Auto Bid Alert: VCU, GONZAGA, SIENA, CHATTANOOGA

After the quartet of mid-major championships last night, four more auto bids are off the board.

• Virginia Commonwealth (Colonial) - Eric Maynor and the VCU Rams are back. Two years after knocking off Duke in the first round of the Tournament (and earning the ever-lasting love of all red-blooded, God-fearing college basketball fans), they'll get the chance to do it again after an impressive win over George Mason.

  The Rams have the tools to pull off another first-round upset: a superstar, NBA-quality point guard (Maynor), two 40% three-point shooters on the wings (Burgess, Rodriguez), a long, glass-eating athlete underneath (all-name team nominee Larry Sanders), and a handful of capable support players down the bench. They've got more team-wide athleticism and length than most mid-major teams, and tonight they showed the ability to defend both in the half court and with full court pressure (though I have to question Coach Anthony Grant's use of the full court defense up almost 20 with 12 minutes left in the game). Rebounding has been an Achilles heel, just as it was in that Duke game 2 years ago. But if Sanders can dominate the boards as he did tonight (20 rebounds), they are a prime first-round threat.

• Gonzaga (West Coast) - With Patty Mills still rusty, the Zags played a solid team game on both ends of the floor to win the WCC tournament handily. Despite the large margin of victory, I still think St. Mary's is in line for an at-large bid. But they'll need to get Mills more reps to get ready for the tournament. Perhaps Coach Randy Bennett's peculiar idea to schedule a late-season game against a low Division 1 or Division 2 opponent will come to fruition.
  


• Siena (MAAC) - The Saints will go marching into the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year after pulling away from rival Niagara down the stretch. I missed all but the last ten minutes of the game, so I don't have much to add beyond the box score's revelation that, unsurprisingly, senior guard Kenny Hasbrouck led the way. The Saints will be a threat to repeat last year's first-round upset of Vanderbilt.
  


• Chattanooga (Southern) - The Mocs surprised the College of Charleston for the SoCon title to capture an unikely bid to the Tournament. The nearly-200 RPI, though, means a 16 seed and an early exit are likely.