VCU can relax awaiting Selection Sunday, Drexel relegated to the bubble
On one end, VCU head coach Shaka Smart climbed the bright orange ladder and sheared his piece of championship twine.
VCU players celebrate a 59-56 win over Drexel in the CAA championship game March 5. (Chris Conway/CT)
Jim Swing
Sports Editor
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On one end, VCU head coach Shaka Smart climbed the bright orange ladder and sheared his piece of championship twine.
On the other end, Drexel sophomore guard Frantz Massenat had just wrapped up the postgame press conference.
Outside the secluded curtains that close off the dais and media seating, Massenat stood dead still with a slight lean and a disconsolate look as he watched a video feed displayed on a flat-screen television of Smart and various other Rams cutting down the nets on the 2012 Colonial Athletic Association Championship.
He was stone-faced, in complete disbelief.
Drexel and VCU, two teams with entirely conflicting styles, all of the sudden found something in common. Smart and his team, having just received the CAA’s auto-bid to the NCAA Tournament after a 59-56 over Drexel, had been there a year ago. Last year they were relegated to the bubble, having no clue what the future might hold on Selection Sunday, the kind of situation the Dragons are currently in after stumbling in the CAA final and boasting a less-than-stellar tournament résumé.
They were so close to clinching their first NCAA Tournament berth since 1996, yet now they seem so far away.
“I just want my guys to be ready,” said Drexel head coach Bruiser Flint on whether or not his team will be selected for an at-large bid.
The Dragons resemble a VCU team from a year ago in the sense that both trailed by large margins in the conference title game and fought back to make it a tight game with the NCAA selection committee more than likely watching. Drexel, which trailed by 16 at halftime, lost by just three, and the Rams, who were behind by as much as 18 to Old Dominion in 2011, fell by five.
Before Monday night, the Dragons had won 19-straight games dating back to Jan. 4 and lost just two games in regular-season conference play.
In his postgame press conference, Smart what seemed like a personal plea to the NCAA selection committee to choose Drexel.
“Before tonight, they haven’t lost since almost New Year’s,” said Smart, raising his voice. “That’s a ridiculous run in college basketball.
“In my mind, they’re definitely in. And everyone says, ‘does the CAA deserve two bids?’ This year it does.”
And this year, Smart and his team won’t be sweating bullets on Selection Sunday. VCU will make its 11th NCAA Tournament appearance a year after stunning the nation with a historical run to the Final Four. During last year’s Selection Sunday programming, there was no watch party. Smart declined to gather his team together in unison in case of a letdown.
This year will be different. This time, they got in the old-fashioned way.
“Last year, those six days after the championship were pretty rough for us, not knowing what we’re going,” Burgess said. “Today, now we can just sit back and chill, relax and just watch some basketball.”