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| Kansas |
A topsy-turvy, wildly unpredictable tournament had its most surprising moment Sunday as 11th-seededVirginia Commonwealth continued what might be the most improbableN.C.A.A. tournament run of them all,beating top-seeded Kansas, 71-61, in the Southwest Region final at the Alamodome.
V.C.U. became the third 11th-seeded team to reach the Final Four, after Louisiana State in 1986 and George Mason in 2006.
In the national semifinals Saturday in Houston, V.C.U. (28-11) will play Butler, which navigated through the Southeast Region as an eighth seed. That means that either V.C.U. will be in the national championship game for the first time, or Butler will be there for the second year in a row.
Kansas (35-3) was the last of the No. 1 seeds in the tournament. The Jayhawks were trying to reach the 14th Final Four in program history, and only needed to beat a team that had never made it into the Round of 16 before this year.
V.C.U. led by as many as 18 points in the first half, and took a 41-27 lead to halftime, largely on the strength of 9-for-16 3-point shooting. For the game, the Rams made 12 3-pointers on 25 attempts.
Jamie Skeen, a 6-foot-9 power forward, hit shots inside and out on his way to a game-high 26 points.
The Jayhawks, the nation’s best shooting team, with a 51.4 percent rate from the field, shot 31.3 percent in the first half and 34.4 percent over all .
Most damaging was their 2-of-22 shooting from the 3-point line, and their 15-of-28 rate from the free-throw line.
Kansas opened the second half with a 9-2 run that cut the lead to 7 and awakened a crowd painted largely in Jayhawks colors.
When an offensive foul was called on V.C.U.’s Ed Nixon away from the ball with 15 minutes 43 seconds remaining, Coach Shaka Smart erupted from the bench and approached an official inside the 3-point line. He was called for a technical foul, and the tide of momentum had shifted fully.
Kansas extended its run to 12-2, tightening the score to 43-39, before V.C.U. regrouped with a basket and a free throw.
Skeen hit a 3-pointer from the left wing with a little under 11 minutes left, rebuilding V.C.U.’s lead to 55-46, and a sense of tense equilibrium filled the cavernous arena.
As the only one of the four top-seeded teams to survive past the Round of 16, Kansas became the prohibitive favorite for the national championship. That label looked to be a burden as the Jayhawks were stunned soon after the opening tip.
Any thoughts that Kansas would run past V.C.U. on the way to the Final Four in Houston were quashed quickly. V.C.U.’s 11-0 run in the first half gave the Rams a 20-10 lead midway through the first half, and the Jayhawks were unusually flustered.
Unlike their Round of 16 rout over Richmond, when the Jayhawks had nine players score in the first half to build a 20-point lead, Kansas could find no one to make a field goal other than Marcus Morris for the game’s first 11 minutes. His twin brother, Markieff, broke the string with a 3-pointer with 8:41 left, closing V.C.U.’s lead to 23-15.
It was not until 4:20 was left in the first half that a non-Morris scored, when Josh Selby made a short jumper. When V.C.U.’s Brandon Rozell responded quickly with his fourth 3-pointer of the game, and his team’s ninth, the Rams had a 39-21 lead and the awed attention of everyone in attendance.
Kansas won its previous three games by an average of 17.7 points, all over opponents seeded ninth or lower. Handicapping the field by seeds, the Jayhawks had nearly the easiest route to the Final Four possible — games against teams seeded 16th, 9th, 12th and 11th.
Kansas’ Marcus Morris had 20 points and 16 rebounds. Markieff Morris had 13 points and 12 rebounds. The rest of the Kansas players combine to shoot 11 of 31 from the field.
V.C.U. point guard Joey Rodriguez, moments after air-balling a 3-pointer from above the top of the key, drained his next attempt to salve one late Kansas burst, pushing the score to 60-52 with little more than four minutes left. Kansas scored, but V.C.U.’s Bradford Burgess hit a 3-pointer that led Marcus Morris to shake his head as he ran down court.
Kansas never pulled closer than 5 points again.
Two Sundays earlier, the only V.C.U. player who had the nerve to watch the nationally televised selection show for the tournament was Rodriguez. His teammates found distractions — Burgess went to Five Guys for a burger, Nixon watched Cartoon Network, Rozell was doing homework.
But when V.C.U.’s name was called, albeit to play in the tournament’s newly created First Four on the Wednesday before the Round of 64 began, Rodriguez pounded on the doors of his teammates. A two-week ride of improbability was set in motion.
V.C.U. beat Southern California, Georgetown, Purdue and Florida State to reach the Round of 8. The first victory that was not by double digits came Friday at the Alamodome, when Rodriguez fed Burgess under the basket for a game-winning layup with seven seconds left in overtime against Florida State. V.C.U. won, 72-71, setting off a wild celebration.
Somehow, Sunday’s was more muted. Maybe, by now, V.C.U. expects to be here. And, maybe, the Rams are on their way to the most improbable national championship of all.
Sources: http://www.nytimes.com
