Your best bets for the first round today
The Hotline picked Virginia to cover a big spread in the first round and to reach the Final Four.
I did so while pondering both the Cavaliers’ firstround flameout in 2018 and the myriad examples of teams executing year-over-year turnarounds comparable to what Virginia hopes to produce:
Following a March flop with a March feast.
Since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, there are nine examples of teams not qualifying or suffering an embarrassing loss, then reaching the Final Four (at least) the next season.
Yes, Virginia’s loss was unlike any before, but a redemptive foundation exists in bracket history.
LSU
1985: first-round loss to No. 13 seed (Navy/david Robinson) 1986: reached Final Four
Indiana 1986: first-round loss to No. 14 seed (Cleveland State) 1987: national champs
Arizona 1993: first-round loss to No. 15 seed (Santa Clara/steve Nash)
1994: reached Final Four
UCLA
1994: first-round loss to No. 12 seed (Tulsa) 1995: national champs
Syracuse 2002: NIT 2003: national champs
Connecticut 2010: NIT 2011: national champs (Note: I’m not including Uconn ‘14 because the Huskies were ineligible for postseason play in ‘13 due to APR penalties.)
Kentucky 2013: NIT (lost in first round/ Robert Morris)
2014: reached Final Four
Duke 2014: first-round loss to No. 14 seed (Mercer) 2015: national champs
Villanova 2015: second-round loss to No. 8 seed 2016: national champs
Virginia 2018: first-round loss to No. 16 (UMBC) No. 16 Gardner-webb vs.
No. 1 Virginia Not only won’t history repeat, history will be run off the court by a Cavaliers team significantly better than the ‘18 edition. They won’t score every possession against Gardnerwebb’s porous defense, but it will seem that way. Pick: Virginia No. 10 Florida vs.
No. 7 Nevada Something is amiss with the Wolf Pack, which finished ‘18 so well, started ‘19 so well ... and dropped three down the stretch in a conference it was supposed to dominate. And now here’s Nevada as the