History
The VCU Rams men's basketball program was founded in 1968, at the same time as the merger of the Richmond Professional Institute and the Medical College of Virginia. In the 1968–69 season as an independent team, the program played its first ever season. Coached by Benny Dees and assisted by Landy Watson for their first two seasons, Dees led the team to two winning records, before being replaced by Chuck Noe. It would take 10 more seasons before the Rams appeared in a postseason tournament, earning a berth into the 1978 National Invitation Tournament being eliminated in the first round by the University of Detroit.
Under the coaching of J.D. Barnett, the Rams earned fourth berths into the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship, each being their first four berths, the first coming in 1980. During Barnett's six years coaching the team, only twice did the Rams not win the Sun Belt Conference.
The Rams became the first team to sweep the best of 3 championship series in the CBI post-season tournament on their way to becoming the 2010 CBI Champions. It is the first post-season tournament championship, excluding conference tournaments, in the history of the program.
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“It is the true office of history to represent the events themselves, together with the counsels, and to leave the observations and conclusions thereupon to the liberty and faculty of every man’s judgement.”
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626)
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