FEb. 25: 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 particularly good shape to receive an at-large invitation to the NCAA postseason tournament. VCU presents the best case, should the Rams falter in the CAA tournament, but the Colonial is generally seen as weaker this season than last.

SLANTblog's VA Top Five

1. VCU (21-6, 13-3 in CAA, No. 52 RPI)
2. Va. Tech (16-11, 7-6 in ACC, No. 68 RPI)
3. Mason (19-9, 11-5 in CAA, No. 70 RPI)
4. ODU (16-13, 10-6 in CAA, No. 114 RPI)
5. Richmond (14-10, 7-5 in A-10, No. 111 RPI)

-- RPI numbers from RealTime RPI, as of Monday at 12:30 a.m