General

VCU Is This Year’s [Mid-Major Team That Has Done Well in the NCAA Tournament in the Past]

Mar 10, 2009, 2:00 PM UTC

After last night’s impressive showing on ESPN2, VCU will surely emerge as the sexy mid-major pick in this year’s NCAA Tournament. â†µ(Really? The CAA Championship gets second billing to the Southernâ†µConference, which was on ESPN at the same time? I assume this was in anticipation ofâ†µSteph Curry.)â†µâ†µLook no further for evidence than the words of our own Dan Shanoff this morning:â†µ

â†µâ†µâ‡¥I would call the Rams “this year’s Davidson” -- that mid-major that will make a run through the second weekend of the Tournament. But I think they are better than last year’s Davidson. â†µâ‡¥â†µâ‡¥Last night, VCU won the CAA by clobbering George Mason -- a team with a permanent place in college hoops history for its run to the Final Four in 2006. â†µâ‡¥
â†µâ‡¥â†µâ‡¥Maybe VCU is this year’s Mason. â†µâ‡¥

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Sigh. Must there be a “[insert team] is this year’s Mason” from now until forever? As Mason alumni, you’d think I’d be flattered by this. But I’m not. It’s annoying and silly because the odds of there every being another Mason are 1-in-However many years the Tournament has been around. Besides, VCU will likely be a 12-seed; Mason was an 11 in ’06, thus eliminating VCU from being this year’s Mason from the break.â†µâ†µSo maybe the Rams are this year’s Davidson -- in other words, a mid-major capable of making it to the Elite Eight. This seems entirely possible because they have the two things a team needs to make a run: an inside game and a great point guard, the latter of which is Eric Maynor, arguably the best PG in the nation. â†µ

â†µâ†µRegardless of how far VCU ends up going, I do agree with Shanoff in one sense: They’re as good as any mid-major in the Tournament, with the possible exception of Gonzaga, who really, we shouldn’t consider a mid-major anymore. Without knowing how the bracket will shake out yet, I’d say it’d be a big stretch to pick VCU to win more than one game. But if they’re playing a Big Ten team in the first round (see: Purdue, Illinois), I’ll be penciling the Rams into the final 32. (Note: This isn’t saying much. The only Big Ten team I’ll be picking to win in the first round is Michigan St. This is because the Big Ten isn’t good at basketball.)â†µ

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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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