THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS EVER THIS WEEK (OCT. 1)

Happy Shak-tober, VCU fans. This month is good for many things, among them (in no particular order): foliage, NBA training camps, candy corn, postseason baseball, marzen, candy corn, Atlantic 10 Conference races and, finally, candy corn. How does VCU Athletics fit into all of this? I’m glad you asked, even if you didn’t.

RAMS IN CAMP
NBA training camps are underway, which means three former Rams are in action, each with a different task in front of them.

Troy Daniels is in Asheville, N.C. with the Charlotte “soon to be Hornets” Bobcats. Troy earned a camp invite after playing on the Bobcats’ summer league squad in Las Vegas. Now would be a good time to remind Michael Jordan that Charlotte was 27th in the NBA in 3-point shooting last year, and Troy Daniels (feel free to use the Around The Horns-approved #TreyD3 hashtag) hits threes in his sleep. If he was a dinosaur, Daniels would be a triceratops. If he was a TV station, he’d be ESPN3. If he was a stadium, he’d be Three Rivers.

Trust us, Daniels was born for this. We recently slowed down some film of Daniels shooting at training camp and captured his expression right at the moment he’s about to catch and shoot. Check it out:

Three, coming right up.

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VCU ALUMS: FIRST HALF HIGHLIGHTS

BIG CHANGES FOR STEADY MARSHALL

After six seasons with the Chicago Cubs, former VCU pitcher Sean Marshall was traded to the Cincinnati Reds this winter.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – It’s been a couple years since I had a chance to check in with former VCU pitcher Sean Marshall, currently a member of the Cincinnati Reds. He’s always gracious and much has changed since the last time we last spoke, in August of 2010.

The biggest difference in Marshall since our last meeting wasn’t his uniform, even though he spent his first six Major League seasons as a member of the Chicago Cubs. It wasn’t his new role as Reds’ closer, although that’s sure to cast a new light on the career of one of baseball’s best relievers.

The biggest change in the 29-year-old Marshall is much more subtle. You might not even catch it. When discussing his career, Marshall says “we” and “us” now, much more than he does “I” or “me”. It’s not that he was selfish before – anything but, in fact. But he’s speaking for Team Marshall now, as opposed to just for himself for even for his new club, the Reds.

Marshall and his wife Sarah were married in December of 2010 – by Mr. Cub Ernie Banks, by the way – and the couple welcomed their first child, a son named Brody, last June. Those kinds of changes are much more dramatic than switching the color of your stirrups.