NCAA Tournament Notebook: Some pick Rams to make Final Four run

Treveon Graham and Rob Brandenberg celebrate after VCU’s A-10 Tournament win over St. Joseph’s. The Rams face Akron in the second round of the  NCAA Tournament Thursday night at 9:45.  Photo by Chris Conway
Treveon Graham and Rob Brandenberg celebrate after VCU’s A-10 Tournament win over St. Joseph’s. The Rams face Akron in the second round of the
NCAA Tournament Thursday night at 9:45. Photo by Chris Conway

Jim Swing
Sports Editor

It was just two years ago when ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas went on television and ripped apart the NCAA selection committee for VCU’s inclusion in the NCAA Tournament.

“This one fails the laugh test,” Bilas said.

This year though, Bilas and others have picked VCU to return to the Final Four two seasons after making a magical run to Houston in 2011.

The fifth-seeded Rams take on 12th-seeded Akron Thursday night in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

“I don’t really read that type of stuff,” VCU point guard Darius Theus said. “Those who pick us, thank you, but those who don’t, we still got to prove them wrong.

“Either way I’m fine with it; I just want to play. At the end of the day when the ball goes up, what they said doesn’t matter no more,” Theus continued.

The Rams famously used criticism as motivation toward making a run to the Final Four in 2011. After VCU’s win over USC in the First Four, head coach Shaka Smart opened up his press conference by asking, “You guys think Jay Bilas watched that game?”

But this tournament is different. Hardly anyone is picking against the Rams in their first round-of-64 game against Akron.

“People are a lot like sheep, they follow and they do what maybe is cool to do and other people do,” Smart said. “We don’t put a lot of stock into that.”

Scheduling Got Them Here

It’s universally known in the college basketball world that earning an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament is all about which teams you schedule and whether or not you win those games.

This season, VCU did just that, earning a 5-seed to the Big Dance, the school’s highest seed since earning a 2-seed in 1985.

“A lot of people don’t talk about this but the number one reason that we have a much better seed is because we’ve played a better schedule,” Smart said. “It’s the best regular season schedule that VCU’s ever played.”

VCU had the 41st toughest strength of schedule this season, facing teams such as Duke, Missouri, Memphis, Saint Louis, Belmont and Butler.

The Rams were 3-3 against teams in the top 25 of the RPI and 9-1 against the top 100.

Smart hopes this season’s strong schedule will go a long way heading into the field of 68.

“That’s the hope; it should make us more prepared,” Smart said. “But none of these things alone win us the game. You’ve still got to go out and perform and you still got to go out and beat Akron.”

Avoiding Foul Trouble

Over the course of three games in the Atlantic 10 Tournament last weekend, VCU was called for 71 fouls to its opponents’ combined 57.

Keeping in mind that St. Joseph’s and UMass were forced to foul late in the game because they were trailing made those numbers slightly less lopsided.

But many have chalked that up to VCU’s physical, hands-on HAVOC-style defense that causes so many fouls.

“I’m not troubled; it’s something that we need to get better at and it’s something that has affected us at different times over the course of the season and not just this season,” Smart said. “With the way that we play, it can happen.”

Theus said he can get a feel for how closely referees will call a game in the first couple plays. In tournaments, Theus said, they don’t allow the whistle to decide games.

“I feel like the refs let you play just a little bit in the tournament,” Theus said. “I think they don’t want to determine if the game is based off their calls.”

Hungry After Lost Championship

VCU has used criticism and doubt as bulletin board material in the past, but perhaps this year’s largest form of motivation is moving forward after a 62-56 loss to St. Louis in the Atlantic 10 title game.

The Rams fell to Old Dominion in the Colonial Athletic Association championship game in 2011 before beating Drexel in the same game a year later.

“That’s another championship we let slip away. After a while, you kind of get tired of losing championship games,” Theus said. “So I think the blessing is we got another chance to play for another championship.”

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