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VCU is one of eight programs to have appeared in the last seven NCAA tournaments (including this season). They've also had 11 consecutive seasons of 24 wins or more dating back to the 2006-07 season. Kansas is the only other Division I school in the country that can boast that sustained level of winning during that time period.
VCU changed conferences in the middle of that stretch, having moved from the Colonial Athletic Association to the Atlantic-10 prior to 2012-13, and has had multiple head coaches. The run of 24 wins or more each season goes back to Anthony Grant's tenure as head coach, includes all of Shaka Smart's tenure as well as the first two seasons under Will Wade. Wade served as an assistant under Smart for four seasons.
"From our president's office to our athletic director, everybody is on board and in line with what needs to happen for VCU basketball to win," Wade said. "That's allowed VCU to build a tremendous culture. We've got great fiber to our team. We've got really good fiber to our program. It's part of [why] our guys never think they're out of it. We're always battling. We're always scratching. We're always clawing until the very end. We've got tremendous support administratively that has made that happen."
Each of the program's previous three coaches — Jeff Capel (Oklahoma), Anthony Grant (Alabama) and Shaka Smart (Texas) — went on to take over teams in Power 5 Conferences.
— Lynn Worthy
Jazz's Dante Exum rooting for his Saint Mary's countrymen
When he was considering whether to play a season of college basketball before going pro, Utah Jazz point guard Danté Exum didn't have Saint Mary's on his list.
But with seven of his countrymen on the Gael's squad this season, Exum is pulling for Saint Mary's all the way.
"I follow every team that has Aussies, but they've got the most," Exum said this week. "It's the Australian pipeline. They're known for it. I'm rooting for them to go all the way in the tournament. It'd be hard, but they've got a good team. Hopefully they can make a deep run."
Exum and his Australian teammate, Joe Ingles, have attended Saint Mary's games when the team has come through Utah in recent years. And Exum said he is friends with the Gael's Jock Landale, Emmet Near and Dane Pineau.
— Aaron Falk
Bennett may not know Austrailia culture, but he sure can recruit there
For as successful Randy Bennett has been recruiting in Australia, his 6-foot-11 big man said his coach doesn't know much about cricket or rugby or other Aussie-centric sports.
"He tries to act like he's got the Australian culture down," said junior center Jock Landale, "but I don't think he does whatsoever."
But Bennett does know basketball. The Saint Mary's head coach, in his 16th year coaching the No. 7-seed Gaels (28-4), has established a rich pipeline between Australian and the quaint town of Moraga, Calif., in the Bay Area.
Saint Mary's features seven Australian players on its roster this season and has featured future NBA players like Patty Mills and Matthew Dellavedova.
Landale said the NCAA Tournament now gets the same coverage back home as it does in the states. Landale called it a "24-hour marathon."
"Basketball's slowly becoming a bigger and bigger part of Australian sports culture," he said.
And Aussie hoop stars are still paying attention to Saint Mary's.
— Christopher Kamrani
Thanks to Gonzaga, SMC has flown under the radar
Saint Mary's has had one of its best seasons in program history. Thanks to three of its four losses coming to top-seeded Gonzaga, that success has flown under the radar.
The seventh-seeded Gaels went 26-3 during the regular season to record the program's highest regular-season winning percentage (.897). They enter the tournament with a 28-4 record including the WCC tournament. where they lost to Gonazaga in the final.
"We can all say we'd like to have gotten Gonzaga at least one of those times," junior forward Calvin Hermanson said. "We do have confidence. We have confidence every time we step on the court. And this environment is no different. We're excited to go out and compete against different teams and see what we can do."
— Lynn Worthy
Tickets still available for SLC tourney games
If you haven't bought NCAA Tournament tickets for Thursday's and Saturday's games at Vivint Smart Home Arena and thought the games were sold out, think again.
NCAA Tournament officials said Wednesday afternoon that about 2,500 tickets still remain for each of Thursday's two sessions (two games per session), and around 1,800 are left for Saturday's two games.
No Cubs gear this time for Northwestern's Collins
Northwestern's Chris Collins will probably be dressed a little nicer for this meeting with Vanderbilt Bryce Drew than the last time to the two head coaches crossed paths: Game 4 of the World Series.
"It was pretty funny, actually, I don't think he recognized me at first, because I had a full uniform on that night," Collins said. "He was dressed all nice, he had a nice shirt on and slacks. I had my Cubs jersey on, my hat on backwards, and maybe some eye black on. He did a double take when I went and said hello to him."
The two coaches only chatted for a moment that night in Chicago, Collins said, but they did both manage to get a photo together with their wives and Clark the Cub.
— Aaron Falk
Quick session turnaround Thursday will challenge fans
The players in the NCAA Tournament are not the only ones who will have to hustle Thursday. As typically happens in the Mountain and Pacific Time Zones, the window between the afternoon and evening sessions is tight. Even if everything goes well, the break between Games 2 and 3 at Vivint Smart Home Arena will be only about 40 minutes — from 4:40-5:20 p.m. The building must be cleared of spectators before anyone holding tickets for the second session can enter.
Tournament officials have spent considerable time discussing "how to get people, get 'em back in as quickly as possible," said Mike Lageschulte of the University of the Utah, the tournament host. "We don't want people to miss the [Saint Mary's-VCU] tip, but in the West, it's happened."
— Kurt Kragthorpe
Mark Few: Nothing good came from BYU loss
When BYU marred Gonzaga's perfect season, beating the Bulldogs in Spokane on the final night of conference play, some wondered if it might relieve the pressure that comes with an undefeated season, that it might actually be a good thing.
Gonzaga coach Mark Few isn't so sure.
"It didn't feel that good at the time," he said Wednesday. "… The thought that everybody had prior to that — 'Well, it would be good for them to lose' — I just that that was ludicrous. You don't ever coach or think about losing a game, especially when you're in that position."
Gonzaga rebounded to win the West Coast Conference tournament and earn a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament for the second time in school history.
"We chose to just take the positives out of it, and understand that we have a process," Few said of the loss to BYU. "Twenty-nine times prior to that game, we had stuck with that process and crossed the Ts and dotted the Is and did our jobs. We kind of deviated from the process and it cost that one game. It's been nice to get back on track and doing what we're supposed to be doing."
— Aaron Falk
Now Bryce Drew wants Dad's feedback
The first round of the NCAA Tournament will be hectic for Homer Drew, with his two sons coaching in Salt Lake City and Tulsa, Okla.
Bryce Drew will lead Vanderbilt against Northwestern on Thursday afternoon at Vivint Smart Home Arena and Scott Drew's Baylor team faces New Mexico State on Friday morning in Tulsa. Homer Drew plans to catch an evening flight Thursday, enabling him to catch both games.
At Valparaiso, Bryce Drew worked as an assistant to his father, who "would make decisions that I didn't agree with," he said. "And about two weeks later, I could see why he was right. Sometimes it took two or three months and I could see why he was right. Now that I've gotten older, I value his wisdom even more on the feedback he gives me. He balances when to talk, when not to talk. If we lose, it's not a time to tell me a lot of things."
— Kurt Kragthorpe
S.D. State guard plays on for late brother
South Dakota State guard Michael Orris, a transfer from NIU, plays for his brother, Billy, who was killed in a motorcycle accident in Aug. 2015. The 6-foot-3 senior guard from Crete, Ill., averages 8.3 points per game.
"When something like that happens in life everything else becomes less important," Orris said during Wednesday's press conference. "And your whole perspective on life changes. It has radically changed my life, radically changed my world. But basketball at the end of the day was a constant thing between my older brother and myself. And to be here on this stage, to be doing this right now without him is extremely difficult. But this is what he dreamed of for me. This was his dream for my life. And I'm going to go out and honor it the best way I know how.
— Christopher Kamrani
Don't dis Spokane
Gonzaga coach Mark Few defended Spokane, to no one's surprise. The No. 1-seeded Bulldogs coach was asked to respond to an a Tuesday story published by The Guardian called "How Gonzaga became the central hope for the struggling city of Spokane."
"Spokane's a phenomenal place to live and call home," Few said. "It's one of the big keys to this ascension of Gonzaga. It happened in a city that the people there are so loyal."
Few ended his comments with a subtle jab at the piece, which he admitted he didn't know existed: "Must be fake news."
— Christopher Kamrani