College sports, you may have heard, aren't what they used to be.

Players are transferring, schools keep switching conferences, and everybody's chasing every last dollar.

But as VCU scored 15 unanswered points on Saturday afternoon to put away George Mason, it felt like a throwback.

A sellout crowd at the Siegel Center roared to life, as it did when Shaka and Larranaga did battle, and the Peppas and Green Machine traded bars at the CAA tournament.

"That used to be a regular thing, and we're trying to get it back to that," VCU coach Ryan Odom said of the raucous home crowd. "Where it's like that every single night, regardless of who's coming in here."

Odom didn't live the rivalry's glory days, but he let assistant coach Bradford Burgess speak to the team on Saturday morning. Burgess famously had his senior night ceremony interrupted when the Patriots came out to take warmups while he was being feted.

"That's all I needed to hear," said current VCU guard Phillip Russell.

Russell then got his own indoctrination, as George Mason's K.D. Johnson elbowed him in the face before an inbounds pass. Russell's reaction?

"They're gonna have to come harder than that," he said. "That one time wasn't nothing. Let's go."

If the Patriots can continue their success under new coach Tony Skinn, it would be good for basketball fans across the commonwealth.

Both teams made Final Four runs while in the CAA, but VCU was able to sustain its success, while Mason made a series of ill-advised coaching hires and fell back into irrelevance in the Atlantic 10.

Enter Skinn, who saw the rivalry at its peak.

"Excuse my candidness," Skinn said. "I wasn't a fan of VCU when I was a player. I'm still not.

"But I have a lot of respect for the program."

Mason had the size advantage, and turned the game into a rock fight early.

The Rams, meanwhile, couldn't make a shot, shooting just 20% from the field midway through the first half.

Freshman forward Luke Bamgboye picked up his second foul before the game's first timeout, creating further roster strain.

But in the second half, the Rams showed the offense them believes can make themselves a threat in March, ultimately winning 70-54.

The shots started falling, particularly for forward Jack Clark, the Clemson transfer who struggled early in the season before turning it around after a pep talk with Odom, who emphasized the many ways he was helping the team that didn't involve scoring.

The passing got crisper, too, headlined by a four-pass sequence where multiple players turned down open looks to create a wide-open opportunity for Max Shulga.

"Coaches tell us all the time, give up a good shot for a great shot," Shulga said.

Now 22-5, VCU can win the A-10 title by claiming its final four games, though it won't be an easy stretch, starting with a Tuesday night visit to the Robins Center for a rematch with Richmond.

And while Saturday was a delight, there's never any guarantee in college sports that there will be encore performances — this VCU team has five graduate students, and Odom will be sought after by bigger schools this offseason.

Through the changes, VCU has protected its identity as a basketball powerhouse. After Wednesday night's victory over UMass, Minutemen coach Frank Martin noted that the Rams have had a special reputation for the last two decades, something that transcends any one coach or player.

For now, Odom will work to recreate the magic two more times. He used his press conference to urge fans to come to the final home games, to give his team the type of lift they received Saturday.

"Our hope is that it'll feel the same way as it did tonight," he said. "Because they're all big games. Why? Because the Rams are playing."