Shaka-n the World

On Sunday, March 13th the Virginia Commonwealth University(VCU) Rams were sitting in front of the TV watching the Selection Show on ESPN, hoping and praying that they would just get into the tournament. And when they got that call, they didn’t take it for granted. Two weeks later to the day the VCU Rams punched their ticket to the Final Four in Houston next weekend. What a ride they have had, so far.
All of the critics on Selection Sunday have everything negative to say about them. “They had a sub-par year, they lost to South Florida, who was awful this year. When you look at their resume, its just not right that they are in over Colorado or Virginia Tech.” Well ol’ Shaka thought otherwise, and wasn’t going to be satisfied with just getting there. They were clearly one of the last teams in, as they had to play in the “opening round game” against USC the Tuesday before the main tournament even started. If you win that game then you get to be the 11 seed, and face a Big East team, Georgetown in the second round(what used to be called the first round.)
The Rams were not huge underdogs against USC, so it wasn’t a huge surprise to see them knock off the Trojans in an opening round game, 59-46. Yah that was a good win, a good way to say F you to the critics who thought they shouldn’t be in, but everybody in the world thought that that was as far as they are going. Well almost everybody. Shake Smart and the rest of the team in that locker room before the Georgetown game thought otherwise. VCU came out and shocked the country and ruined a lot of brackets in the meantime and beat Georgetown, badly. VCU looked much like a 3 seed as they rolled to an 18 point win over Georgetown, 74-56. “Yah they beat Georgetown, but the Hoyas were on a 5 game losing streak going into that game, and has injury issues. No way they get by Purdue, who had a 14-4 record in the Big 12.” Said all of the critics. All of the sudden VCU beats a very good defensive Purdue team by a score of 94-76, and all of the sudden the country starts to watch.
An eleven seed in the sweet 16 in not all that uncommon, it seems like every year there is one double digit team that gets to the sweet 16, but typically get beat right away when their opponent has all week to study them. They usually just flat out get beaten by a better team. It seemed no different this year when VCU went to the sweet 16 to play another favored team in Florida State. Florida State was a 10 seed, but just got done beating a great team in Notre Dame out of the Big East. Yet again, VCU upsets a team and this time advances to the Elite 8 by beating Florida State 72-71 in overtime. After the game, Shaka Smart said one of my favorite quotes in sports, “It’s amazing what a team can do when nobody cares who gets the credit.” That quote rings true for the Rams as that teams scoring is spread around so well. “Great, you beat Florida State to get to the Elite 8, this is a great story for the VCU players and fans, but they are not going to get past Kansas.” Everybody in the sports world, including myself, was saying this about VCU’s chances against Kansas who was the far superior team on paper. In fact, at tip-off of the game Kansas was favored by 11.5 points in Vegas.
It was a chance to get the Final Four for both teams, and both would come out strong, so we thought. In fact Kansas came out strong and started the game on a 6-0 run. But it wasn’t the score that seemed overwhelming for the Rams, but mostly how Kansas’ D gave them no real good chances on the offensive side of the court. But all of the sudden VCU started to play, they got great shots, made most of those shots and shot especially well from 3 point land. VCU went on a run and ended the first half up by 14 points on the heavily favored Kansas team. At halftime Shaka Smart said, “Kansas will make a run in the second half, they are good. We have to be ready and try to protect the lead when the run comes.” Shaka was a prophet, Kansas did make a run and got it all the way down to three points, but the Rams of VCU proved their prominence in this tournament and held off the Jayhawks, eventually winning the game 71-61. VCU was underdogs in every single one of their wins in the tourney, all of which were to opponents from different conferences. USC is from the Pac-10, Georgetown from the Big East, Purdue from the Big 10, Florida State from the ACC, and then Kansas from the Big 12. Ironically enough the Rams play another team from a different conference on Saturday, the Butler Bulldogs from the Horizon League, who are there on their own Cinderella run as they were last year as well. Now if VCU can win on Saturday followed by a Kentucky win on Saturday night over UConn, the Rams would play their 7th team from 7 different conferences(Kentucky from the SEC). That would be quite the story on the way to the National Title. I for one am cheering for Shaka Smart and the VCU Rams to make a run the whole way. Win or lose this weekend, it is safe to say that Shaka Smart could be a very very rich man in a few months when potentially some big school start to chase him and pay him the big bucks. But for now, go VCU, good luck in the final four in Houston this weekend.