Living a Final Four Dream

On Saturday night the dreamy floating bubble popped for the greater Rams Nation. In the first of two NCAA men’s semifinal basketball tournament games in Houston the Butler Bulldogs ended the VCU Rams stuff-of-legends run: Butler 70, VCU 62.

Later, in the evening’s nightcap, Connecticut defeated Kentucky. So the Huskies out of the Big East Conference will meet the Horizon League’s Bulldogs on Monday (9 p.m. on CBS), to determine which of them will be this season’s national champion.

Meanwhile, regarding VCU’s appearance in the Final Four, nobody I know can remember when a college or professional team from Richmond ever played in such an important game in any sport. Perhaps it's fair to say VCU just overshadowed anything, popular culture-wise, Richmond has ever witnessed.

Coming into the game, the resume of the Colonial Athletic Association’s last team standing read this way: VCU 59, Southern Cal 46; VCU 74, Georgetown 56; VCU 94, Purdue 76; VCU 72, Florida St. 71; VCU 71, Kansas 61.

In those five wins VCU’s players had performed as though they were living in the moment more completely than their expectations-burdened opponents. Butler was different.

Unlike those five power conference losers, the Bulldogs didn’t trip over their own hubris. Instead, they executed their plan to deny VCU its three-point shots with utter determination.

Which meant it came down to a gritty, no-blood-no-foul contest with an outcome that was determined by hard-earned shots that fell, and those that rimmed out. In short, Butler was so good that VCU needed to be luckier.

Plainly, it turned out nobody on Shaka Smart’s VCU roster could check Butler’s star guard, Shelvin Mack, who scored 24 points to pace the Bulldogs offense. Then again, Butler’s coach, Brad Stevens, couldn’t find a man to stop VCU’s power forward Jamie Skeen, who led all scorers with 27 points.

Don’t be surprised to see both Mack and Skeen earning a living in the NBA one day.

Two key factors stood out -- rebounding and which coach’s role players performed at a higher level. Butler won on both of those accounts. The Bulldogs prevailed in the battle of the boards by a telling 46-30 margin. It didn’t hurt their cause that they took twice as many foul shots as did the Rams. Butler’s irrepressible Matt Howard went 11 for 12 from the charity stripe.

Nonetheless, what the Rams did to overcome all odds, to defy the experts, will be recalled for years to come at local happy hours. After all, this dream followed a 2010-11 season of highs and lows that barely qualified VCU for a bid to the NCAA tournament.

When I was running errands on Saturday afternoon, before the game, I was in the Grace and Harrison Streets area. It was teeming with people. Most of them, old or young, were wearing VCU gear. Visually, it was amazing. There were temporary stands selling bootleg VCU T-shirts in the parking lots. I could hear a crowd cheering and chanting on Broad Street, a block away. Even the mumblers and panhandlers in front of the convenience store were outfitted in goldenrod and black T-shirts.

Thus, it seems the unlikeliest of bandwagons can still get overcrowded.

After the game, some with a snootful of the spirit of anarchy took advantage of the license in the air. The cops and some elements of the crowd battled, apparently without any serious injuries. Whether any of the firebugs or brick-throwers were students or basketball fans isn’t known at this desk.

However annoying any of that public behavior may seem to a reader, Smart and his team didn’t burn any couches. The only bricks they threw were at the rim in Houston.

Back to basketball: What VCU's team accomplished in the tournament earned the university attention it has never enjoyed before. Even though it may seem to some who don’t follow sports to have been frivolous, it was a remarkable story, nonetheless.

Now, speaking of stories, here comes the soap opera: Coach Smart has become a star. In the real world that means he will soon be getting come-hither offers from other schools with big dollar signs attached to them.

Is VCU prepared to pay Smart a market-driven salary that will make him feel properly appreciated? We'll see.

Before this year, only dreamers could have imagined that VCU would ever play in a Final Four. To realize the dream it took an avalanche of good luck, and it took a nimble squad that believed in itself. Smart is the guy who made believers out of his players.

There are all sorts of sports axioms about what makes for good luck. Basically, they all rely in some way on believing.

Living a Final Four Dream

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