RICHMOND, Va. – University of Richmond officials addressed a social media controversy that flared up this week, ahead of the VCU and Richmond game. Sophomore Richmond guard ShawnDre’ Jones appeared in an image that was shared on social media over the weekend. “Jones made an inappropriate gesture in a temporary lapse of judgment in a Snapchat post,” wrote the college in an email. “An unknown third party took a screen shot of that post and affixed the words “F** VCU” to the picture to make it appear that Jones wrote those words himself.”
The picture was distributed by a discontinued Twitter account which presented itself as Richmond team fan.
The post in question was made on Snapchat, and the University of Richmond says it was altered.
The post was sent with the obvious intention of arousing controversy before the Richmond-VCU game on Wednesday, the school said.
The two teams met once already this year, on Jan. 31 at the Siegel Center.
In the last minutes of that game, point guard Briante Weber suffered a college career-ending injuring, with a torn ACL, MCL and meniscus. Richmond went on to win 64-55.
College officials said that due diligence was conducted to find out the facts behind the controversy and to present them as they understood them.
“The Richmond athletic department and the men’s basketball team are committed to a culture of sportsmanship surrounding all actions of our players and staff,” the school said.
Meanwhile, in an alumni fundraising race between the two schools, known as the Battle for the Capital, the two opponents are mostly neck and neck. VCU has won the donor race for the past two years.
