallen teammate’s number on their uniforms, but when you wear it on yours, that small patch becomes the person, and your avenue to have them with you in battle.

August 29th, 2017

Ram Athletic Fund Raises More Than $50,000

Mike Rhoades Introductory Press Conference

August 29^th, 2017