Virginia Top Five; updated

Here’s a preview of what will run in my Tuesday sports column at Richmond.com:

There are now 14 Division I basketball programs operating within the Commonwealth of Virginia. They are: George Mason, Hampton, James Madison, Liberty, Longwood, Norfolk State, Old Dominion, Radford, Richmond, Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth, Virginia Military Institute, Virginia Tech and William & Mary.

They belong to five different conferences and most of them rarely play one another. So, it’s guesswork, at best, to say which teams are better in any given season. One could argue that VMI is better than Norfolk State. But they don’t meet this season. The same goes for thinking that VCU could probably beat UVa. They don’t play.

So, to help fill the void The Bounce is going to publish its homegrown, pickin’em fair-and-square Top Five rankings each Monday, for the rest of the season.

The first edition of the just-promised series is below:

The Bounce’s Virginia Top Five

No. 1: Va. Tech (14-5, 4-1 in ACC)
No. 2: VCU (16-3, 8-0 in CAA)
No. 3: Virginia (11-6, 3-2 in ACC)
No. 4: George Mason (11-7, 5-3 in CAA)
No. 5: Old Dominion (12-7, 5-3 in CAA)

Update: In this week’s Associated Press Top 25, Tech is sitting pretty at No. 24, with 177 votes. And, VCU received 23 votes, which makes it the 33rd ranked team in AP panel’s voting.

Photo: SLANT