Virginia Commonwealth gave up 34 percent shooting from long range all season long. Over the last five games, that number's down to 23 percent.

The Rams’ three-point shooting has spiked as well -- going from 36 percent during the year to 44 percent in the tournament. They're shooting threes more often in the They're shooting threes more often in the tournament, as well.

On offense, the spikes have been from Bradford Burgess (who has gone from shooting 40 percent to 59 percent), Jamie Skeen (40 to 50), and Brandon Rozzell (39 to 49). And if you drop Burgess's opening round 0-for-4, he's 13-of-18 (72 percent) from deep since.

Louisville's Rick Pitino is making $7.5 million this season, according to a USA TODAY analysis of contracts and other compensation documents. dwarfing the $85,000 of Northern Colorado's B.J. Hill.

Pitino's compensation — nearly 90 times more than Hill's — is boosted by a $3.6 million bonus for completing three years of his contract.

Among the 33 coaches whose pay USA TODAY has tracked the last two seasons, the average pay was up 11% to $1.7 million, not including bonuses averaging up to $390,000.

Kentucky's John Calipari will make $3.9 million this year, with another $650,000 in tournament bonus money available. Virginia Commonwealth's Shaka Smart will make $424,000, with about $257,000 in possible tournament bonuses.

Six of Butler’s nine losses occurred when opponents forced them to play at a faster pace than coach Brad Stevens prefers.

The Bulldogs average a pedestrian 64.6 possessions per game, so they were particularly ill-equipped when Louisville (84 possessions), Duke (72 possessions), Milwaukee (76, second meeting) and Valparaiso (73, second meeting) upped the tempo against them.

During their current winning streak, only two games -- a routine home victory over Illinois-Chicago (67) and the dramatic overtime win over Florida (67) in the Elite Eight -- have exceeded 65 possessions.

Jay Kornegay, the manager of the Las Vegas Hilton sports book, isn't sure who put in a $10 bet at the sportsbook earlier this season on Virginia Commonwealth to win the national championship -- at 5,000 to 1.

Should the Rams win two more games and cut down the nets in Houston, this particular fan will cash in a ticket worth $50,000.

“Maybe it's someone whose girlfriend went to VCU,” Kornegay said. “I don't know. But you'd like to be holding that golden ticket.”

Who wouldn't. Two more wins for the Rams, and they go into the record books as the most unlikely of all Cinderellas, the first team to win seven games in the NCAA tournament and win the national title.

According to SI.com’s Luke Winn, no Final Four team in the previous seven years has finished outside the top 50 in adjusted offensive efficiency, and -- more importantly -- outside the top 30 in adjusted defensive efficiency.

Virginia Commonwealth ranked 59th in pre-tournament offensive efficiency, according to kenpom’s rankings -- and 143rd in defensive efficiency, allowing an adjusted 1.008 points per possession.

The Rams held Kansas to 0.88 points per possession on Sunday – 25 percent below the KU's season average.

Just as he has throughout the tournament, Virginia Commonwealth coach Shaka Smart set up a television in the middle of the Rams’ locker room and played a motivational video for his team shortly before it took the court. Sunday’s video featured snippets of analysts such as Jay Bilas, Hubert Davis and Greg Anthony picking Kansas to beat VCU.

“There were all these clips of guys saying, ‘I got Kansas,’ or, ‘I’m picking Kansas,’ or ‘Kansas is going to win this one,’ ” Burgess said. “All we heard was ‘Kansas, Kansas, Kansas’ over and over and over.”

It was a brilliant motivational ploy by the 33-year-old Smart, who was hired two years ago to replace Anthony Grant. By the time the Rams met Kansas’ captains at midcourt just before tipoff, they were as fired up as they’d been the entire tournament.

Kansas jumped to a 6-0 lead before suffering a collapse that would extend into the second half. Jayhawks fans watched in horror as VCU made nine 3-pointers before intermission while forcing Kansas to shoot just 31.3 percent from the field.

VCU first staggered and then stunned the top-seeded Jayhawks 71-61 to advance to the Final Four.

"Coach told us we could attack them in transition," VCU point guard Joey Rodriguez insisted afterward. " ... He was absolutely right. They [were] the weakest in transition in the first half and we attacked them."

It took a handful of possessions -- and an easy 6-0 Kansas lead -- for VCU to find its footing, but the Rams' suspicions began to prove startlingly correct. Over the next 13:37, VCU unloaded a mind-blowing 39-15 run on the Jayhawks, who at first looked irked, then frustrated, then a bit panicked as the three-pointers kept raining and the deficit kept growing.

The Rams found secondary transition opportunities by the bushel, and the deluge of jump shots forced Kansas coach Bill Self to burn two timeouts and go deep into his bench early, groping around for some combination of guards that could find VCU's shooters. He never really got a handle.

"I think what hurt us more than anything in the first half is transition defense," Self said. "You look at the stat sheet, and at halftime, [we] had zero points in transition, and by our stats, they had 14."

Ohio State has posted the highest efficiency margin through two rounds of the tournament, outscoring opponents by an average of .492 points per possession.

The Buckeyes also own the highest win margin at 30.5 points per game.

UConn, Duke, Florida, and Virginia Commonwealth round out the top five.

Virginia Commonwealth, which opened the tournament in the “First Four,” overcame seemingly insurmountable odds by beating Purdue to advance to the Sweet Sixteen.

According to Ken Pomeroy, VCU’s Sweet 16 appearance was given a 1.2% chance of occurring and now reigns as the most improbable tournament event this season.

As has been the case many times this season, point guard Aaron Craft came off the bench and sparked Ohio State with 15 assists against George Mason, many of them to the wings as the Buckeyes finished 16-of-26 behind the arc.

The freshman guard is playing with tremendous poise and court presence -- on both sides of the ball.

“Physically, you have to have the tools,” assistant coach Brandon Miller said. “Aaron can move laterally. He can stay in front of the ball.

“What makes him special, puts him over the top, is his mind. What you can give a normal kid in scouting, you can give him 10-fold. You can give him everything. He can put the knowledge on the floor and carry it out.”

The technical term to describe Craft’s intellect may or may not be genius, but it will suffice here. He is a brilliant student, and unlike some in that category who use athletics as a respite and don’t take the mental part of the game seriously, he uses his brain to enhance his performance.

(After Craft was asked if he could recall the details of the two extraordinary assists among his 15, Matta told Sporting News, “He could remember the other 13, too. He’s got it up there.”)