Inside the Numbers: How about these numbers, UVA basketball fans?

Hey, UVA basketball fans, you’re bummed. I get it. I am, too. So, like a good coach, who yells at you when you just won, to keep you sharp, and boosts you, when you just got beat bad, to help you rebuild, here’s some soothsaying.

The last ACC Tournament champ to win the national title was the 2010 Duke team.

Before that, it was Duke in 2001.

The last two ACC teams that won the national championship, North Carolina in 2017 and Duke in 2015, lost in the semifinals.

There are reasons for this, as you well know, having won two ACC Tournaments in the past six years – in 2014 and 2018 – and come up short in the Big Dance.

One, the two events – the ACC Tournament and NCAA Tournament – are wholly and completely unrelated.

They’re both one-and-done tournaments – you win, you advance, you lose, you’re done.

 

 

The better team – the best team – doesn’t always win.

Matchups are important. In-game stuff – foul trouble, injuries, a key guy just being off – is important.

NBA teams don’t face similar win-or-else pressure until it gets to Game 7.

In postseason tournaments, every game is Game 7.

So, UVA lost Friday night. More accurately, UVA was defeated Friday night.

I say all the time, it’s OK to lose a game, but not OK to be defeated.

Florida State, as coach Tony Bennett said after the game, just wanted it more.

The ‘Noles were more physical, more aggressive.

The ‘Hoos were flustered in a way that you haven’t seen since last March on this floor in Charlotte in the loss to that team that we won’t mention their initials ever again.

That game saw Virginia get down early in the second half, and panic.

Tonight, FSU led most of the way, but UVA had a nice rally, and actually led, briefly, in the second half.

But then the ‘Noles went on a 13-1 run, and UVA got out of its game.

Kyle Guy threw up a wild shot on a dribble-drive five seconds into the shot clock. Ty Jerome shot threes from 6-7 feet behind the three-point line early shot clock.

Guys were out of position defensively all night.

The team let itself get defeated.

Good news: the sun will come up tomorrow.

Bennett drew some laughter when he took an awkward question from a reporter about maybe it not being so bad to lose this time of year because, you know, you can use the loss to get the attention of your team, and he answered, in effect, sure, whatever, I guess I’ll buy into that now.

UVA didn’t play this one to lose and get home a day early. De’Andre Hunter played all 40 minutes, Guy 39, Jerome 37.

OK, but here’s the sunny side to life.

They don’t have to play tomorrow night.

And, yes, they wanted to play tomorrow night.

But now, that’s one less day of wear and tear on the legs before the Game 7s begin next week.

It’s one less game where Hunter can get fouled hard and break his wrist, where Jerome can hurt his back.

And, yes, it’s a bit of a sour taste going into practice on Monday that can serve as added motivation.

It won’t be so bad being pissed off about how FSU owned them tonight.

There can be some cleansing in the wake of a defeat this time of year.

Maybe that’s why those Duke and UNC teams went all the way in 2015 and 2017.

They were good, deep, talented teams, and they had a chip on their shoulder.

Virginia is good, deep, talented, and now, mad.

This is going to be OK.

Column by Chris Graham