Feb. 18: VA Top Five

Fresh for each Monday morning during basketball season, SLANTblog publishes its new Virginia Top Five, which takes into account the results of the week's games. Accordingly, it attempts to rank what seems at the moment to be the best five teams from among the 14 Division I men's programs in the Commonwealth.

At this writing, none of the teams on the list below is in good shape to receive an at-large invitation to the NCAA postseason tournament. The state's best prospects, VCU and Mason, both hurt their chances with losses to teams with worse RPIs.

SLANTblog's VA Top Five

1. VCU (19-6, 12-3 in CAA, No. 65 RPI)
2. Mason (18-8, 10-5 in CAA, No. 64 RPI)
3. Richmond (13-10, 6-4 in A-10, No. 102 RPI)
4. Va. Tech (14-11, 5-6 in ACC, No. 79 RPI)
5. Virginia (12-12, 2-9 in ACC, No. 126 RPI)

-- RPI numbers from RealTime RPI, as of Sunday at 10 p.m