Mar. 10: Last VA Top Five

Each Monday during basketball season, SLANTblog publishes its Virginia Top Five, which 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, in order.

At this writing, none of the teams on the list below is a lock to receive an at-large invitation to the NCAA's Big Dance. Mason can punch its own ticket tonight if it beats Wm. & Mary. Likewise, Tech, UVa. and Richmond can go to the NCAA's if they win their conference tournaments. Of that group, Tech is the only one that stands any chance of getting invited if they falter in their tournament. VCU, which lost to W&M last night, is also perched on the bubble, and thus needs for first-seeded teams all over the country to win their league tournaments to improve the Rams' chance to receive at-large bid.

This will be this season's last Top Five.

SLANTblog's VA Top Five

1. VCU (24-7, 16-4 in CAA, No. 56 RPI)
2. Va. Tech (18-12, 9-7 in ACC, No. 60 RPI)
3. Mason (22-10, 14-6 in CAA, No. 64 RPI)
4. UVa. (15-14, 5-11 in ACC, No. 107 RPI)
5. Richmond (16-13, 9-7 in A-10, No. 115 RPI)

-- RPI numbers from RealTime RPI