For a second, it looked like the clock struck midnight on Cinderella. Right around that time on the east coast, VCU was up 62-53. Then,Florida Stwent on a 12-3 run topped by Chris Singleton’s three pointer with 46 seconds. In overtime, VCU kept hanging onto a lead until Singleton again put in a dagger by driving to the basket for a dunk. And so here we were after a blocked shot. Joey Rodriguez standing out of bounce struggling to get the inbounce pass in with 7 seconds, and at the last second finding Bradford Burgess in the lane for a quick lay-up to give the Rams the lead. And this time, Singleton’s shot at the buzzer was blocked by Rob Brandenberg and the madness will continue for two more days for the VCU Rams.
There is always the comment about who will potentially be this year’s George Mason. Well, why not the VCU Rams. The similarities are scary. Both teams from the Colonial were given 11 seeds and the Selection Committee was extremely criticized for letting them in. Then, very few people gave them a shot against the 6 seeds or 3 seeds. And after those upsets, they both saw another unexpected team in the Sweet 16 (George Mason saw #7 Wichita St) and managed to pull another upset to get to the Elite 8. Then, finally waiting for George Mason was the favorite to win the tournament, the #1 seed Connecticut Huskies – as GM pulled the biggest upset yet. Now, VCU will be facing the current favorite to win the tournament, the #1 seed Kansas Jayhawks. It is eerily similar to the path that the 2006 George Mason team. And if you aren’t ready to believe in destiny just yet – here is one more point.
The NCAA started seeding teams in 1979 – only twice did all four #1 seeds miss the Final 4. The first time was 1980, when the field was still 48 teams. The other time it happened – you guessed it. 2006 – whenFlorida, UCLA, LSU and of course, #11 George Mason made the Final 4. Kansas is the last #1 seed left in this year’s tournament – and if they don’t want history to repeat itself, they better not underestimate the VCU Rams – congratulations to them for making their first ever Elite 8!