Boy what a difference De’Andre Hunter makes for Virginia. Last year UVA didn’t have Hunter who missed the NCAA Tournament with a broken wrist and last year in the first round in the NCAA Tournament Virginia became the first one seed in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to lose to a 16 seed as UVA lost to UMBC 74-54 in the biggest upset ever in NCAA Tournament history. How can Virginia recover from this crushing loss? Well in their first round game against 16 seed Gardner-Webb they were down 14 points in their first in the first half and a lot people were like oh no not again, here we go again but they ended the first half strong and pulled away in the second half for an easy win.Over the years under Tony Bennett UVA is known for having great regular seasons, but not having success in the NCAA Tournament, well that all finally changed. In their Elite Eight game against Purdue the Cavaliers needed a miracle, off a miss foul shot and a tip out UVA was able to tie up the game against the Boilermakers and won in overtime. In their first Final Four game since the 1984, the Cavs needed another miracle even though their was controversy. With the Cavs down 2 late in the game Ty Jerome dribbled the ball off his foot, picked up the ball and dribbled again which is a double dribble and the refs missed that call. But Auburn committed a foul on Kyle Guy on a three point shot which was clearly a foul as the Auburn defender made contact with Guy and Guy wasn’t given enough room to land. The defender must give the jump shooter room to land or else that is a foul. Guy hit the three foul shots to give UVA it’s first ever appearance in the NCAA Championship game.
UVA went up against Texas Tech who also like the Cavaliers have a really stingy defense. I personally thought this game would be low scoring, but I was wrong and the game was thrilling to the finish as the Virginia Cavaliers one year removed from that shocking first round loss to UMBC to now the National Champs of College Basketball as they beat the Red Raiders 85-77 in overtime in Minneapolis U.S. Bank Stadium. I was amazed that Virginia was able to score 85 points on Texas Tech even though the game needed overtime to decide a winner.
De’Andre Hunter was huge who could be a potential draft pick in the upcoming draft for the Chicago Bulls scored a team high 27 points to go along with 9 rebounds. He did most of his damage in the second half. After Texas Tech took the lead late in regulation who were up 68-65 and on the verge of their first National Championship, they gave up the game tying three pointer to Hunter as the game went into overtime. Kyle Guy was huge as well who was named Most Oustanding Player of the NCAA Tournament chipped in 24 points while Ty Jerome chipped in 16 points with 6 rebounds and 8 assists.. The trio of Hunter, Guy, and Jerome were huge for UVA throughout the NCAA Tournament.
Texas Tech may of trailed by 10 points at one point in the second half but they made it a ball game in the second half. The Red Raiders may of lost but Chris Beard and Texas have a really bright future ahead. Brandone Francis scored 17 off the bench to lead the Red Raiders while Davide Moretti and Jarrett Culver scored 15 points each while Culver had 9 rebounds. Matt Mooney had 10 points who is from Wauconda, IL. Speaking of Moretti for Texas Tech I was wanting to talk a very key play in overtime. With about 1:10 left in overtime and UVA up 75-73 Moretti chased down a missed shot from Virginia and he might of been fouled by Kyle Guy but the play everyone was talking about where the refs ruled at first that DeAndre Hunter of UVA touched the ball last, but the refs reviewed the call and reserved it to Cavaliers ball. Watching the game at home that ball might touched the pinky last of Moretti and I felt the refs really didn’t need to go to a monitor and review that play. Was it the right call to overturn it? It was very close but very hard to tell. The refs could have huddled up and asked each other who had the best angle on that play.
So when the final buzzer sounded the Virginia Cavaliers for the first time in school history have finally won a National Championship not just for their University but for Tony Bennett as well who for years was finally trying to get to the Final Four and boy he finally got that monkey off his back. UVA completed the greatest redemption story in College Basketball history going from losing to a 16 seed in the first round of the NCAA Tournament one year to National Champs the next season.