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.