The men’s basketball team at Virginia Commonwealth University wasn’t supposed to make the NCAA tournament last spring.

So when the Rams made it to the Sweet 16, joined by the University of Richmond Spiders, VCU Director of Marketing Cynthia Schmidt was left scrambling.

“We were not prepared, so we treated it as a crisis, though certainly a good one,” Schmidt told the American Marketing Association’s Richmond chapter at a lunch Wednesday.

That meant using the same PR and marketing team that would respond to a crisis of the unhappier variety and preparing to operate on a 24/7 basis during the tournament. And it meant dealing with some unexpected issues. For example, when Ellen DeGeneres said on her nationally syndicated TV show that she wanted to wear a VCU shirt, Schmidt and her team rushed a shipment to ensure the free publicity opportunity wouldn’t be wasted.

(Click here for a look at some stats on web traffic, admissions and donations).

Brian Eckert, director of marketing and public relations at the University of Richmond, said that school had a bit of advance preparation. The Spiders made the tournament in 2010 and were playing top-notch basketball in mid-February, leading the school to start some quiet preparations for the tournament run (VCU went on a late-season swoon during February, leading virtually all parties to assume the Rams wouldn’t make the tournament).

So when the publicity wave struck in March 2011, both schools relied heavily on social media to drive the campaigns.

“Social media was so huge because everyone wanted to be a part of it,” Schmidt said. “We gave people what they needed to take action. Everyone is already conditioned to be viral, so we fed that machine through a new home page every day and through videos every other day.”

Jack Berry, executive director of Venture Richmond, organized a pep rally for the teams and ordered a massive “Eat Crow” banner poking fun of ESPN announcer Dick Vitale, who had roundly criticized the Rams’ inclusion in the tourney. After some poor initial feedback, he was worried the banner would reflect poorly on VCU and Richmond; instead, it took off.

“The banner got national coverage and made this about the city versus Dick Vitale,” Berry said.”I called [VCU President Michael] Rao and he was OK with it. And I called Vitale’s people and they were OK with it. They suggested having him sign it and then auctioning it off for charity.”

The signing was covered by ESPN, generating more air time for the city that would have cost thousands of dollars to purchase.

Though the hoopla was focused on the basketball teams, Eckert said UR’s PR and marketing departments tried to stay focused on their core mission: driving increased donations and increased admissions applications. That meant getting people interested about the school onto the website so they could see already-prepared information.

But Schmidt also noted that a business or school can’t always control the extent of its coverage.

“The morning after the Kansas game [that sent VCU to the Final Four] we were on the cover of every newspaper in the country,” Schmidt said. “Even if we did nothing, we’d still have hit a home run.”