Bracket Busters: VCU Channels Another Upset, Drops Kansas to Advance to Final Four

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Face it, your bracket is probably messed up. Thanks to teams like Butler and VCU, top teams are being knocked off and people’s brackets are way off. I never would have thought of Butler or VCU advancing to the Final Four. Probably zero percent of the population predicted a VCU-Butler match-up to advance to the National Championship.

This basketball season is truly the season of the upsets. It started off with Morehead State knocking off Louisville, then Richmond beating Vanderbilt. Other teams followed like Butler upsetting Pittsburgh, Wisconsin, and Florida. VCU got it at Purdue and Kansas. Kentucky had their share, beating Ohio State. With that now, there will be no team with a number one seed in the Final Four.

But who would have thought this Virginia college would do so much? To be honest, I never heard of this team until Purdue got knocked off by them — actually, SMOKED by them. Many probably haven’t heard of the Virginia Commonwealth Rams until they beat the Boilermakers.

And now they are here, in the Final Four, after dropping Kansas in a stunning 71-61 finish. VCU opened up to a 41-27 lead at halftime. However, Kansas would come back, but it wasn’t enough to drop this eleventh-seeded team. VCU became the third only eleventh-seeded team to advance into the Final Four.

Many doubted this team from the get-go. They doubted them every single game. Fans, experts, and as well as the Morris’ twins — Markieff and Marcus. Marcus had 20 points and 16 rebounds while Markieff had 13 points and twelve rebounds. However, it wasn’t enough. And now, they sit there, shoulders slumped into their locker room — crying.

“Those people [the doubters] don’t matter,” VCU coach Shaka Smart said. “The only people that matter is the 14 guys on our team, and they never stopped believing.”

The game started out with one of the Morris brothers saying, “The run ends here.” VCU guard, Joey Rodriguez, snapped back with a “We’ll see.” It was going down, but it was the Jayhawks that were. And, in fact, it was their run that stopped right here.

With the final seconds ticking down, James Skeen — who had 26 points — launched the ball into the stands from the free-throw line. After the VCU players on the bench were anxious, they went out onto the court to celebrate.

“We got beat by a team that was definitely better today,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “They were faster. They were good.”

VCU will play in the battle of the upsets: VCU-Butler. Which team can come out on top and be the Cinderella team of the year?

We’ll see.