The Elite Eight

The college basketball season is winding to a close. We are now left with just eight teams in contention for the NCAA title. Some are familiar names — Kansas, UConn, Kentucky, North Carolina, Arizona, and Florida. Others have defied the odds.

Butler is a small school that made it all the way to the title game last season. That was supposed to be their moment in the sun. Heading into this year's tournament, most of the talking heads thought Butler would be one and done. When they beat Old Dominion, defying expectations, many felt they were done. Instead, they beat Pittsburgh and Wisconsin to make it back to the Elite Eight.

As good a story as Butler is, they aren't even the biggest Cinderella in the dance. That honor belongs to Virginia Commonwealth University. Many probably haven't heard of VCU, and even fewer expected them to be in the Elite Eight. After all, to get here, VCU had to win four games. The other seven schools only had to win four games.

VCU was one of the few that had to play a play-in game just to get into the field of 64 teams. In that game, VCU faced USC, and they were expected to lose. They didn't, and they've kept on winning since.

This morning ESPN played a montage of analysts writing off VCU before their game with USC. Now it seems funny, but at the time it seemed like a certainty that VCU would be an afterthought in the 2011 tournament. They were plagued by doubters.

It reminded me of a line from John Patrick Shanley's play, "Doubt." In the play, the lead minister offers this message in his sermon, "Doubt can be a bond as powerful and sustaining as certainty." I think that's what happened with VCU, but not in the way you'd think.

Outside their locker room, everyone doubted VCU's ability to compete in college basketball's highest stage. Inside that locker room, there was a bond formed between players and coaches that sought to prove those doubters wrong. And they have. And I wouldn't be surprised if they keep on doing it.

Let that be a lesson to anyone who's ever been counted out. Doubt can be a bond as powerful and sustaining as certainty. In fact, given that Ohio State — the nation's No. 1 team — is now watching the tournament from home, it might even be more powerful and sustaining than certainty.