Bones Hyland will lead VCU Basketball to an upset win over Oregon Ducks

Not much was expected of a relatively young and inexperienced VCU Basketball team before the 2020-2021 season began. They had been picked in the preseason Atlantic 10 coaches’ poll to finish 9th in the conference standings, and much of the chatter concerning the team revolved around whether or not Bones Hyland would be good enough to keep them out of the bottom four.

In hindsight, it seems that the bar was set about a mile below where it should have been, as Hyland and the 10-seed Rams are now set for a date on Saturday with the 7-seed Oregon Ducks in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

To take nothing away from Bones Hyland, who was a deserving winner of the A10 Player of the Year award this past week, it would be a mistake to think of the Rams as a one-man show. The A10 this season was chock full of teams that relied heavily on one player to carry the bulk of the load (eg. Saint Joe’s, UMass, Dayton), but there are reasons that VCU is the only one among that group that is currently on the verge of dancing.

The primary reason is their tenacity on the defensive end of the floor — KenPom pegs the Rams as the 11th most efficient defensive team in America — but depth has also been an enormous factor, thanks in large part to a Freshman class that has a chance to go down in the annals of A10 history.

Saturday’s contest against Oregon will be a tough one — the Ducks are experienced, shoot the ball extremely well, and have size and length across the board — but a win is certainly within reach for a team of VCU’s ability if they are focused and can take care of business in a few particular facets. Here are three key areas that the Rams will need to lock in on if they hope to pull the upset.