VCU and Kentucky Dance into Final Four!

"Can you say  Houston fella's"

One thing is for certain, a mid-major will be playing for the national title next Monday. The Butler Bull Dawgs and the Virginia Commonwealth Rams will meet in the national semi-final on Saturday. Not even the best bookie in Vegas would 've picked this match up. To have an 8th and an 11th seed in the Final Four in the same year is virtually impossible, but this year it happened.

All of the so-called experts said that VCU didn't deserve to be in the tournament in the first place but Shaka put his boys to work. Jamie Skeen scored 26 points and 11th-seeded Virginia Commonwealth is crashing the Final Four after the upset of the NCAA tournament, shocking No. 1 seed Kansas 71-61 on Sunday.

 So doubtful were the Rams of even making the tournament that they didn't watch the selection show. Two weeks later, they're Houston-bound after an incredible take down of the last No. 1 seed. It's George Mason all over again, and VCU had an even tougher Final Four path than their tiny conference brethren in 2006. The Rams needed five wins to go from First Four to Final Four. Along the way, they toppled teams from the Pac-10, Big East, Big 10, ACC and now the Big 12. Now they'll have to play someone their own size, the Butler Bull Dawgs.

"The Chosen One"

Brandon Knight scored 22 points and fourth-seeded Kentucky restored some order to the Final Four with a 76-69 win over second-seeded North Carolina on Sunday in the East Regional final. The Wildcats (29-8) will play Connecticut in Houston on Saturday night after turning back a late surge by the Tar Heels (27-10), who erased an 11-point deficit before running out of gas in the final 2 minutes.


I'm blown away that Coach Calipari has these guys in the Final Four because they're so young. How do you make it to national semi-final after loosing 5 first round draft picks a year ago? Nobody expected the Wildcats to be this good this fast but Calipari has them in the Final Four for the first time since 1998. The winningest program in college basketball history is back where they belong, on top of the basketball world where they're close enough to smell another title.

We'll see what UConn and Butler/VCU will have to say about that. Stay tuned this week as I profile each of the Final Four teams.

Jay Graves
jaygraves@thejaygravesreport.com
Follow me on Twitter: @jaygravesreport
Information from the Associated Press was used in this article.