Breaking down the Final Four — well, you really can’t

Raise your hand if you had
Connecticut, Kentucky, Butler, and VCU in the Final Four.

Okay you two, put your hands down.

According to ESPN.com, a grand total of two
out of 5.9 million brackets had this quartet convening in Houston to
fight for the 2011 NCAA championship.

If you thought a 2, 3, 4, and 11
reaching the Final Four in 2006 was odd, a 3, 4, 8, and 11 is
downright remarkable. VCU, an 11-seed, is this year’s George Mason,
but they can already claim a tougher road in that it has taken them
an extra game to get here. As a play-in team, they’ve needed five
victories to reach this point instead of the usual four.

Connecticut and Kentucky have been
here before, albeit in more revered states. Jim Calhoun’s Huskies won
it all in 1999 and 2004, while the Wildcats last reigned supreme in
1998. Butler was here last year, but in the time it took people to
rub their eyes in disbelief that they came within one half-court shot
of glory, they’ve made it here again.

And then there are the Rams of
Virginia Commonwealth. They have matched the 1986 LSU squad and Jim
Larranaga’s aforementioned George Mason club as the highest seeds to
make it this far. Two more wins and VCU would surpass 8^th-seeded
Villanova in 1985 as the highest seed to win a championship. Butler,
in tying that mark, would become the first squad since Duke in 1991
to win it all a year after coming up a game short.

For all the busted brackets out there,
digesting that no number 1 seeds are here for just the third time
ever is enough of a shock. But no number 2 seeds either? It’s never
happened before, and just think how much madder things would be had
5th-seeded Arizona’s desperation three-pointer at the buzzer fallen in against UConn.

But VCU’s story needs
to be examined one more time. Sports fans have had a long love affair
with the underdog, and there have been plenty of Cinderella stories
throughout time that have captivated us. In the pros, it’s one thing,
but at the collegiate level it’s a completely different story.

When you consider the way the talent
gets dispersed throughout the top programs in college, this is
stunning. When you consider that the Rams finished fourth in the
Colonial Athletic Association, nearly lost to my alma mater Towson in
overtime (the Tigers were 0-18 in CAA play), and were just 5-9 in
NCAA tournament games entering 2011, this is beyond anyone’s wildest
dreams.

The odds that this ends in a national
championship aren’t in their favor, but if it does we may have to
start considering this team as not only the greatest underdog story
of all time, but also one of the truly dominant tournament teams.
After all, no one has ever had to win seven games to take home the
gold.

Connecticut, Kentucky, and Butler are
all deserving programs with plenty of star power to go around, and
it’s more than likely that this year’s champion will come out of that
trio. Butler was a more known quantity when they were a familiar
position last year, reaching the finals as a 5-seed before falling
just short against mighty Duke. Of course, they aren’t likely to show
any sympathy or generosity to the Rams on Saturday.