ESPN Men's Basketball

SAN ANTONIO -- When players from both teams shook hands before the game that broke the bracket once and for all, Kansas big man Marcus Morris went to the intimidation playbook once too often.

"You guys have had a good run," he told Virginia Commonwealth guards Joey Rodriguez and Brandon Rozzell. "But now it's over."

Morris and the Jayhawks had barked, shoved and bullied their way past Richmond here Friday night. Rodriguez warned Saturday that similar tactics in the regional final Sunday wouldn't work with the 11th-seeded Rams.

"We're a different set of guys," Rodriguez said.

Yeah, you could say that. A set of guys unlike any we've seen in NCAA tournament history.

The fearless senior point guard, who is a foot shorter than the glowering, hulking Morris, didn't cower. He laughed at the 6-foot-9 Morris. And after shocking the world and shutting the Jayhawks' pie holes 71-61, he and the Rams are still laughing.

All the way to Houston.

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ESPN.com's Pat Forde talks with VCU's Joey Rodriguez after the Rams defeated Kansas in the Elite Eight.

VCU head coach Shaka Smart after his 11th-seeded Rams beat Kansas to reach the Final Four.

For two weeks, the refrain has been the same: “VCU is hot and the Rams have a chance to win, but this is going to be a really tough game for them. I’m not sure they can keep it up.”

For the fifth straight time, VCU has made the pregame prognostications obsolete. As a result, the Rams are going to the Final Four.

The lessons, as always: (1) Approach your bracket with the utmost, sincere humility. (2) Never doubt this Virginia Commonwealth team.

Facing a No. 1 seed and an overwhelming pro-Kansas crowd in San Antonio on Sunday, the Rams started hot, built a double-digit halftime lead and held off the bigger, stronger Jayhawks 71-61 after Kansas made its inevitable second-half run to cut the lead to two. Kansas was done in by bad defense in the first half and ugly shooting throughout, and with nothing falling down -- free throws included -- Bill Self’s team could never truly climb out of the hole dug by VCU’s hot shooting in the first half.

You don’t have to be a college basketball expert to realize how much of an upset this was. But, wow, what an upset. It practically defies description. Three weeks ago, the Rams -- losers of their final four regular-season conference games -- weren’t sure they were going to make the tournament. Now they have a legitimate chance to win the national title.

In other words: The Rams are everything we love about college basketball. VCU is the NCAA tournament. And so the magical run rolls on.

Turning point: KU's second-half run was inevitable. VCU was bound to slow down from 3-point range eventually, and the Jayhawks were able to create plenty of opportunities by owning the offensive boards throughout the game. As Kansas made that run -- cutting the lead to seven points with 15:43 remaining -- VCU coach Shaka Smart was assessed a technical foul by the referee, and all of a sudden, it looked like the Rams were in the midst of a second-half meltdown.

A couple of minutes later, Kansas shrank the gap to two points, and the Jayhawks looked like they were going to storm the Rams for the rest of the second half. Instead, after KU forward Marcus Morris made two free throws, the Jayhawks went unusually cold, and -- thanks to a pair of key baskets by Toby Veal and Darius Theus, and a pair of huge plays from forward Jamie Skeen -- VCU rebuilt its lead to double digits and never looked back. The Rams had stared No. 1 in the face and held tall. Meanwhile, Kansas cut the lead to two and proceeded to shoot 6-of-24 afterward, 0-of-10 from 3-point range. That's not standing tall.

Star of the game: Skeen is the obvious choice here. He had the box score’s best line -- 26 points, 10 rebounds, 4-of-7 from 3-point range -- and he made huge plays at the most important times for VCU down the stretch. (These plays ranged from huge shots to heady timeouts, as when Skeen stripped Marcus Morris under the rim and called a timeout to keep a late push by the Jayhawks at bay.) As always, though, VCU point guard Joey Rodriguez deserves a nod here, too. His line isn’t eye-popping, but his intelligent, poised play at the point is one of the main reasons VCU has been able to maintain its leads against favorites throughout this tournament. Sunday was no different.

Key stat: Without taking credit away from the Rams -- someone had to make all those first-half 3s, after all -- it’s fair to ask whether or not KU’s loss deserves the dreaded “choke” label. Whatever you want to call it, Kansas picked a really, really bad time to have its worst shooting game of the season.

According to ESPN Stats and Information, the usually hot-shooting Jayhawks posted season lows in field goal percentage (35.5) and 3-point field goal percentage (9.1), which is about as bad as any team, let alone one that usually drains its open jumpers, can possibly shoot. Nor did it help that Kansas made only 53.6 percent of its free throws. The Jayhawks have always thrived on their ability to drain open shots this season. Needless to say, going 2-of-21 from 3-point range and 15-of-28 from the free throw line is not “thriving” on anything. If the Hawks hadn’t dominated the offensive glass so thoroughly, this game would have been another VCU blowout.

Another fun stat: When VCU hit 12 3s in its second-round win against Georgetown, it was a season high for the Rams. So all they've done since is hit 12 more against Florida State and another 12 today against Kansas. VCU shot just 32.1 percent from 2-point range (9-28), but 48 percent from 3-point range (12-25). Go figure.

History: Virginia Commonwealth is now one of three teams seeded 11th or lower to make the Final Four (LSU in 1986 and George Mason in 2006 were both 11s). ... The Rams are one of just four double-digit seeds to win a game by double digits in the Sweet 16 or later. ... Shaka Smart is 33. Butler coach Brad Stevens is 34. Both of them combined are younger than UConn coach Jim Calhoun (68).

What’s next: If it feels unfair to call this Kansas season “disappointing” -- the Jayhawks had a great year, won the Big 12 regular-season and conference tournament titles, and finished among the best eight teams in the country -- that’s only because this team and its fans had reason to expect so much more. Instead, Kansas ended another season with a loss to a bottom-half seed in the NCAA tournament, with shock and surprise and dismay and disgust.

VCU, meanwhile, will make a historic trip to the Final Four. The Rams will face Butler in the matchup of the two highest combined seed numbers (No. 8, No. 11) to ever meet in a national semifinal (second-highest is 14), and their win ensures that no No. 1 seed will attend the Final Four festivities for the third time since seeding began in 1979.

More than anything, though, VCU’s unlikely run to the Final Four merely proves what we always say about the NCAA tournament, and proves it more thoroughly than ever: You never know. That’s why we love this tournament, and that’s why people will always remember this team.

Even better? VCU's not done yet.

ESPN analyst Mark Gottfried on Virgina Commonwealth's upset of top-seed Kansas, which propels the 11th-seeded Rams to the Final Four.

Dick Vitale previews Sunday's regional finals: Kansas-VCU and Kentucky-North Carolina.

SAN ANTONIO -- A quick preview of the Southwest Regional final: Virginia Commonwealth vs. Kansas:

No. 11 seed VCU Rams vs. No. 1 seed Kansas Jayhawks, 2:20 p.m. ET (CBS)

What to watch: The glass. Kansas is a brutally effective rebounding team, with a plus-7.9 advantage on the backboard this season. VCU is a minus-3.6. Friday night might have portended what Sunday has in store. In the blowout of Richmond, the Jayhawks were a plus-eight. The same night, VCU was crushed on the glass by Florida State, 47-32.

VCU fully understands how important that area of the game will be. Point guard Joey Rodriguez said that at a Saturday team meeting, some of the Rams’ big men were called out by their teammates for a lack of production on the glass against the Seminoles.

The Jayhawks also were able to intimidate the Spiders, starting with trash talk the day before the game and escalating it to a pregame shoving match in the tunnel leading to the court. Richmond acted unnerved when the game began and promptly fell behind by 22 points. VCU might be a bit outmanned, but it probably won’t be unnerved.

“They kind of bullied [Richmond],” Rodriguez said. “We can’t let that happen to us. I don’t think we will. We’ve got a different set of guys, a lot of tough guys.”

Who to watch: For Virginia Commonwealth, wing Bradford Burgess. He failed to make any of the three CAA all-conference teams, and was insulted by that. Since then, he’s played like a guy who should have been a first-teamer. He’s averaged 17.5 points, 7 rebounds and 1.5 blocks in the NCAA tourney, and he’s made 9 of his past 11 3-pointers. If VCU is going to have a shot in this game, it will probably need another hot shooting hand from Burgess. Continued aggressiveness would be welcome, too; coach Shaka Smart said he believes Burgess doesn’t shoot enough.

For Kansas, the play of the power triumvirate of Marcus and Markieff Morris and Thomas Robinson off the bench will be central to the outcome. Nobody feeds the post more resolutely than the Jayhawks, usually with great results -- that’s why the Morris twins are combining to average 30.7 points, with Robinson contributing 7.8 off the bench. Friday night the three produced a total of 30 points and 27 rebounds. They will present a major challenge for the vulnerable VCU interior.

VCU wins if: If the Rams maintain their preternatural confidence and poise, both of which flow freely from their coach. And if Rodriguez is able to get the Rams into some productive half-court action -- the VCU senior has a tourney-leading 33 assists and six turnovers this tourney. And if they’re able to score enough from 3-point range to offset whatever they give up in the paint. And if they’re able to produce some turnovers and transition baskets before Kansas can set up its defense. And, if all that fails, if they can find a little leftover pixie dust, the likes of which it used to sneak past Florida State by a point Friday.

Kansas wins if: Once again, the Jayhawks should be in great shape if they merely play up to their capabilities. They slapped 11 minutes of dazzling basketball on Richmond on Friday, and it led to a blowout victory. Through three games, KU has not been seriously challenged, winning each by at least 14 points. If the Jayhawks shoot a solid percentage and don’t give up a boatload of 3s, this one should be similar. The interesting question will be how they respond if VCU hangs around until late.

What they’re saying: “We don’t want to bully nobody. But that’s good if that’s what they think we’re going to do.” -- KU’s Markieff Morris, on whether VCU is preparing for intimidation tactics from Kansas.

“We’ve been watching them our whole lives on TV. They’re a great program, but they wake up and put their shorts on the same way we do.” -- Rodriguez on the Jayhawks.

“We’re at Kansas. Kansas is never an underdog. We have always been Goliath, all the time. We just have to embrace that role.” -- Marcus Morris on being the heavy favorite.

“I probably would say something slick like, ‘Nice prediction.’ But I wouldn’t say anything rude.” -- VCU’s Jamie Skeen, if he had the chance to discuss the Rams’ tournament success with those who said they shouldn’t have been included in the field.

Noteworthy: VCU players were tickled early Saturday morning to receive pictures from home in Richmond, Va., where students had flooded into Broad Street and closed it down to through traffic. “We have the whole city on our back now,” Rodriguez said. … Kansas has trailed for a total of 3 minutes and 29 seconds in 120 minutes of NCAA tourney play. It has led for every second of its 60 minutes of second-half play. ... With Butler's victory Saturday, KU has a chance to reach the national title without having played a team seeded seventh or better.

SAN ANTONIO -- With a few minor alterations to the plot, history is repeating itself here this weekend.

Virginia Commonwealth is the modern version of George Mason, 2006: a No. 11 seed from the Colonial Athletic Association that barely squeezed into the NCAA tournament, amid protest from the punditry. Now, after a startling run of upsets, the Rams face a seemingly unconquerable No. 1 seed for the right to go to the Final Four.

Kansas is the modern version of itself, 2008: a No. 1 seed blessed with a broken bracket and three mismatches on its way to a regional final date with a seemingly overmatched Cinderella.

Mason shocked the world in the '06 Elite Eight, beating Connecticut in double overtime to advance to the Final Four. It was the biggest underdog story in decades in college basketball.

Kansas survived its '08 regional final against No. 10 seed Davidson, 59-57, advancing to the Final Four here in San Antonio and winning its first national title in 20 years.

Sunday, the plotline ends for one of the two and continues for the other. Because they both can't win. But they both can recognize the similarities and draw from them.

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Andy Katz with a first look at all four of this weekend's Elite Eight matchups.

SAN ANTONIO -- Joey Rodriguez was out of options and nearly out of time.

“I was counting in my head,” the Virginia Commonwealth guard said. “I was at four.”

Four seconds into his attempt to inbound the ball beneath the Florida State basket. One more tick and it would be a five-second violation, and the Rams would almost certainly have lost their last decent chance to beat the Seminoles.

They trailed 71-70 in overtime, having frittered away a nine-point lead in the final 7:05 of regulation. And now they were eight seconds away from ending their stirring, underdog run to the Sweet 16.

And the clock was ticking in Rodriguez’s head. A play originally designed for Brandon Rozzell blew up when Rozzell and forward Jamie Skeen collided. Then it was on to Plan B -- Bradford Burgess slipping to the hoop off the third screen of the sequence -- which coach Shaka Smart had told his point guard would be open late in the play.

So Rodriguez kept his wits about him. The little senior Smart called the mentally toughest player he’s coached didn’t panic. He faked a deep pass to freeze the Florida State defense, then suddenly discovered Burgess cutting to the basket.

Open.

Shockingly open.

Shocking, in part, because it seemed that no Ram had gotten open for days. Florida State’s vaunted defense had suffocated VCU, holding it to three points in the final 7 ½ minutes of regulation and five more points in overtime. The Seminoles had blocked shots, created turnovers, forced shot-clock violations, instilled doubt in a team that had played so freely and so well for so long.

Now here, in the literal nick of time, came Burgess slicing into the paint between Deividas Dulkys and the unfortunate Derwin Kitchen. All alone.

“I was very surprised,” Rodriguez said.

Kitchen took the blame, saying he turned his head the wrong way and lost Burgess. It would be the second part of an unholy trinity of late-game errors for the senior guard. You could describe the end of regulation and the end of overtime as Hell’s Kitchen.

You also could describe it as Rodriguez’s Redemption. An 84 percent foul shooter on the season and 91 percent in this tournament, he had stunningly missed three free throws in the final minutes of regulation. That was part of a team-wide meltdown at the line as VCU slowly lost its grip on the lead.

“Senior year, you don’t want it to end on free throws like that,” Rodriguez said.

It didn’t. Instead, it ended on the biggest bounce pass in VCU history, the one Rodriguez threaded to Burgess for the layup and the winning points in a 72-71 triumph.

“Joey did a great job pass-faking and finding Brad,” Smart said, “and Brad finished the play.”

The play did not, however, finish the game. Seven seconds remained -- time for Florida State to make a last dash down court. The Seminoles put the ball in Kitchen's hands and hoped for a better result than the end of regulation.

The last possession of regulation had been a disaster. Kitchen lost track of time and dribbled out the clock, failing to turn and get up a shot before the buzzer.

“That was poor judgment on my part,” Kitchen said, showing admirable accountability.

FSU coach Leonard Hamilton had watched that transpire while sitting on a pair of unused timeouts. But he said he’d diagrammed the play during the previous timeout and it simply hadn’t panned out.

At the end of overtime, it was more of the same -- Kitchen to the hoop. And again Hamilton thought the play was going to work.

Kitchen drove to within a few feet of the hoop and seemingly had a decent shot -- then passed out to Chris Singleton. Kitchen said he fumbled the ball on his way up and didn’t think he’d get off a good shot, thus the pass. Singleton’s medium-range jump shot was blocked by Rob Brandenberg -- but it was unclear whether that one got off in time, either.

When the horn sounded, the Noles were left to ponder a determined comeback that was undone by late-game ineptitude. And the Rams were free to go wild.

Their ability to defy all expectations has made them the story of this NCAA tournament. A team that was barely granted admittance to the Big Dance dominated its first three games -- then had to win this one in dramatic fashion.

It was VCU’s second late-game escape of the season. The first one occurred in the Colonial Athletic Association quarterfinals, when Skeen barely beat the buzzer with a spinning layup for a 62-60 victory over Drexel.

“If he doesn’t hit that,” Smart said, “we’re not standing here.”

That’s how thin the margin of error was for the Rams just to get into this tournament. Now, in a fitting absurdity for a season that long ago began defying rational explanation, VCU is 40 minutes from the Final Four.

And all the Rams need to do is take down the last No. 1 seed in the field, mighty Kansas.

Earlier Friday, the Jayhaws ripped Richmond by 20. Earlier in the season, the Spiders ripped crosstown rival VCU by 12.

The math says this is a bad matchup for the Rams.

The Rams, just the sixth team seeded 11th or worse to make it this far, will counter that math with their beguiling brand of March magic.

“We’re going to have to strap it up,” Smart said, then smiled. “But I’ve got a feeling our guys are going to be ready.”

Digger Phelps, Jay Bilas and Dick Vitale on VCU's 73-72 OT win over FSU.

SAN ANTONIO -- Thoughts from 11th-seeded VCU's thrilling 72-71 win over Florida State.

Overview: Virginia Commonwealth pulled off an overtime victory with a stunningly open inbounds play in the final seconds. Joey Rodriguez found Bradford Burgess going to the basket for a layup with seven seconds left, after VCU had struggled mightily to score in the final minutes of regulation and overtime. A final Florida State drive was stopped when Rob Brandenberg blocked the Seminoles' last shot.

Turning point: With Rodriguez seemingly out of options and almost out of time to get the ball inbounds, he found Burgess for the winning basket.

Key stat: VCU somehow withstood being outrebounded by 20 to win.

Key player: Burgess had a game-high 26 points (which tied his season-high), none bigger than the winning basket.

What's next: VCU's Cinderella ride advances to the regional final, where the 11th-seeded Rams will face No. 1 seed Kansas. The Rams will be just the fifth 11-seed to ever play in the Elite Eight. Florida State goes home to lament a botched final possession of regulation that saw the Seminoles dribble out the clock.

SAN ANTONIO -- The Kansas Jayhawks are not in this tournament to win the sportsmanship trophy. They’re not here to go along and get along. They’re not terribly interested in playing nice.

They made that perfectly clear before and during their Sweet 16 stomping of Richmond on Friday night, a 77-57 beating that was Kansas at its best. And cockiest. And most intimidating.

The Jayhawks shoved their way inside the Spiders’ heads more than 24 hours before the game and never left, not until the final horn sounded. When Kansas star forward Marcus Morris encountered a couple of Richmond players in the hallway between media interviews Thursday, he issued a verbal warning: “You better be ready.”

Then, while the Spiders were huddling in the tunnel before coming out onto the court for tipoff, the Jayhawks barged through. A shoving match ensued between the teams.

“We were trying to run out,” Kansas guard Josh Selby said. “They stood right there, and we just tried to run through it.”

“It got a little chippity,” Morris said. “We had a little battle to get out the tunnel first.”

Said Richmond’s Kevin Smith: “They tried to run through there, and they ran into some walls. It’s a man thing. Would you let a man walk through you? They thought they were playing with some boys with that one.”

No offense to Mr. Smith and the Spiders, but this was a men-against-boys game. Top-seeded Kansas had its way with the No. 12 seed, bursting out to a 31-9 lead and never giving any upset hopes a chance to grow in the Kansas-dominated Alamodome.

Given the way both teams started the game, it’s fair to wonder whether the pregame fracas had a motivational effect on Kansas and an unsettling effect on Richmond. The Spiders say it did not, but the Jayhawks generally disagreed.

Richmond point guard Kevin Anderson said the altercation was not an issue after tipoff but that “I never got my team settled down.”

If Richmond was unsettled, Kansas was unbridled.

“I think it might have been a little bit [of a motivator],” Kansas guard Brady Morningstar said.

The more you mix it up with the Jayhawks, the better they seem to do. Whatever chance there was that they wouldn’t start the game dialed in probably disappeared in that tunnel exchange.

“Maybe they didn’t think we were ready to go,” Morris surmised. “But the first 11 minutes were probably the best we’ve played all year.”

Kansas was indeed brilliant early. The Jayhawks moved the ball precisely and hit their perimeter shots. They extended their defense to disrupt Richmond’s rhythm and force it away from the basket. They predictably hammered the smaller Spiders on the glass. They were good in transition, good in the half court, good everywhere and in every way.

“They are truly a great team,” Richmond coach Chris Mooney said. “They were kind of able to dictate the game, unfortunately, in every way.”

Nobody played better early than Morningstar, who had 12 first-half points and finished with a team-high 18. The senior has a reputation as something of a provocateur. Marcus and twin brother Markieff Morris have been known to keep their elbows cocked and ready, whereas Morningstar is more apt to annoy opponents with his mouth.

He got under the skin of Texas’ Jordan Hamilton in Lawrence earlier this season, prompting Hamilton to cuss at him and draw a technical foul. This time, Morningstar and Smith got into it during one dead ball, and the officials brought both together for a lecture. Not long thereafter, Morningstar buried his fourth 3-pointer of the game and woofed at Smith. He was quickly hit with a T.

“Some kind of noise,” Smith said of whatever came out of Morningstar’s mouth. “He said it running away. ... You can put that in there if you want to.”

Said Morningstar: “I got ahead of myself, and I’m not good enough to run my mouth after I make a shot.”

Morningstar said something else funny postgame. Namely, that he couldn’t understand why Richmond might have been intimidated by the Jayhawks.

Take a look at the thick bodies and unsmiling faces in your own locker room, Brady. If the Morris twins and Thomas Robinson (12 points and 14 rebounds Friday) aren’t a bit scary to look at, nobody is in college basketball.

Richmond was going to be up against it in this game no matter what. But after all the pregame posturing, the Spiders were really in trouble. It didn’t take long for Kansas to exert its dominance and make Louisville coach-turned-temporary ESPN analyst Rick Pitino’s upset pick turn on its head.

“No disrespect to Pitino,” Markieff Morris said, “but we still playing.”

And still talking.

SAN ANTONIO -- A quick look at Kansas' 77-57 win over Richmond Friday night.

Overview: This was exactly the kind of beatdown one could expect when a No. 12 seed shows up in the Sweet 16 to play a No. 1. Richmond's pregame act of defiance -- getting into a brief shoving match with Kansas in the tunnel leading to the court -- turned out to be the last fight the Spiders would put up all night. Kansas dominated in every phase of the game, racing to a double-digit lead in just more than eight minutes and keeping it there the rest of the night.

Turning point: It might have been the pregame altercation. Any hope Richmond had of sneaking up on an overconfident Kansas team probably disappeared at that point. Kansas was locked in all night, and that was bad news for the underdog.

Key player: Jayhawks guard Brady Morningstar never headlines the opponent's scouting report, but that doesn't mean he isn't dangerous. Morningstar showed it early against Richmond, making 5 of 7 shots and scoring 12 first-half points. He finished the night with a team-high 18.

Key stat: Kansas shot 50 percent from the field in the first half, 50 percent from 3-point range and 100 percent from the foul line. Richmond, meanwhile, shot just 29 percent from the field and 21 percent from 3 in the first 20 minutes. Those stats were not conducive to a shock-the-world outcome.

Miscellaneous: Kansas guard Tyshawn Taylor also played a great first half, with five assists, zero turnovers and two blocked shots. ... Richmond leading scorer Justin Harper had a very deceptive 22-point night. He struggled offensively against the big Kansas front line and didn't get going until it was too late.

What's next: Kansas moves on to the regional final Sunday against the winner of Florida State-VCU. Richmond goes home and hopes it keeps its coach, Chris Mooney, who is a candidate for other jobs.

Kenny Mayne visits the neighboring campuses of VCU and Richmond.