Virginia’s title ended season on a high note
You already can see the upcoming book and video titles: “From laughingstock to last team standing — The story of the 2019 NCAA champion Virginia Cavaliers.”
It’s all over now, of course. Another Division I college basketball season in the books. But had you asked even the most optimistic of Virginia fans if such a thing was possible following the Cavs’ 20-point loss to No. 16 seed Maryland-Baltimore County in the opening round of last year’s tournament — a loss that made UVA the first No. 1 seed in history to lose to a 16th seed — they probably would have guffawed their way through their tears.
But there Virginia was on Monday night, topping Texas Tech 85-77 in overtime in one of the better, more entertaining final Monday nights in March Madness history.
Nor did anyone need to look hard at the box score to understand the most important difference in last year’s chumps and this year’s champs. Forward De’Andre Hunter didn’t play in last year’s loss to UMBC due to injury. Against the Red Raiders he scored 22 of his gamehigh 27 points after halftime — including a nerveless 3-pointer with 12 seconds left to force overtime — to create one shining moment for the Wahoos that never will be forgotten.
Throw in the 12 free throws in 12 attempts the Cavs hit in overtime and you realize that no one sweated the little things better than they.
“It don’t feel real, bro,” said Virginia guard Kyle Guy, the buzzer-beating hero/villain of Saturday’s 63-62 semifinal win over Auburn and the Final Four’s most outstanding player.
Countered teammate Ty Jerome: “It still don’t feel real? Still doesn’t feel real. Come on, bro. Talk properly.”
Only at UVA. Somewhere, Thomas Jefferson, the school’s founder and our nation’s third president, is surely smiling, understandably proud that at least one of Virginia’s student-athletes not only knows proper grammar but demands it of his teammates.
Yet not much of this tournament seemed real from
the moment pre-ordained champ Zion Williamson and Duke went down in the East Regional final, cementing an unlikely Final Four of the top-seeded Cavs, second-seeded Michigan State, fifth-seeded Auburn and third-seeded Texas Tech.
How shocking did this quartet apparently seem to CBS? In its telecast-concluding “One Shining Moment” video, no fewer than 15 screen shots focused on Duke, plus Williamson was the only player delivering a quote in the montage. No other non-Final Four team had more than five screen shots.
So what were this season’s ultimate highlights?
› Best game: Virginia-Purdue’s overtime tussle in the South Regional final. Every other memorable game had its controversial calls. This one just had magical play throughout, highlighted by 42 points from Boilermakers guard Carsen Edwards.
› Best coaching job: Season-long, Texas Tech’s Chris Beard, hands down (see “Best story” below). But for March Madness, Auburn’s Bruce Pearl, who guided his Tigers to within a second of the national championship game while steering them the final 93 minutes of the season without his best player — sophomore forward Chuma Okeke.
› Best player: OK, Zion and only Zion deserves to be mentioned here. The 6-foot-7, 285pound freshman averaged 26 points and 10 rebounds over four NCAA tournament games and won every national player award. No (presumed) entry into the NBA has brought this much excitement since LeBron James went pro directly out of high school.
› Best story: UVA is the easy choice, but Texas Tech might be the better one. Before the season the Big 12’s 10 coaches tabbed Tech to finish no better than seventh in that conference. Not the nation. The Big 12 Conference. By Monday night, only Hunter’s game-tying 3-pointer in the final seconds of regulation kept them from winning it all.
But Virginia did win it all by securing two of its final three wins in overtime and the third by a single point on three free throws with six-tenths of a second on the clock.
And if you’re looking for who’ll contend for next year’s title, the Cavs should be among the top five, joined by Michigan State, Duke, Florida and Kentucky.
As Virginia coach Tony Bennett was wrapping up his media responsibilities in the wee small hours of Tuesday morning, he was asked for the 103rd time about last year’s NCAA tourney embarrassment.
Referring to a motivational saying he embraced, Bennett said, “What that says, if you learn to use it right, the adversity, it will buy you a ticket to a place you couldn’t have gone any other way. All the stuff that they talked about (the UMBC loss), I think, bought us a ticket to a national championship.”