By Woodrow Carroll
With the men’s NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) basketball tournament lurking, it is always fun to look back at some of the memorable tournament moments. With a 75-year history and the first men’s winner determined in 1939, for the men’s tournament, there are many moments to hash over.
If ever a program made amends for letting down its fans and a few who wagered on the team along the way, the University of Virginia Cavaliers men’s basketball program in 2018-2019 stands tall.
In a geographic area surrounded by Duke, North Carolina, and Maryland, among others, Virginia has been at times hard pressed to make a name for itself with only a moderate degree of success, until recently!
The first Final Four appearance for Virginia was in 1981, the last time the NCAA played a third-place game in the tournament. After falling to North Carolina in a semifinal, the Cavaliers bounced back to defeat LSU, 78-74, in the third-place game.
Three years later in the 1984 tournament, the Cavaliers were a bit of a Cinderella story.
Seeded only No. 7 in 1984, Virginia dispatched Iona, Arkansas, Syracuse, and Indiana, in that order before falling, 49-47, in overtime to national runner-up Houston in a Final Four semifinal. Houston was on the losing end of a 84-75 against Georgetown in the championship game. With the third-place game having been discontinued that was it for the Cavaliers.
When the 2018 NCAA tournament rolled around, Virginia was on a roll, or, so it seemed.
Virginia (31-2) was the No. 1 seed in the South Regional heading into the men’s tournament. First up for the Cavaliers was No. 16 UMBC (University of Maryland Baltimore County). The quaintly-named Retrievers who played in the America East Conference, were viewed as no threat to the Virginia.
What happened to Virginia in its clash with UMBC (24-10) remains a mystery to this day.
The final score was 74-54 in favor of UMBC, not a buzzer-beater victory for the underdog Retrievers who were well in command going into the final seconds. It was the first time in the men’s NCAA tournament, a No.16 seed knocked off a No.1 team. To many, the UMBC victory ranks as the biggest upset in NCAA history. It was not as though the UMBC program took off after the big shocker. To this day, the UMBC victory against Virginia remains the school’s only victory in the NCAA men’s tournament.
The only previous appearance by the Retrievers in the men’s was in the 2008 tournament, a 66-47 loss to Georgetown in the first round!
Reality soon returned for the Retrievers who lost to Kansas State, 50-43, in their second-round game.
The following season, the Cavaliers once again fielded another quality team. Standing 29-3 at tournament selection time, the Cavaliers were again seeded No. 1 in their regional.
There was no first-round upset of Virginia in 2019. The Cavaliers dispatched Gardner-Webb, 71-56, in first-round play. The real story, however, was the manner Virginia handled its final three games.
To reach the Final Four, Virginia had to beat Purdue, 80-75, in overtime. Then it was a 63-62 victory over Auburn in NCAA Semifinal action that sent the Cavaliers into the championship game. Finally, another overtime game, a 85-77 conquest of Texas Tech that gave the Orange and Blue the national championship and, one would think, helped to erase prior season’s memory.
Virginia head coach Tony Bennett’s name may not resonate like that of Mike Krzyzewski among the collegiate coaching fraternity. Don’t be fooled. Bennett, whose sister, Kathi, coached the NIU women’s team, 2010-2015, has been a winner at every coaching stop. Their father was a men’s college coach.