Here we go again. Another year, another Colonial Athletic Association basketball team dominating the NCAA Tournament.
Wait, that doesn't sound right.
The Rams of Virginia Commonwealth University are sitting in the Final Four after completing one of the most remarkable March Madness runs of recent memory. Although Cinderella stories are far from unheard of in the annual spring tournament, the Rams have blazed a particularly special path to get to the final set of games.
When the NCAA decided to expand the tournament field to 68 teams last year, many criticized the move as arbitrary. Some believed that the decision would succeed in nothing more than harming the integrity of collegiate sports' greatest month. After all, how successful could an already inferior team be when it had to play an extra game and travel before even meeting the powerhouse it would have to face in the real first round?
Very successful, apparently.
VCU was a member of one of these inaugural play-in games. The Rams met Southern California in Dayton, Ohio. The Rams may have defeated the Trojans, but the performance in that game did not give many fans hope going into the real tournament.
Already branded as a write-off, VCU was tabbed to play Georgetown in the round of 64. The Big East had been a powerhouse all season and had 11 teams in the tournament; the No. 6 seed Hoyas would surely plow through their unworthy opponents.
This was before the Big East, Georgetown included, crumbled. The Hoyas, much like their conference counterparts Louisville and St. John's, were upset by upstart low-seeds.
So, good for the Rams, they pulled off the upset. Surely they could not do it again as they were slated to face off against the Big Ten beast that was the Purdue Boilermakers. Well, it turns out they could.
Fellow low-seed Florida State took the Rams to the brink but could not stop their charge, and neither could the No. 1 seed Kansas Jayhawks.
So here we sit, another Cinderella going to the Final Four, and if the Rams' story wasn't good enough already, their next matchup makes it even better.
If VCU wants to get to the National Championship, the No. 11 seed is going to have to get through last year's Cinderella, the Butler Bulldogs. Much like VCU, the No. 8 seed Bulldogs were not given much of a chance of repeating last year's success and making a deep run into the tournament.
In a perfect world, these two teams would be able to square off in the National Championship game. But only one of these two teams will earn the chance to square off against one of the NCAA tournament's good-ole-boys, either Kentucky or Connecticut, for the national championship.
The game against Butler is going to be intense. Forward Jamie Skeen, the Southwest Regional Tournament MVP, is going to have to take charge of his Rams because there is no way that their opponent is going to underestimate them.
Only one of these teams will get to go to the dance because, as the story goes, there is only one glass slipper.
Email: carey.beyer@ubspectrum.com
