VCU’s Road: Eat Crow Baby!
By Editorial Staff
Dickie V, thanks for the motivation baby!
Good morning everyone. My name is Andrew Ilnicki of FanSided’s NY Giants blog GMENHQ – and I’m proud to be doing some guest posting over here at Busting Brackets about the Men’s Basketball team everyone is talking about — the VCU Rams.
I am proud to say that my wife and I are VCU alumni, we live in Richmond with our son, and we go to work every day at VCU’s School of the Arts. I can tell you first hand as a daily observer of life in Richmond, the last two weeks have been nothing short of incredible for this city… let alone the school. To have both the Richmond Spiders and VCU Rams heading into the Sweet Sixteen a week ago, and now EVERYONE to be rallying around VCU as they prepare for the Final Four in Houston, it’s amazing to see. Of course victory wouldn’t have been so sweet over the last few weeks without some help from main line critics, most notably Jay Bilas and Dick Vitale.
But forget about physically jumping on the bandwagon at this point, the line is too darn long.
So order your gear online here Dickie V… who’s finally come over to Ram Nation and was made a believer after they dropped Kansas by 10 points to advance to the Final Four. Vitale changed his tune this week about the much maligned Rams and said on College Gameday about their chances against Butler in the Semi-Finals:
"“They believe, they flat-out believe, and you know what? Now I believe.”"
That’s not to say they’ll win it all of course, but Vitale now thinks they have a shot to beat Butler this coming weekend. Quite a turn of events in pundit-land. Bilas recently tweeted this beauty:
"“Crow: actually, it tastes like chicken. Are they serving it at the VCU banquet?!”"
Hindsight is of course 20/20, but was it really so hard to have given them a shot a few weeks ago? If you listen to coach Shaka Smart’s reasoning it sounds so logical:
"“I think over the last 10 or 15 years in college basketball, the playing field has evened out a little bit. When you have a senior-laden team like we do, you have an opportunity to go make a run like this because we have as much experience as anybody we’re going to play.”"
Parity might be to blame… it’s certainly relevant. When you consider the increased amount of underclassmen that eschew their college degrees for a shot in the NBA over the last several seasons, there is an issue. And the CAA is not as well known for producing NBA talent as the top 6 conferences, but it should be noted that VCU has boasted two significant first round picks in the last two draft seasons, Larry Sanders in 2010 and Eric Maynor in 2009. It was Maynor who many will remember for hitting the final shot to oust Duke from the NCAA Tournament in 2007. Just saying… they may be a mid-major but VCU didn’t come out of nowhere.
Common sense tells us that anybody can get hot at the right times, and like we say in the NFL around playoff time ‘it’s not how you start but how you finish’. VCU has finished stronger than every other team they’ve faced, they’ve won their games decisively and impressively. So disregard why the other teams have lost to VCU this tournament for a moment. Given their accomplishments of playing good old fashioned team basketball, outstanding coaching and leadership, great defense, tremendous fan support, and being severely doubted in the mainstream media — all of these ingredients have created the recipe for the Rams success more than the other team just ‘not showing up’. When you win 5 games in a row against top teams, the fluke argument sort of vanishes don’t you think? Time to give credit where it’s due, and the critics are slowly coming around.
As for the sentiment that no one but the selection committee gave this team a chance in the NCAA tournament — it makes victory that much sweeter now doesn’t it? NO ONE thought they’d get past USC in their required extra game to solidify their bid. They did. I happened to be in Central America a few weeks ago during the Georgetown matchup and I was surprised to even see the game broadcast. VCU came out on top. Double the head scratching when they clobbered Purdue to advance to the Sweet Sixteen. Florida State and Kansas in one weekend though and onto the Final Four, that was pure magic.
It’s a great story for Richmond and VCU, but it’s also relevant no matter where you live. People I’ve hardly talked to in years were calling, texting me from all over the country with their support for VCU. They believe, they’re as excited as we are here in Richmond about this incredible run by the Rams. There’s still nothing like getting behind an underdog in this country I guess.
So thanks Blake for the opportunity to post my thoughts about the VCU Rams heading to the Final Four this week. I look forward to covering the other aspects of VCU’s Road in the coming days.