Oregon's Smart Coaches VCU To Elite 8 | People

Bradford Burgess made a layup off an inbounds pass with 7.1 seconds left and Jamie Skeen blocked a shot at the buzzer, giving Virginia Commonwealth and coach Shaka Smart, an Oregon native, a 72-71 victory over Florida State in overtime in a Southwest Region semifinal Friday night.

"When they called timeout (before the winning basket), I could see one of their assistant coaches telling players as they walked off the court that we were going to run this play," Smart said. "They had it scouted. So it was a pretty easy decision to switch to something else. We ran a play we don't run nearly as much. We gave our guys a few different options, and the one we wanted was the one we got."

In the first NCAA tournament game between teams seeded 10 and 11, the lower seeded Rams blew a nine-point lead by scoring only three points in the final 7:37 of regulation.

They never trailed by more than four all night, but found themselves down 71-70 when Burgess scored the kind of basket that will live in NCAA tournament lore.

"(Friday night) was the first game in the NCAA Tournament out of four for us where we faced a significant amount of adversity," said Smart. "Those first three games were good teams, but it was pretty much smooth sailing for us and (Friday's game) wasn't. I was really proud of how our guys battled and hung in there, executed down the stretch and finished the game."

The Rams (27-11) are among the final eight for the first time and are the fifth No. 11 seed to reach the elite and the only team that earned four wins to get that far in the tournament.

Having already ousted high-profile programs from the Pac-10 (Southern Cal), Big East (Georgetown), Big Ten (Purdue) and now the ACC, they will try adding the Big 12 to their hit list, facing top-seeded Kansas. 

The Jayhawks advanced with a 77-57 rout over Richmond.

Read more about Smart's ties to the Madison-area.