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Southwest champion capsule: Virginia Commonwealth University
The Rams employ a zone press designed to force turnovers and wear down opponents, and they like to spread opposing defenses wide with the threat of their 3-point shooting. They’ll use 10 players but only six for extended minutes, which makes it all the more impressive that they’ve been able to cause fatigue for so many big-name opponents. Their top six scorers all have made at least 29 3-pointers in 38 games, which forces opponents to stretch out to the perimeter and tends to open driving lanes and one-on-one opportunities in the post for center Jamie Skeen. What the Rams do really well that gets precious little attention is defending the 3-point line. They’ve now outscored their tournament opponents by a composite 159-69 from behind the 3-point line.
The weakness: It’s not uncommon for pressing teams to be poor in rebounding. Coaching legend Nolan Richardson expressed little concern about this department when leading Arkansas to Final Fours and the 1994 NCAA title. The Rams aren’t a big team and are, on average, beaten by 3.8 rebounds per game—which ranks 294th in Division I. They were destroyed on the boards by Kansas but somehow saw to it that it did not matter, even without a huge differential in turnovers, by being more efficient and productive on offense.
Best player: Point guard Joey Rodriguez has been the tournament’s dominant player—not just for VCU but for every team in the field. That might sound strange given that he has averaged only 10.2 points, but Rodriguez dominates tempo in a way that energizes the Rams. His 7.6 assists might give a better accounting of his influence, but even that does not capture how thoroughly he can dominate a game when he is playing well. He’s so important he hasn’t played fewer than 30 minutes in a game since the first week of January.
Super sub: Senior guard Brandon Rozzell comes off the bench to play 25 minutes per game, and he’s never played any better than in this tournament. Already established as an excellent 3-point shooter—39.8 percent for the season—he has made nearly half his attempts in five tournament games. He is averaging more than 10 points per game on 3-pointers alone in this tournament. He doesn’t create a lot of plays but rarely makes a mistake. He either gets up a shot, or gives up the ball.
Coach’s M.O.: Shaka Smart has been a quietly rising star in coaching since he went from an assistant’s job at Akron to his first BCS-conference job at Clemson under Oliver Purnell. His impressive work ethic and intelligence caught the attention of Florida’s Billy Donovan, who hired him away from the Tigers then endorsed him as a replacement at VCU for another former Gators assistant, Anthony Grant. Smart is energetic, organized and committed to his system. He has wisely used the loud media condemnation of the program’s inclusion in the NCAA field to motivate his players. He is generally composed on the sideline, never demonstrating stress to his players—so cool that when he got T’d up in the Kansas game, it was his first of the season.
Season’s turning point: In mid-February, VCU dropped consecutive games to Colonial Athletic Association powers Old Dominion and George Mason. The Rams were blown out in each game—by 11 against ODU and 20 against Mason. And both were at home. In the aftermath of those debacles, VCU made the trip to Wichita State for a BracketBusters game against Wichita State, in which it gutted out a 68-67 victory against a solid opponent and one of the loudest crowds in college basketball. The Rams are 8-3 since, with an appearance in the CAA championship game and now the Final Four.
Toughest tournament test: The Rams have been the most dominant team in the NCAAs. For one thing, they’ve won five games and the other three standing won four. In four of the five victories, they won by double-digit margins, including by 10 over a No. 1 seed, by 18 over a No. 2 seed and by 18 over a No. 6. The only close call for the Rams was their one-point overtime victory over Florida State in the regional semifinal, a game in which they struggled to manufacture scoring opportunities against the Seminoles’ long, athletic, rugged defense.
