Saturday, March 10, 2007

KYNCAATLs - Virginia Commonwealth Rams


Today in Know Your NCAA Tournament Logos: The Virginia Commonwealth Rams. VCU withstood an upstart George Mason squad to earn the automatic berth out of the Colonial Athletic Association and are being projected as a #10 seed by Joe Lunardi (he has them playing Butler in the first round, that would be a great game).

I know absolutely nothing about VCU the school so I was very surprised to find out that there are over 30,000 students in attendance on two different downtown Richmond campuses. However, it appears that VCU is primarily a commuter school based on the fact that on-campus housing only has enough room for 4,000 students. The school is relatively young having officially been established in 1968 but it evolved from various other Richmond institutions dating back to 1838.

I guess I'm not very brushed up on my college basketball history either, because I didn't realize that Virginia Commonwealth was once a powerhouse program. Under the leadership of Head Coach J.D. Barnett and as a member of the Sun Belt Conference, the Rams went to five NCAA tournaments in six seasons starting as a #12 seed in 1980 and topping out as an amazing #2 seed in 1985. In three of those four appearances they advanced out of the first round but couldn't get out of the second including being upset by #7 seed Alabama in 1985. This year's appearance will be their eighth NCAA appearance and third as a member of the CAA.

As far as the logo goes, it's one of those old logos that might not be very pleasing to you and me, but has been a part of the school's athletic program for so long that dumping it would probably be a mistake in the long run. I personally would like to see them update it and do something more modern and professional. But it's probably like my love for my Bowling Green State University empty falcon head - It just wouldn't be BGSU sports without that logo. Just like it probably wouldn't be VCU basketball without that ram.

Team: Virginia Commonwealth University
Conference: Colonial Athletic Association
Location: Richmond, Virginia (my second straight Richmond team!)
Arena: Alltel Pavilion at the Siegel Center

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1 Comments:

At 8:10 AM, Blogger Dave2 said...

If they hadn't put VCU RAMS above it, I'd have thought that it was a spiral staircase or something. Not an icon quick-read that logos need to be successful. :-(

 

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