Final VA Top Five for this season

This will be the last installment of my Virginia Top Five. Once the NCAA tournament games begin, I see no point in continuing to compare the teams in this way. The best news for area hoops fans is that four teams from among the 14 Division I programs in this commonwealth are going to the Big Dance. It’s been 21 years since Virginia sent four teams to the NCAA championship tournament.

Virginia Top Five

No. 1: Va. Tech (21-11); RPI: No. 34 (2-3 in last five games)
No. 2: VCU (27-6); RPI: No. 42 (5-0 in last five games)
No. 3: Virginia (20-10); RPI: No. 55 (2-3 in last five games)
No. 4: ODU (24-8); RPI: No. 37 (4-1 in last five games)
No. 5: George Mason (18-15); RPI: No. 119 (3-2 in last five games)

The RPI numbers cited come from RealTime RPI.

Opening round matchups:

• ODU, seeded 12th in the Midwest Region, will face Butler (27-6) in Buffalo at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday.
• VCU, seeded 11th in the West Region, will face Duke (26-6) in Buffalo at 7:10 p.m. on Thursday.
• Virginia, seeded fourth in the South Region, will face Albany (23-9) in Columbus at 12:15 p.m. on Friday.
• Va. Tech, seeded fifth in the West Region, will face Illinois (23-11) in Columbus at 7:10 p.m. on Friday.