INDIANAPOLIS — Sometime between 6:20 and 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Mike Rhoades had the worst duty of any coach in the men's NCAA tournament. He called his VCU Rams team into the hallway outside their rooms on the 16th floor of the J.W. Marriott here and informed them that their season was over without getting to play in the Big Dance.
“It was devastating,” Rhoades says. “It was heartbreaking. There were not a lot of dry eyes. You dream of this as a player, and to have it taken away like this is a heartbreaking affair.”
It was taken away by COVID-19, which remains a scourge even as the country sprints through vaccinations and toward further reopening.