FanHouse VcuRams

Everyone keeps tuned to sports sites and ESPNews for the latest plumes of smoke from Memphis and/or Lexington regarding John Calipari and whether he stays at Memphis or goes to Kentucky. The flip side is that the move has paralyzed nearly every other coaching search as programs and coaches in-demand wait to see what happens.

Oh, sure some little things have happened. Viginia Commonwealth has apparently hired Shaka Smart to be their next head coach. As with the last hire of VCU's former coach, Shaka Smart is a Florida assistant.

Everything else, though, appears to be on hold, if only for a moment.

Alabama landed its top choice, as Anthony Grant has agreed to take over at Alabama. Grant has been a hot name in college basketball coaching for the last few years. He has been very careful, though, about finding a bigger job where he feels he can succeed.

The Billy Donovan protege has had great success with Virginia Commonwealth. He has been mentioned for several possible jobs and was nearly the successor at Florida when Donovan took then reversed field on the Orlando Magic gig. It almost seemed as if he has been waiting the last couple years to be sure that Donovan was not going anywhere.

How about we just let last year's George Mason be last year's George Mason, and whatever mid-major team makes a run through the tournament, we'll call them, "This year's" whoever. Not only is it cliché and tiresome at this point, it's also slightly insulting to the teams involved.

George Mason got to the Final Four last year because they were good. Virginia Commonwealth won last night because they were good. These were not supernatural occurrences. Teams who play well enough to earn wins like that deserve their name on this wins. If, for example, Kansas runs through the tournament this year and wins the whole thing, no one's going to call them "This year's Florida."

There's no need to call VCU "this year's George Mason." Mid-majors are capable of winning games sometimes ... by slapping that label on VCU, it sort of lumps all these mid-major victories together, as if it's some random happenstance occurrence that came about because the Mid Major Fairy waved his wand and the cute little guys got to play with Flubber on their shoes, and with a particularly hairy Michael J. Fox in the line-up.

It's not the case. VCU won because they played with no fear, had the athleticism and the nerve to pressure and hassle Duke all night long. They played a completely different style than George Mason, and they deserve their own props. If you have to label them somehow, just call them the team that whooped Duke.

Down the stretch of this one, it seemed less like a basketball game between Duke and VCU than it did a male anatomy measuring contest between point guards Eric Maynor and Greg Paulus.

Paulus was big. Maynor broke the scale.

Three straight times down the stretch, VCU sent Maynor to the rack, one-on-one against Paulus, and all three times, he converted. The first two with some penetration, and then a 3 or 4-foot floating jumper ... and on the deciding shot, a pull up from just beyond the free-throw line, giving VCU the win. VCU's swarming team defense and guts kept them in the game against Duke. The contents of Maynor's shorts put them over the top.

I do give Paulus a lot of credit, though. Part of VCU's game plan was to push Duke around, and they were physical, bordering on violent, all night long. VCU made this very personal from the beginning. They played like they believed that Coach K physically assaulted their mothers. And I love that strategy.

And Paulus responded. He did not shrink from the physicality. He hit a lot of big shots of his own, and the loss certainly couldn't be pinned on him. He was Duke's heartbeat. Numbers are rather irrelevant in a game like this, but if you're curious, Paulus had 25 and Maynor had 22.

God bless the VCU Rams. They singlehandedly saved this day.

And here's video evidence of Maynor's hugeness: