College basketball may be a sport plagued by cynicism, FBI investigations and obsessions with everything that it’s not. Even with all of that, it has a national champion for the 2019 NCAA Tournament that should make everyone proud.
At their core, no matter how much money is involved in them or how much some wish they were things they aren’t, college athletics exist for their educational value, teaching young adults life lessons such as perseverance and handling failure. And few have dealt with hard lessons with such aplomb at the high-profile, high level like Virginia did this year.
One year ago, the Cavaliers were the first No. 1 seed to fall to a 16 seed in the NCAA tourney. It could’ve been a crushing blow for a program that already was poked at frequently for previous early-ish exits as a top seed in the tourney, and about its style of play supposedly not working in March, much less April.
Head coach Tony Bennett and his team could’ve been scarred by their historic loss. They could’ve given in to doubts about how they play, or about their lack of deep postseason success. They could’ve abandoned ship, splintered, let the failures define them.
They did not. Virginia stuck together, stuck to what it did, believed in it, used adversity to get better. And one year later, the Cavaliers are national champions for the first time in school history.
UVA outlasted Texas Tech 85-77 in overtime Monday night, putting that loss to UMBC last year and those previous NCAA Tournament disappointments completely in the rear view. For good, forever.
Virginia led much of the way against Tech, but the ability to respond when things looked bleak served the Cavaliers right down to the final seconds of regulation and overtime in this one. It took a DeAndre Hunter three-pointer with 12.9 seconds left in the second half to tie it and eventually get to overtime, and in the end Virginia again survived losing another big lead late and another high-wire act in money time.
Texas Tech led for just 5 minutes, 18 seconds of regulation time, yet the Red Raiders went into the extra session with momentum and with the Cavaliers seemingly close to yet another moment that would’ve been wrenching for a team that appeared to have this game all but won. Showing its own resilience, Chris Beard’s team staged an unlikely comeback late and itself was at the doorstep of its first-ever men’s basketball title.
Tech also got the early jump in overtime and led by three with under three minutes left, but Hunter hit another huge three-pointer with 2:09 left to put UVA ahead for good. Virginia then sewed it up at the free throw line, making eight straight in the final 41 seconds.
A game that was supposed to be about defense was to a degree, as per tournament custom officials completely swallowed their whistle, allowing massive amounts of contact. Really, though, it came down to the other side of play, with the Wahoos piercing Texas Tech’s defense for 45.8% shooting, while the Red Raiders stayed in it with 10 three-pointers, including big-time performances off the bench from Brandone Francis (17 points) and Kyler Edwards (12), low-percentage shooters on the season who were absolutely clutch in this game.
Call their offenses boring if one likes, but they’re much more interesting than watching a team run endless ball screens or isolation plays. And both are some of the few in the sport that can make motion offenses work at the highest level because they have players who regularly knock down shots-tough shots even-at the end of the shot clock.
Much like Villanova’s title-winning team last year, history will likely look more fondly on the talent level of Virginia than many do now. Regardless of how they do in the NBA, anyone who watches them play can see the obvious: Hunter, Kyle Guy and Ty Jerome are pros. Flat-out pros.
Hunter was huge with 27 points, including 22 coming after the first half. Guy scored 24, including four three-pointers, while Jerome added 16 and also wowed with eight assists, many of the spectacular variety.
It cannot be said enough just what a job Bennett did with this year’s team, and with how he handled the loss to UMBC last year. There was no hiding from it, no avoiding questions. Bennett was the picture of grace and using the loss in the most positive way possible, and as a result his team was too.
How Virginia responded to such a low was an example of college sports-in fact, athletics at any level-at its very best. A coach and the group of young men he is guiding took an overwhelming negative and made it a positive, and they did it with ultimate class.
In a sport that sorely, badly needs more attention placed on the ones doing it well and doing it right, Bennett and this Virginia team deserve to be held up high as an example for what is right.
The Cavaliers are college sports at their best, and even what they need.
Side Dishes:
- Hoopville has another episode of Talking Hoops With Ted Sarandis, with Hoopville czar Phil Kasiecki joining Ted to talk about Monday night’s championship game. Check it out right here.
- NIT historian and Hoopville contributor Ray Floriani also posted a final notebook of notes, quotes and numbers from the NIT, which you can read here.
- Reports surfaced Monday night that St. John’s has asked Chris Mullin to step down as coach, just a few days after the school had professed a vote of confidence for its former all-time great as a player at the school. There’s been a lot of smoke about the job Mullin has done with the Johnnies; from afar, not all of it is understood here. Not sure how people expected a whole lot more of this year’s team, considering the giant hole it had in the middle; it’s true, the Big East was there for the taking this season, but St. John’s was a small team with little frontcourt production, and from here not as talented as many thought. It was noticeable the relative lack of energy SJU played with in much of its NCAA Tournament play-in loss to Arizona State, and that would be a fair indictment. The Red Storm was the opposite of a team playing with hair on fire, and that should also give pause to the next person looking to hire another coach with primarily an NBA background. This isn’t a sport with an 82-game regular season, and not often will teams have singular stars to carry them, as professional teams are often constructed. Urgency matters.
- UCLA is still looking for a coach after Tennessee’s Rick Barnes decided not to take the Bruins’ offer. Word reported by some-such as Evan Daniels of Fox Sports 1-is that Barnes returned for two reasons, one being that Tennessee came back with a big offer to counter UCLA’s own, but also because negotiations with the Bruins broke down. The same was reported for UCLA’s negotiations with Jamie Dixon. Hmm.
- The Big East and Big 12 unveiled on Monday the matchups for the first year of their scheduling “alliance.” Among the games, national runner-up Texas Tech will go to DePaul, Kansas is at Villanova, Marquette will make a return trip to Kansas State from their matchup this year, and Texas will do the same to Providence.
Today’s Menu:
- All is quiet, as the longest season in college basketball history-five months and two days-is at last complete.
Have a terrific Tuesday.
Twitter: @HoopvilleAdam
