Virginia: The Top Seven Basketball Teams

We are a quarter into the 2009-2010 college basketball season.  Let's take a quick look at the performance of the better teams in the state of Virginia. 

Before reviewing my ranking, consider that every Tuesday the Washington Post publishes "D.C. Sports Blogs Atlantic 11 Men's College Basketball Poll." 

The poll is a voted ranking of the top 11 among the 27 Division I teams in the Maryland/DC/Virginia area.  If you cull out the teams from Maryland and DC, such as the University of Maryland and Georgetown, you can see where the voters ranked each Virginia team.

That vote is not the basis of this ranking. While I follow that ranking, as well as the national rankings and five of the computerized rankings, the following are just the rantings of a fan of East Coast basketball.

On that note, the City of Richmond tradionally enjoys two of the stronger programs in the State of Virginia.  The annual Battle of Richmond between Richmond (7-1) and Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) (5-2) is a terrific intracity rivalry. 

Last year's clash at the University of Richmond was an excellent game.  Richmond led by seven with just over three minutes to play, but VCU outscored the Spiders 15-5 over the final 3:06 to win 73-70 at Cameron Hall.  VCU's star guard, Eric Maynor, has since moved on to the Utah Jazz.

Richmond is one of the better teams in the Atlantic 10 conference this year.  VCU is vying with Old Dominion University (6-4) and William and Mary (6-2) for top place in the Colonial Athletic Association.

Tonight is the latest in the series between Richmond and VCU.  It will be played at VCU's Seigal Center at 7:30 and should be another close game.  That game will be an important data point in the picture of the top teams in Virginia. 

While VCU is a slight favorite due to the home court advantage,  Richmond has all the pieces.  They are capable of winning, and I believe they are overall the best team in Virginia.

They have an excellent backcourt in 6-0 Junior guard, Kevin Anderson and 6-4 Senior guard, David Gonzalvez.  They have plenty of big men up front, led by 6-9 255 pound Junior Dan Geriot.

Richmond's biggest achievement this season is winning the South Padre Island Invitational, where they defeated Mississippi State and Missouri.

Neck and neck for numbers two and three in the state are Virginia Tech (7-1), led by 6-3 Junior guard Malcolm Delaney and VCU, led by 6-11 Junior forward, Larry Sanders, another VCU pro prospect. 

Virginia Tech is in action tonight at Penn State (6-3) at 7:00 on ESPN2.  Penn State out of the tough Big Ten is a slight favorite, but Virginia Tech may come through on the road.

The surprise team this year is William & Mary (6-2), which is very competitive with Richmond, VCU and VA Tech.  In fact, last Saturday, William & Mary defeated VCU by one point in Williamsburg on a free throw with three seconds left.  W&M also handed Richmond its only defeat at Williamsburg, 78-71, early in the season.

At 6-4 Old Dominion is one of the better Virginia teams.  In my mind they are fifth.  Richmond, the big dog in Virginia, defeated ODU at Richmond by seven, 67-60.

Rounding out the top half of the state's 14 Division I clubs are Virginia (4-4) and George Mason University (4-5).  Virginia is threatening to be the worst team in the brutal ACC and is a work-in-progress. 

GMU's claim to fame this year is a one-point loss to No. 3-ranked Villanova, but that was more about a new Villanova team trying to find itself very early in the season. 

At 9-0, Villanova seems to be succeeding splendidly at finding itself.  This afternoon at 1:00, GMU hosts Creighton (3-4).  GMU is a slight favorite.

While these seven teams will be interesting to follow this year.  The other seven bear watching too.  Virginia's three teams in the Big South,  Radford (3-3), Liberty (3-6) and high octane VMI (2-4) will vie for that league's championship with Radford the favorite.

The is a lot of good Virginia basketball today.  I hope you can catch some of it.