VCU: 2026 Atlantic 10 Men's Basketball Champions

 

VCU is going back to the NCAA Tournament. The Rams punched their ticket to March Madness by winning the Atlantic 10 Championship on Sunday, knocking off the Dayton Flyers 70-62 in Pittsburgh. Back-to-back A-10 titles. A 27-7 record. And a fan base that is absolutely losing its mind right now, and rightfully so. This wasn’t a fluke. This wasn’t a Cinderella moment handed to them. VCU went out and took it.

Virginia Commonwealth: 2024-25 Atlantic 10 Men's Basketball Champions

WASHINGTON (AP) Max Shulga scored 18 points and Joe Bamisile sealed the win with two free throws with a half-second left as Virginia Commonwealth held off George Mason 66-63 to win the Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament championship Sunday.

VCU led by eight at the break, 36-28, but George Mason got back-to-back 3-pointers from Jared Billups and Woody Newton to trail by just two, 45-43 with more than 12 minutes to play. Shulga answered with a 3 and hit a pair of free throws before finding Jack Clark for a 3 to push the VCU lead to 53-43.

Darius Maddox hit a 3 with 2:27 left to get the Patriots within one at 59-58. Coming out of a timeout, Shulga held the ball at the top of the key, then calmly knocked down a step-back 3 with 1:59 left. Jalen Haynes' layup with 39 seconds left got George Mason within 3 but Zach Anderson missed a 3-pointer with :04 left and Newton was forced to foul Bamisile with a half-second left.

Bamisile and Jack Clark each scored 17 points for VCU (28-6). Shulga, the Atlantic 10 Player of the Year, hit 8 of 9 from the line as the Rams converted 22 of 27.

Haynes led George Mason (26-8) with 17 points and eight rebounds. Maddox had 12 points to go with three steals and Anderson and Brayden O'Connor each added 10 points.

Virginia Commonwealth and George Mason finished the regular season tied for the regular season championship with 15-3 records. The Rams reached the conference championship game for the ninth time since joining the A-10 in 2012-13.

Virginia Commonwealth: 2022-23 Atlantic 10 Men's Basketball Champions

NEW YORK (AP) — Jalen DeLoach had 13 points and 10 rebounds, and top-seeded VCU beat second-seeded Dayton 68-56 on Sunday to win the Atlantic 10 Tournament for the first time in eight years.

Ace Baldwin added 16 points and seven assists, sending the Rams (27-7) to the NCAA Tournament with a nine-game winning streak and a title that has often alluded them during an otherwise impressive run of consistency.

VCU had played in the A-10 final six times from 2013-21, winning just once in 2015 when it beat Dayton.

DaRon Holmes II tried to carry the Flyers (22-12) to their first A-10 title since 2003 and first NCAA bid in six years. Holmes had 28 points and 16 rebounds, but didn't get enough help in the second half. The 6-foot-10 sophomore was named the tournament's most outstanding player, averaging 22 points in three games at Barclays Center.

The Rams and Flyers split two regular-season games, decided by a total of three points. The rubber match was more of the same.

The Flyers bolted to a 10-point lead early in the second half, but Baldwin tied it at 47 with a 3 with 11:50 left in the second half and the Rams slowly edged away from there.

VCU converted three straight second-chance opportunities into seven points in the final 3 1/2 minutes, with DeLoach's work on the offensive glass spurring the effort. Brandon Johns muscled in a layup that gave the Rams a 65-56 lead with 1:57 left.

A day after Dayton's Toumani Camara went 12 for 13 from the floor in the semifinals against Fordham, he got into foul trouble and went scoreless in the first half against VCU. He fouled out with six points and six rebounds.

The 6-9 Mustapha Amzil stepped up to pair with Holmes to wear out the Rams inside. The two bigs combined to shoot 10 for 14 from the floor and score 29 points as Dayton took a 36-30 lead at halftime.

BIG PICTURE

The Atlantic 10 is all but certain to be a one-bid league in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2005.

Typically one of the strongest mid-major conferences, the A-10 put six teams in the NCAA field in 2014 to cap a run of three years in which it had a total of 15 bids.

Dayton was 28-2 and on its way to being one of the top seeds in the 2020 NCAA Tournament before March Madness was cancelled by the pandemic.

But the conference has slipped over the past couple of seasons, putting only two teams in the NCAAs the last two seasons. And last season the A-10 needed a championship game upset by Richmond over Davidson to get that second team in via its automatic bid.

UP NEXT

Dayton: The Flyers haven't been in the NCAA Tournament since a run of four straight appearances from 2014-17. They'll hope for an NIT bid.

VCU: The Rams are back in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2021 and 10th time since 2011.

Virginia Commonwealth: 2014-15 Atlantic 10 Men's Basketball Champions

NEW YORK -- Treveon Graham scored 20 points and Doug Brooks made a huge steal in the final minute to help VCU beat Dayton 71-65 on Sunday and win its first Atlantic 10 tournament championship.

Fifth-seeded VCU (26-9) had lost the last two A-10 finals -- in their first two seasons in the conference -- but this time strung together four wins in as many days to earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Not that they needed it. VCU -- and Dayton for that matter -- were considered to already be NCAA-bound.

Graham gave VCU a 61-59 lead with 1:13 left on a drive to the basket. Then Brooks picked off a Dayton pass and fed JeQuan Lewis for a layup to put VCU up four with 53 seconds left.

Jordan Sibert made three free throws with 10.6 seconds left for second-seeded Dayton (25-8) to make it 67-65, but VCU closed it out from the free throw line.

Scoochie Smith led Dayton, which was looking for its first A-10 title since 2003, with 16 points. Sibert and Dyshawn Pierre both had 14.

It's been four years since coach Shaka Smart and the Rams went from the First Four to Final Four in the NCAA Tournament. Last year, VCU was knocked out of the NCAAs in its first game.

This season's team was expected to be one of Smart's best. The Rams started the season ranked No. 15 in the country and as the overwhelming favorite to win the A-10.

The Rams were rolling along with a 17-3 record when star guard Briante Weber blew out his knee at the end of a loss to Richmond. The Rams went 5-5 to end the regular season and slipped to the fifth seed. That meant they would need to win four games at Barclays Center to earn that elusive A-10 tournament title.

They seemed to get a little better each day, a little more comfortable playing without Weber, who leads their havoc defensive pressure.

Lewis, his replacement in the starting lineup, scored 15 points in the title game. Lewis made two free throws with 7.9 seconds left to put VCU up 69-65. Burly center Mo Alie-Cox added 13 points.

Weber is not playing, but he's still with the team. The senior from Chesapeake, Virginia, has been stationed next to the assistant coaches on the bench this week, a huge black brace immobilizing his right leg but not keeping him from standing up to shout instructions and encouragement to his teammates. He even made it over to a few team huddles during timeouts on Sunday, giving Lewis a squeeze on the shoulders or pat on the back.

When it was over, Weber left his crutches on the bench, made his way to center court and led the celebration, hopping on one leg and then crying on the shoulders of teammates and coaches who came to hold him up.

Pierre's straight-on 3-pointer for Dayton tied it at 55 for with 3:09 left and then the Rams and Flyers started trading scores, until Brooks' steal finally got VCU the stop it needed.