With the Super Bowl coming up this weekend, the biggest event in U.S. sports will command the attention of tens of millions of viewers, generating tens of millions of dollars for everyone associated with the event.

A few weeks later, the NBA All-Star game will show the NFL how exhibition weekends should be run. In my opinion, the NBA All-Star weekend festivities are the best of any pro sport, with baseball coming in a close second. Did anyone actually watch the Pro Bowl last weekend?

We don’t have any winter Olympics this year, but that’s a February event, too.

And then we have college hoops. To casual fans, March is the month of joy. But February is the month that sets the table for March. Dozens of teams are jockeying for position right now, fighting for a better seed and location or merely a bid to the Big Dance.

The schedule-makers know what they’re doing, too. Next Wednesday — just days after the Super Bowl — the top rivalry in college hoops will go down for the first of two meetings in a month when Duke visits North Carolina. That’s a nice way for the NCAA to tell America: “Guess what? Football is over. It’s time to set your sights on the hardwood.”

And of course, as we work through the thick of conference play, we’ll have the rush of bracket projections to feed the hoops addiction. Hoopville will join the fray as usual, starting this Friday. We choose to wait until February because it just feels right. By now, we have a large enough sample size to judge teams’ résumés and make projections that have a good shot of standing up during the final few weeks before Selection Sunday.

We take you coast to coast with news from around the college basketball nation.

Get ready for more technical fouls and a shorter leash on players or coaches who act out. Eamonn Brennan of ESPN.com’s “College Basketball Nation” blog reports that John Adams, the NCAA’s national officiating coordinator, sent a notice to all officials that implored them to clamp down on bad behavior.

Clemson has indefinitely suspended junior Milton Jennings, a former McDonald’s All-American, because of academic reasons, according to the Associated Press. Jennings averages 8.9 ppg and 5.4 rpg.

Arizona will finish the season without junior Kevin Parrom, who broke his foot in a loss to Washington last weekend, according to a CBS Sports.com report. He averaged 4.9 ppg, 2.9 rpg and 1.7 apg this season.

Iona is looking to remain one of the premier programs in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, and the university extended the contract of coach Tim Cluess to help make that happen, according to a CBS Sports.com report.

Don’t mess with a player’s routine. North Carolina’s Harrison Barnes shared some of the details of his routine with Andrew Jones of Fox Sports to explain why he changed his shoes at halftime of the Tar Heels’ win against Georgia Tech. Like the rest of the team, Barnes started the game with pink shoes to help promote breast cancer awareness. But he went with his usual Kobes in the second half.

VCU coach Shaka Smart stirred some commotion in the commonwealth during a teleconference Monday, writes Myron Medcalf for ESPN.com’s “College Basketball Nation” blog. Smart asserted that Virginia’s best schools reside in the CAA. He didn’t call out the ACC teams in Blacksburg or Charlottesville by name, but Smart felt compelled to give UVA coach Tony Bennett a call to clarify his comments.

The NCAA won’t be seeking any further action against Connecticut freshman guard Ryan Boatright regarding an investigation into his eligibility because of money and benefits that he and his mother received, according to the Associated Press. But the AP reports that the Boatrights’ lawyer isn’t finished with his actions against the NCAA, lambasting the organization for releasing private information.

The only coach to ever lead Canisius to an NCAA Tournament win died Saturday, according to the Associated Press. Joseph Curran, 89, passed away in Mystic, Conn. He led the Golden Griffins to a 76-66 record in six seasons, which included a shocking four overtime victory against No. 2 North Carolina State in the 1956 NCAA Tournament.

Projected starting five:

Jr. G Darius Theus
So. G Rob Brandenburg
Sr. G-F Bradford Burgess
So. F Juvonte Reddic
So. C D.J. Haley

Important departures:

Four starters that keyed last season’s epic Final Four run have departed: G Joey Rodriguez (10.4 ppg, 3.2 rpg), G Brandon Rozzell (11.5 ppg, 2.4 rpg), G Ed Nixon (7.0 ppg, 2.6 rpg), F Jamie Skeen (15.7 ppg, 7.3 rpg)

Returning:

39.1 percent of scoring and 49.1 percent of rebounding

Additions:

Fr. G Treveon Graham
Fr. F Jarred Guest
Fr. F Heath Houston
Fr. G-F Reco McCarter
Fr. G Teddy Okereafor
Fr. G Briante Weber

Schedule highlights:

The nonconference slate is a little like the one the Rams had last year: good, but not full of opportunities for wins that will make the NCAA Tournament selection committee take notice. They play in the Charleston Classic, opening with Seton Hall and then facing either Georgia Tech or Saint Joseph’s. They later head to Alabama, play George Washington at the Verizon Center in the BB&T Classic, and host Richmond and UAB. In CAA play, they have a stretch of three straight at home followed by three straight on the road, and play their two games against George Mason within the final two weeks of the regular season.

Projected finish and outlook:

The Rams still have plenty of talent, but this team lost a lot of experience and, more importantly, intangible value with their departed players. That means Burgess has to be the leader he’s capable of being, as the only senior, and many other players have to adapt to new roles. Brandenburg, Reddic and Haley all showed potential last year in more limited roles, and now they’ll have to show that they can do the same thing with more minutes and bigger roles. It would also help if Theus can settle the point guard spot, although it wouldn’t be a surprise if Okereafor (a late signee who was originally in the high school class of 2012) eventually starts there, and Weber figures to get a lot of minutes as well.

The Rams should be able to make up for the production they lost, but the real question is if they can reach the same place as far as intangibles are concerned. If that happens, the Rams should at least wait until Saturday of the conference tournament before playing their first game and another postseason trip should be in the offing. Shaka Smart is 10-1 as a head coach in postseason play in his young career.

Next: William & Mary Tribe

Back to CAA preview

While it’s tempting to see it all in the context of a lot coming together at one time, that’s not exactly what happened. The CAA has been on a rise for several years, with a little step back here or there, ever since George Mason became the conference’s first team to get an NCAA Tournament at-large bid in 20 years.

Old Dominion head coach Blaine Taylor, whose team has been no small part of the conference’s steady rise, noted that this didn’t just happen over night. He noted that the push forward begin in 2004-05, when he led his team to 28 wins and a CAA championship, followed by George Mason’s Final Four run a year later. Then VCU beat Duke and almost beat Pittsburgh in 2007, and the CAA later had success in other postseason tournaments.

“All of a sudden, we had not just one school, not just one achievement, and in multiple tournaments.,” said Taylor, whose team won the last two conference tournaments. “We went to the semifinals in the NIT, VCU wins the CBI, we win the CIT, the conference gets three bids in the NCAA. It’s not just one school, it’s a push by a lot of schools.”

The number of teams in the NCAA Tournament is a flawed metric for measuring a conference. It gives a sense of how strong the top teams are, and does give some indication to conference depth. But it says nothing about the bottom teams, the teams that any prospective postseason teams dare not lose to if they’re on the bubble. This was noticeable with the Missouri Valley Conference in 2007, when the middle and bottom of the pack was all better than a year earlier while the top teams weren’t as good as the top teams a year earlier. The Valley wound up with just two bids a year after getting four teams in the NCAA Tournament.

Lost amidst the success of the postseason teams in the CAA last season was what some of the teams that didn’t make a postseason tournament did, including being good enough that they helped the top teams in RPI ratings. Drexel didn’t play in a postseason tournament, but had a better RPI (77) than Hofstra (88) and James Madison (90), both of whom played in the CBI.

“I think what’s lost sometimes in our league is how good the bottom tier has gotten,” said William & Mary head coach Tony Shaver. “If you look at what is considered a bottom tier team, they’re all a lot better. What’s happened is that the top tier teams are really good, they’ve had great success on a national scale, but I think everybody’s moving up as well.”

That’s a point not lost on VCU head coach Shaka Smart.

“Let’s face it, we probably wouldn’t have even made the NCAA Tournament if it wasn’t for the non-conference success of all 12 teams in the CAA, not just our own schedule,” Smart said. If Drexel doesn’t go and beat Louisville, and I can think of other games, if those things don’t happen we don’t make the NCAA Tournament.”

Added Taylor, who also spoke of the role member schools’ moves to retain coaches and hire established head coaches in recent years played: “People around the country ask me about having two teams in the Final Four. If you want to speak to how strong our league is, in both cases, neither of those [Final Four] teams won our regular season title, and neither of those teams won our tournament. This league is not driven by just one team beating up on everybody else.”

The CAA has regularly been a two-bid conference since 2006. Smart noted that a CAA player has been selected in the NBA Draft in each of the past three years, culminating with Hofstra’s Charles Jenkins a few months ago. Commissioner Tom Yeager brought up the notion of the conference having “arrived” after last season’s success, but dismissed the notion. He instead pointed to the future, noting what the goal will always be.

“We got a little better, we made our mark, but we’ve got to do it again,” Yeager said at the conference’s media day. “We want to put multiple teams in the NCAA Tournament, and we want to advance.”

While Yeager’s perspective is sensible, the impact of last season’s success in the postseason by CAA teams is hard to dismiss.

“It’s a household name now. Previously, when you would mention the CAA, they would ask who is in the conference,” said Delaware head coach Monte Ross. “Now, when you say Delaware is in the CAA, they know the teams that are in the conference, not only because of VCU, but George Mason had a great run, Old Dominion had a great game against Butler. We do a lot of recruiting in Richmond and North Carolina, and the CAA is the biggest league going down there behind the ACC.”

“What last postseason did was stamp us as a legitimate year-in, year-out league,” said James Madison head coach Matt Brady. “The George Mason Final Four can’t now be considered a fluke. I think the fact that VCU went through the NCAA Tournament and the manner in which they did that, imposing their will on their opponents – basically the fifth-place team in our league (note: VCU actually finished fourth) and they did it. I think everybody in college basketball recognizes the strength of the league now.”

The Missouri Valley surely had the same goal Yeager spoke of after its success in 2006 and even 2007, when Southern Illinois made the Sweet 16 after getting an at-large bid (the last one a Missouri Valley team received), but hasn’t quite been able to do it. The conference has been a one-bid league each of the past four seasons after putting multiple teams in for nine straight seasons. The Valley has not been as visible since that time, and the CAA, which sent just one team in each of the three seasons prior to last season, is surely hoping to not repeat that.

• Miami‘s hire of Jim Larranaga is an excellent one, and an interesting move for the 61-year-old coach. Larranaga was thought to be in his final job after turning down opportunities a few years ago, at a school where he could win every year and a conference in which he was the dean of coaches. The school paid him well and he made money as a motivational speaker after leading George Mason to the Final Four. But as one person pointed out, there’s no risk here. If things don’t work out and he is let go, he can retire in 4-5 years anyway and after picking up more money.
• Princeton should have never let Sydney Johnson get away. Remember the emotion he showed after the Tigers knocked off Harvard in the one-game playoff at Yale? Every last ounce of that was genuine. That man genuinely loves his alma mater, but they wouldn’t up the ante enough to keep him from going somewhere else. It would be one thing if he left Dartmouth for Fairfield, but Princeton is one of the Ivy League’s signature programs and has a great tradition. They shouldn’t be losing one of their own because they won’t pay competitively.
• VCU‘s run to the Final Four was just the start. First Shaka Smart signed an extension, and the Rams got more good news as they signed Teddy Okereafor earlier this week, and he will come to the school a year earlier. The 6’3″ point guard was continuing to play with his travel team prior to signing, as if the plan was to be a senior next season, and should give the Rams an immediate boost as he knows how to run a team. When he was on the floor for his team, the offense just seemed to run so much better. With Joey Rodriguez among the departed Rams this year, Okereafor should get minutes right away.
• Don’t be surprised if Reggie Jackson stays in the draft, and not because Boston College will be in rebuilding mode next season. Jackson has great length for being 6’3″, is very quick and has started to fulfill some of the potential one could see he had when he first got to Chestnut Hill. He had a breakout year and can still get better, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if someone likes him enough to want to take him in the first round.
• Already, there are some school changes happening for next year, and talk of more is going on. St. Mark’s will add Aaron Falzon (Fr. SF, Newton (MA) North HS) and Aaron McLean (PF, Southborough (MA) Fay School) next year. Falzon will repeat his freshman year, while McLean will enter high school as a member of the class of 2015. Additionally, Tyler McFarland (6’6″ SF-PF, Rockport (ME)) will head to Cushing Academy for post-graduate year and Drew Crudup (6’1″ SG, New Haven (CT)) will head to Lee Academy for a fifth year.
• Northeastern picked up a local talent as point guard Marco Banegas, who is finishing up a post-graduate year at Brimmer & May, verbally committed to the school. The Dorchester native has plenty of talent, and if he plays like a pass-first point guard he can be an excellent pickup for them. The Huskies had a difficult season with a very young team, and they lost their leader in Chaisson Allen. Banegas will have an opportunity to play right away if he puts the work in, especially since Alex Harris is transferring.

During the NCAA Tournament , the Rams have improved their offensive and defensive efficiency by more than twice as much as any team did in last season’s tournament. The change is so dramatic that you’d think that we’re dealing with an invasion of the body snatchers. Would whoever kidnapped the average three point-shooting, defensively suspect Rams please return them to Earth?

It’s that remarkable.

Entering the CAA tournament, VCU allowed its previous 11 opponents to score at least 1.00 points per possession, and the Rams had only a 6-5 record during that span. In the conference tournament, the Rams showed some signs of life on defense, holding Drexel to 0.894 points per possession. The Rams stomped George Mason 79-63 in the quarterfinals, as the Patriots barely cracked the 1.0 mark at 1.004 points per possession. However, Old Dominion brought VCU back to reality as the Monarchs slowly grinded past the Rams’ defense with 1.126 points per possession.

We’re not going to even touch the issue about whether VCU’s body of work was worthy of an at-large bid. That discussion is dead and gone. Instead, the team’s outstanding play deserves all the press.

As VCU prepared for a First Four game against USC, the Rams ranked No. 84 in Ken Pomeroy’s rankings, with an offense averaging 1.096 points per possession and a defense allowing 1.008 points per possession. That’s not terribly impressive. The match up against the Trojans seemed fairly even, and a second-round upset against a struggling Georgetown team that didn’t know what it would get out of Chris Wright wasn’t outside the realm of possibility. But an extended run through the likes of Purdue and Kansas definitely didn’t seem plausible.

But that’s before VCU’s defense but everyone on lockdown.

In the tournament, the Rams have held every opponent except Purdue to less than 1.0 points per possession. In fact, USC, Georgetown and Kansas barely came within 0.1 points of that mark. The Boilermakers made it to 1.157 points per possession, which was nothing compared to VCU’s deadly 1.431 points per possession on offense.

The catalyst for VCU’s defensive resurgence is the team’s pressure defense. Coach Shaka Smart has his guys getting in the grill of every opposing guard. Kansas’ backcourt players looked flustered as they forced ill-advised entry passes and failed to organize the Jayhawks’ offense. VCU also thrived on team efforts in rebounding, which was crucial against the likes of USC, Georgetown and Purdue. The Rams survived Florida State and Kansas despite giving up a ton of size in the post and a bunch of offensive rebounds.

Offensively, VCU’s shooters just caught fire. Jamie Skeen and Brandon Rozzell helped VCU shoot 43.8 percent from three-point range, a massive improvement from the 36.2 percent that the team shot heading into the tournament. It almost defies reason that multiple players could improve that much almost overnight. Skeen and Rozzell are solid shooters, as each entered the NCAA Tournament shooting around 38 percent from beyond the arc. However, they shot at least 50 percent in five games so far. If the shots keep falling, the Rams will be extraordinarily tough to beat.

In sum, VCU has improved from 1.096 points per possession on offense to start the tournament to 1.133 points per possession now. Defensively, the Rams trimmed their points per possession allowed from 1.008 to 0.977. Collectively, that’s a 6.8 points per possession improvement in five games, and the Rams are up from No. 84 to No. 49 in Ken Pomeroy’s rankings. In comparison, Cornell improved more than any other team in the 2010 NCAA Tournament, when the Big Red reached the Sweet 16 as a No. 12 seed. The team improved by a total of 3.3 points per possession. VCU has more than doubled that, and the Rams needed to make that happen to have a shot against strong teams like Purdue and Kansas.

Regardless of what happens today against Butler, Smart’s crew has delivered one of the most memorable runs in NCAA Tournament history. If the Rams keep up their pace of improvement at both ends of the court, this team could easily be cutting down the nets as the national champion Monday night.

For just the fifth time since UCLA completed its run of dominance in the 1970s, we will have a mid-major program playing for the national championship. And based on the torrid play of VCU and Butler, there’s no reason to think the Rams or Bulldogs can’t knock off Connecticut or Kentucky to claim the first title for a non-power conference team since UNLV demolished Duke in 1990.

For a quick history lesson, here’s a rundown of championship game participants from conferences not named the ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, Pac-10 or SEC since 1975.

• 1977: Marquette, Independent. Beat North Carolina.
• 1979: Indiana State, Missouri Valley Conference. Lost to Michigan State.
• 1980: Louisville, Metro Conference. Beat UCLA.
• 1983: Houston, Southwest Conference. Lost to North Carolina State.
• 1984: Houston, Southwest Conference. Lost to Georgetown.
• 1986: Louisville, Metro Conference. Beat Duke.
• 1990: UNLV, Big West Conference. Beat Duke.
• 1998: Utah, Western Athletic Conference. Lost to Kentucky.
• 2008: Memphis, Conference USA. Lost to Kansas.
• 2010: Butler, Horizon League. Lost to Duke.
• 2011: ???

Yes, that’s more than five teams. However, some of those teams were part of now-defunct conferences that ran with the big boys during their heyday. Louisville, which no one would confuse with a mid-major program, represented the Metro Conference in 1980 and 1986. That conference evolved into Conference USA, and the Cardinals upgraded to the Big East. Fellow Big East member Marquette played as an independent when coach Al McGuire guided the Warriors, as they were known for 40 years until 1994, to the 1977 championship.

Houston would likely qualify as a mid-major program today, but in the 1980s, the Cougars played alongside Texas, Arkansas and the rest of the Southwest Conference, one of basketball’s premier conferences at the time. The Cougars are now part of Conference USA, which contains some programs that feel like mid-majors and others that don’t. The latter category includes Memphis circa 2008, when John Calipari led the Tigers to a thrilling overtime loss against Kansas. Any team coached by Calipari and receiving the top recruits in the country on an annual basis just isn’t a mid-major.

That leaves us with Indiana State (1979), UNLV (1990), Utah (1998) and Butler (2010) as the four true mid-majors that have advanced to the national championship game. The list of outstanding players from those teams is impressive: Larry Bird, Larry Johnson, Greg Anthony, Stacey Augmon, Andre Miller, Michael Doleac and Gordon Hayward. Those teams’ ability to attract NBA-caliber talent helped give them a shot at the title. But only Jerry Tarkanian’s Runnin’ Rebels completed the task, with a dominant win against Duke in 1990 that drew the wrath of coaches across the country because they felt Tarkanian built a team of trouble-makers and cast-offs who percolated through the junior college circuit. But you can’t argue with the wins and the national championship banner in Vegas.

With such a small history of mid-majors in the championship game, this weekend must be considered historic. We have not one but two mid-major programs in the Final Four, and one of them is guaranteed to have the right to play for a national championship.

Although we’ve already seen a bunch of thrilling upsets, the most indelible one would be Monday night. Kentucky might be a No. 4 seed and Connecticut a No. 3 seed, but those two teams represent historically great, power conference programs. Butler or VCU would stand alongside UNLV as one of only two mid-majors in the past 40-plus years to shake off all comers and wrest the championship from the grips of the major conferences.

VCU had more than its fair share of adversity, some of which wasn’t expected. This is a team picked third in the Colonial Athletic Association before the season, with some picking them second. The non-conference slate went reasonably well, but had some missed opportunities. It included blowing a lead at UAB right before Christmas, then a couple of wins right before CAA play that left head coach Shaka Smart concerned about leadership – not exactly what one would expect of a senior-laden team. Joey Rodriguez remembered going home after the UAB game, namely that it felt like an even longer drive (he drove from Birmingham to his home in Florida) because it was a missed opportunity.

Then there was the month of February, which has been well-documented. The Rams had a fine month of January and led the CAA when it was over, including a big win at arch-rival and preseason favorite Old Dominion. But after February, this was a team that appeared to need to win the CAA Tournament if they were to reach the NCAA Tournament.

The rest, as they say, is history. But the Rams didn’t get here unscathed.

“We went through some adversity this year as most teams did,” said Smart. “We weren’t 35-2 coming into this game, but we’re playing our best basketball when it matters most, and that’s why I’m sitting up here right now with a net around my neck.”

The same is true of Butler. The Bulldogs also looked like a team that needed to win their conference tournament to make it to the NCAA Tournament, thanks largely to a couple of missed opportunities in non-conference play and a three-game losing streak that ended with a loss at Youngstown State and had them at 6-5 in league play. That was also the last time they lost.

The Bulldogs’ seed in the tournament doesn’t suggest they needed to win the Horizon League, but they did to make that moot. They had a better non-conference slate than VCU with a couple of good wins, but also looked quite unimpressive at times and their start in the Horizon didn’t help.

“Getting to this point isn’t easy and staying together isn’t easy when everything is going wrong,” said junior Ronald Nored. “And that was the thing that I think has gotten us to this point.”

Connecticut got off to a roaring start as Kemba Walker carried them early. But in Big East play, the Huskies came back down to earth, especially at the end of the regular season as they lost four of five. About a month earlier, they lost three of four. They finished 9-9 in Big East play, good for ninth place, which set the stage for their legendary run through the Big East Tournament.

The supporting cast for Walker at times looked to be emerging, and at other times it didn’t. But it’s definitely here now, with Jeremy Lamb growing up tremendously during the season and Shabazz Napier emerging, while Alex Oriakhi continues to improve inside. And with that and Walker on a roll that is the stuff of legends, the Huskies are in Houston.

Then there is Kentucky. The Wildcats faced adversity right away as Enes Kanter was declared ineligible by the NCAA. Kanter was widely believed to be a possible difference-maker for this team, and without him they looked a little less formidable. But they never had him, so it’s not as if they had to adjust to life without Kanter.

That wasn’t all. Once SEC play got going, the Wildcats had a hard time winning away from Rupp Arena. Their only road wins came at struggling South Carolina and at Tennessee, the latter on the last day of the regular season as the feast-or-famine Volunteers were limping into the conference tournament. Since then, the young Wildcats have grown up, winning seven more in a row away from home.

Even in some of the games each team won, there was some adversity. The phrase that a season is a marathon and not a sprint may be a cliché, but it is true. The teams that play through it the best are often the ones left standing.

None of the four teams playing in Houston made it here unscathed. As is often the case, sports has imitated life when it comes to the 2011 Final Four.

The obvious is that it’s the first time it’s happened in school history. In fact, the Rams had never even been to the Sweet 16 prior to this season. And for fans, well, all you need to know is that not long after the game was over, there was basically nowhere to walk on Broad Street in downtown Richmond. Joey Rodriguez said that by the time the press conference began after Sunday’s game, he already saw a picture illustrating this.

How about for the attention it brings to the program? Well, SID Scott Day said he had nearly 200 media requests from Saturday through noon on Monday alone. Reaching the Sweet 16 brought on a media rush, but nothing quite like this. And as head coach Shaka Smart is about as accessible as they come, one can be sure he took care of every last request that was for him.

Speaking of Smart, here’s a great stat for the second-year head coach: he is now 10-0 in postseason play as a head coach. VCU won the CBI last year, sweeping the best-of-three championship. Now he’s 5-0 in the NCAA Tournament. And related to it, in the first year of the First Four in the NCAA Tournament, the Rams have also become the first team to reach the Final Four starting from the First Four.

People around the country can now find out that this success is no accident. VCU’s athletic department is well-run all the way around, and it starts at the top as Norwood Teague is a top-notch athletic director. Assistant athletic director Mike Ellis is the man behind Villa 7, which Smart attended while an assistant coach and has turned into a major event. The Rams play in a nice downtown arena where they get good crowds on a regular basis, which certainly helps attract good talent. Smart has proven to be a terrific hire, winning 55 games in two years including the aforementioned postseason success. He has a terrific staff that has played no small role in this success as well.

For the Colonial Athletic Association, this is just the cherry on top of what’s already been a banner year. The conference saw three of its teams reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time ever, for starters. Now VCU has joined George Mason in 2006 as a team that has reached the Final Four. And what VCU’s run has helped is another milestone for the conference: CAA teams will finish this season the most games above .500 in non-conference play in at least the last 20 years. CAA teams are now 90-62 in non-conference play including the postseason. In 2005-06, CAA teams were 76-52, just 24 games above .500.

And because of how the matchups work out, it guarantees that there will be a mid-major in the national championship game for the second year in a row. Before 2006, a mid-major reaching the Final Four was basically unheard of. Now, while it’s certainly not something one should count on all the time, at least one mid-major has reached the Final Four the past two seasons and come Monday night, one will be playing for a national championship for the second straight year.

So while it isn’t as big a deal as it might have been five years ago, when George Mason became the first mid-major in nearly 30 years to reach the Final Four, VCU’s run to the Final Four is a big deal.

Will Cinderella’s slipper fit on VCU? At this point, the better question might be: Why wouldn’t it?

Led by coach Shaka Smart and point guard Joey Rodriguez, the Rams have burned through USC, Georgetown, Purdue and Florida State to move within one game of going from the First Four to the Final Four. If they make it happen, the run will look awfully familiar.

Five years ago, George Mason captured the country’s attention by receiving a controversial at-large bid as a No. 11 seed, then tore through Michigan State, North Carolina and Wichita State to set up a meeting with tournament-favorite Connecticut. The Colonials shocked the world with an overtime upset of the Huskies.

This year, the Rams would need to beat Kansas, which has become the tournament’s favorite with Ohio State’s demise at the hands of Kentucky. Before George Mason did it against the Huskies, most people would probably give VCU no hope of winning. But after the Rams’ great play during the past two weeks and with the Colonials’ Cinderella story already written, there are plenty of people outside Richmond who believe in the Rams.

Here are a few critical questions for this match up.

Will VCU’s press frustrate Kansas’ Tyshawn Taylor and Tyrel Reed, who occasionally have mental lapses? The Rams have advanced this far by making opponents uncomfortable and forcing turnovers.

ANSWER: Absolutely. VCU completed its amazing run to the Final Four by sticking to its script. The Rams forced 14 turnovers, and every guard not named Taylor struggled.

If the Rams don’t force turnovers, can they do anything to stop Kansas’ offense? The Jayhawks are a ridiculously accurate team from everywhere except the free throw line. They shoot a Division I-best 57.1 percent from inside the arc and 39.0 percent from three-point range.

ANSWER: Kansas was off its game from every range. Taylor had 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting, and the rest of the Jayhawks’ guards shot 3-of-23, or 13 percent from the field. The Morris twins were solid with 34 points and were 14-of-28 from the field. But as a team, Kansas was 2-of-22 from beyond the arc and 53.6 percent from the free throw line. That’s just ugly.

And when the Jayhawks miss shots, can VCU box out the Morris twins and Thomas Robinson to grab rebounds? Florida State dominated VCU, with 20 offensive rebounds. Kansas is a much better shooting team than the Seminoles are, so VCU can’t afford to let the Jayhawks have that many second chances.

ANSWER: Not really. The Jayhawks were excellent on the offensive glass, collecting 19 rebounds, or 47.5 percent of their misses. But Kansas just didn’t hit enough shots to take advantage of all those second chances. In the end, poor shooting and turnovers doomed the Jayhawks.

Can Kansas contain VCU’s three-point shooters? Jamie Skeen and Brandon Rozzell have been hot for most of the tournament, and Rozzell carried VCU during much of the second half against Florida State. It won’t be easy for VCU, though, because Kansas holds opponents to 29.1 percent from three-point range, which is No. 3 in Division I.

ANSWER: Not at all. Skeen and Rozzell came up huge — again — by draining four three-pointers apiece, and VCU finished with 12 threes on 25 attempts. That’s ridiculously good against Kansas’ defense, and it helped provide the difference in an otherwise tight game. More than half of the Rams’ points came from behind the arc.

(4) Kentucky 76 (2) North Carolina 69

Two of the most successful programs in NCAA history meet for the second time this season, and this rematch has a Final Four berth on the line. The Tar Heels and Wildcats have more than 2,000 wins as a program — and Kansas is the only other team that can say that. Kentucky holds the edge with 2,051 wins to 2,038 for the Jayhawks and 2,033 for the Tar Heels.

In the game earlier this season, North Carolina picked up its first big win of the season by slipping past the Wildcats 75-73 in Chapel Hill. But both teams have evolved since then. North Carolina is playing excellent with freshman Kendall Marshall at point guard. Harrison Barnes’ confidence is soaring through the roof, and he has become one of the top freshmen in the country.

For Kentucky, the Wildcats’ confidence couldn’t get much higher after taking out Ohio State, the favorite to win the national championship. Unlike last season’s squad, these Wildcats shoot very well from long range and attack opponents with a balanced offense.

Here a few critical questions for this match up.

Which freshman point guard will have the bigger impact in running his team’s offense: North Carolina’s Marshall or Kentucky’s Brandon Knight? Knight has two game-winning shots already in the tournament, while Marshall has 31 assists in three games. These two guards can take over games in different ways, but their teams will likely depend on them to play well to have a chance to win.

ANSWER: Knight dominated this match up. The Wildcats’ point guard helped fuel Kentucky’s return to the Final Four with a 76-69 win against North Carolina. He finished with 22 points, seven rebounds and four assists on 7-of-18 shooting, and five of those were three-pointers. In comparison, Marshall struggled with his shot, making only 2-of-10 attempts. He had eight assists, but it wasn’t enough to get the Tar Heels past Kentucky, meaning the Final Four will feature no No. 1 or 2 seeds.

Will Josh Harrellson dominate in the post against Tyler Zeller and John Henson? Kentucky’s big man has emerged as one of the most dominant forces in the NCAA Tournament, shooting 78 percent from the field for 47 points in three games. He’s also got 28 rebounds. Henson and Zeller often get labeled as soft, and the Harrellson challenge will give them a chance to put that indictment to rest once and for all.

ANSWER: No, but he didn’t need to. Coach John Calipari did a masterful job of adjusting his game plan to North Carolina’s defense. The Tar Heels packed the post to avoid letting Harrellson take over or giving the Wildcats’ wings room to drive into the lane. As a result, Harrellson finished with 12 points on just 4-of-6 shooting. However, the rest of the Wildcats’ shooters cut loose from behind the arc and drained 12 three-pointers.

Will North Carolina’s pace tire a shallow Kentucky team that plays only six or seven guys? The Tar Heels like to play around 72 possessions per game, while the Wildcats are more comfortable around 66 possessions per game. If Kentucky shoots well, the Wildcats will have a better chance of controlling the pace. Otherwise, North Carolina’s big men will be looking to make good outlet passes to start the break.

ANSWER: The Tar Heels didn’t come close to making Kentucky uncomfortable. Kentucky occasionally slipped up and allowed North Carolina to get some transition points, but those were few and far between. The Wildcats shot nearly 50 percent from the field and quickly got back on defense to cut off transition opportunities. In addition, Kentucky stayed out of foul trouble, so Calipari did not need to go beyond his seven-man rotation.

Speaking of rebounds, which team will win this battle? North Carolina gets 37.0 percent of its missed shots, which is critical for a team that doesn’t shoot particularly well, especially from three-point range. If Kentucky limits North Carolina’s second chances, the Tar Heels will need an uncharacteristically good shooting day against one of the toughest interior defenses.

ANSWER: North Carolina won the battle, but Kentucky won the war. The Tar Heels collected 35 rebounds to the Wildcats’ 30, but they grabbed only 31.4 percent of their missed shots. Because the Tar Heels were off much of the afternoon, they needed as many second chances as possible, and they didn’t get quite enough.

That question can’t be answered here, but examining both teams’ case is a worthwhile exercise.

Most pundits figure George Mason is in. The Patriots won the regular season in what may be the best year ever for the CAA. They entered Championship Week as the hottest team in the country with 15 straight wins before the CAA Tournament. Their RPI is 27, which historically bodes well, although Missouri State can attest to that not being a sure thing. And the Patriots’ case is perhaps a little more interesting than one might think.

The Patriots were 10-3 on the road and 2-3 in neutral site games, so they have certainly proven themselves away from Fairfax. Their best wins are against Harvard (home), Duquesne (road), Old Dominion (home) and VCU (road). They alsowon at Northern Iowa in a BracketBusters game.

The one thing the Patriots lack is a true signature win over a team that was a lock for the NCAA Tournament, unless you figure Old Dominion would be in even if they did not win on Monday night. As Old Dominion has an RPI of 24 entering Monday night, better than George Mason’s, it probably isn’t a stretch to think Old Dominion was a lock. Old Dominion has a win over Xavier in the Paradise Jam final as their signature win, in addition to beating George Mason at home and winning at VCU. The Patriots have plenty of good wins, but only a couple may leap out at the committee.

The Patriots did lose to NC State and Wofford, although Wofford won the Southern Conference on Monday night so that doesn’t look like a resume killer at all. They also lost to Dayton, which is down this year, but that came on the road. None of those losses is a terrible loss by any stretch of the imagination.

In sum, the Patriots should be in, especially considering the great deal of mediocrity on the bubble this year. The Patriots are significantly better than a lot of teams being discussed as possibly the last four in or out.

VCU may have a better profile than people think, especially if the perception is shaped largely by the bad month of February the Rams had. Ever since they beat UCLA in the NIT Season Tip-Off, this team has been watched as a possible bubble team. The Rams have that win, as well as a win over Southern Conference champion Wofford (home) and a win at Old Dominion. On Saturday, they beat George Mason in the CAA Tournament. And like the Patriots, they have their fair share of wins over good, not great, teams. Drexel is a great example, as the Rams went 2-1 against them but are probably an NIT team at best. The Rams’ road record is 8-6 and they went 4-2 on neutral courts, and their RPI is 49 entering the week.

The Rams, however, have a few more losses to overcome. They lost at Georgia State and at Northeastern, two teams in the bottom third of the CAA. Both came on the road, which mitigates it a little. They also lost at South Florida in overtime; the Bulls finished 15^th in the Big East. They had missed opportunities against Tennessee, Richmond and Conference USA regular season champion UAB. None of them is a bad loss, but they are all missed opportunities.

For VCU to be in, a lot of other bubble teams probably need to lose, and other locks for the NCAA Tournament need to win the rest of this week. Chances are, that’s more likely to add up to an NIT bid than an NCAA bid.

At the end of the day, the CAA’s top six teams should all make postseason play. All six teams won at least 21 games and had a 10-8 record or better in a conference that is 26 games over .500 in non-conference play. For those that don’t make the NCAA Tournament, NIT bids are harder to come by now that teams that win their conference in the regular season and don’t make the NCAA by virtue of losing in the conference tournament are guaranteed bids to the NIT.

If I had to guess at how this will all shake out, it looks something like this:

NCAA: Old Dominion, George Mason

NIT: VCU, Hofstra

CBI: Drexel

CIT: James Madison

There’s a reasonable chance that only one of VCU or Hofstra makes the NIT, pushing the other into the CBI. James Madison has been in the CIT before, in its inaugural season when they lost to Old Dominion in the semifinals.