Virginia Commonwealth is heading to the final four a team that had to win 5 games to just get into the tournament and having already taken down NCAA power house George Town without mercy 74-56 and then runs into #3 seed Purdue with the same no mercy 94-76.
Then they meet up with #10 seed in Florida State on Friday night and had a lead 63-57 with 6:33 left in the game when Jamie Skeen hit the first of two free throws but then had to hold on for dear live as Florida State had a 8-2 run to end the game which was tied by Chris Singleton who hit a 3-ball with 44 seconds left in the game to tie it @ 65 and was lucky that Derwin Kitchen missed a 17-foot jumper at the buzzer sending the game to overtime. Then in overtime where Bradford Burgess got a defensive board and followed it up the a 3-ball to give Virginia Commonwealth a 1 point lead and when Brandon Rozzell hit both of his free throws to make it 70-67 but then when Chris Singleton slammed the ball down for Florida State it gave Florida State a 1 point lead @ 71-70 with 28 seconds left. Then with Virgina Commonwealth having the chance for last shoot when Bradford Burgess was set up by Joey Rodriguez for a lay up with 7 seconds left and Florida State had no answer as Virginia Commonwealth won 72-71.
Then today they faced their second #1 seed in Kansas and the Kansas Jay Hawks were on fire to start the game and it took the Virgina Commonwealth Rams while to warm up as the Jay Hawks had a 6-0 lead to start the game but then the Rams outscored the Jay Hawks 41-21 in the last 17:26 in the first half. After the Rams scored the first bucket of the second half the Jay Hawks scored the next 12 points going 5 of 6 from the floor and 2 of 4 from the line to make it 43-39 Rams and got as close as 46-44 but the Rams went on a 11-3 run to regain a 10 point lead @ 57-47 and never looked back as the Virginia Commonwealth Rams are heading to Houston, Texas for the final 4 against the March Madness finalists in Butler Bulldogs with a 71-61 win.
Virginia Commonwealth Rams's head coach is Shaka Smart who is the youngest head coach in the NCAA basketball @ age 33 who is the most high energy head coach in the Madness this year as he is up and moving up and down the sidelines waiving his hand in encouragement and even got a technical foul for running on to the court during live play as the Jay Hawks were making their huge run to get back into the game. He also lead the celebration at the end of the game with his players and is like so few coaches with his unabashed enthusiasm in sports but don't get me wrong as this approach would not work for most coaches either. He has become a celebrity with the sweet-16 and the elite-8 appearances but his celebrity status will be going to a whole other level during this week leading into the final four Saturday and with Virgina Commonwealth being such a small school on the NCAA scale I really do not know if Shaka Smart will jump at the first bigger bucks opportunity or if he will wait for the right opportunity but the offers will come from every direction this spring and summer and will likely jump somewhere else at some point.
Lets see how the Rams do against the Bulldogs on staurday
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