UVA Basketball, rather famously, and for most of you reading this, unfortunately, hasn’t won a single NCAA Tournament game since the magical six-game run to the 2019 national championship.
The 2020 team was the #2 seed in the ACC Tournament, which was stopped midway through due to the COVID pandemic, so, that one’s not our fault.
The 2021 team won the ACC regular season, finished its ACC Tournament run unbeaten, but again, COVID struck – the team was placed in quarantine after its quarterfinal-round win over Syracuse, and basically got out of quarantine, did a shootaround, and lost as a #4 seed to Ohio in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
The 2023 team was, again, the ACC regular-season champ, and a #4 seed, and this time around, it wasn’t COVID, but rather, #13 seed Furman going to a 1-3-1 zone that it had used once all season, then a disastrous final 30 seconds that led to a last-second defeat.
The 2024 season ended with a couple of thuds – a last-second loss to NC State in the ACC Tournament, and a beatdown in the First Four in Dayton in a game that turned out to be the final game of Tony Bennett’s storied career.
The 2022 season ended with an NIT berth, and 2025 finished in a one-and-done appearance in the ACC Tournament, and the sacking minutes afterward of interim coach Ron Sanchez.
It’s been a long time since De’Andre Hunter, Ty Jerome, Kyle Guy and crew cut down the nets in Minneapolis.
We had no idea then that TB would not win another NCAA Tournament game.
I would have sworn that Bennett would have won at least a couple more April Monday games before he retired the big whistle.
Alas.
Pat Forde, you just know it, is waiting with bated breath for Ryan Odom & Co. to flame out as a three seed in Philly on Friday.
Dude’s a towering fraud anyway.
Seems appropriate, on the eve of a March Madness that we hope will give us some redemption, to look back at what has befallen our squads in the NCAAs of late.
Why do I feel like I’m doing a primer for Pat Forde to use against us if the unthinkable happens again?
2021: COVID strikes again
“We wanted a chance to play in this tournament. We got the chance,” Bennett said after the 62-58 first-round loss to Ohio, crediting the Bobcats, who trailed by seven with 14:36 to go, took control with a 16-2 run over the next 10:09, then held off the champs after they got themselves back to two points down two different times down the stretch.
“The NCAA allowed us to come in, in a unique way. But thankful for it. It just stings right now to not advance in this tournament. It’s such a special tournament,” Bennett said. “Again, you know how that goes. It’s the last game of the year. That’s always tough. I know our guys are feeling it right now.
“We had some chances. I’m sure I’ll get asked that question. Don’t know if we got tired down the stretch or felt a little bit of the pressure, but thought we got some good looks. Just had a pretty poor shooting day, very poor shooting day from three with some quality shots.”
ICYMI
- UVA Basketball: Tough way to end eight months in COVID hoops quarantine
- Virginia on short turnaround for First Four: ‘It was a crazy 48 hours for us’
Virginia, ranked 12th nationally in offensive efficiency coming in, shot 35 percent from the floor and was just 8-of-31 (25.8 percent) from three on the night.
It was a particularly brutal night for future NBA rotation guys Jay Huff (4-of-11 from the floor, 1-of-6 from three) and Sam Hauser (4-of-16 from the floor, 1-of-8 from three).
Another future NBA guy, Trey Murphy, was 4-of-9 from the field, finishing with 12 points.
Credit to Bennett, who had to address reporters after the historic 1-vs.-16 upset by UMBC in 2018, he deflected several attempts from reporters to try to get him to say, We lost because we were in quarantine.
“We were grateful to the NCAA for giving us that. We met all the protocols. I know more about protocols than I care to, to be honest. We weren’t sure after our Syracuse game if we were going to get a chance to play in the tournament. We were allowed that opportunity,” he answered one.
“We came in, you know, we thought we had a chance. We certainly did. I don’t know if it would have mattered if it was a normal prep or not. How can you say? We played a good team, and that’s this tournament,” he answered another.
2023: One bad pass
Kihei Clark was the author of most important pass in UVA Basketball history, without which there would be no 2019 national championship banner.
It was awful to see Clark’s career end with maybe the dumbest pass in NCAA Tournament history.
Clark, trapped in the backcourt, with a timeout in his pocket, and, worst case, he gets fouled and goes to the free-throw line, for some reason decided to heave a pass, with all his might, from the baseline, in the direction of Kadin Shedrick, who was in the UVA frontcourt.
Furman center Garrett Hien, playing centerfield, made the steal, got the ball to guard JP Pegues, who had been struggling all day with his shooting – 2-of-8 from the floor, 0-of-3 from three, 4-of-7 at the line.
Pegues caught the pass from Hien and, in one motion, lifted up from 27 feet, over Clark.
As you are well aware, he drained the three with 2.2 seconds left.
Reece Beekman rimmed out a 40-footer after Virginia finally used that final timeout.
Virginia didn’t deserve this one; Furman did.
Final: Furman 68, Virginia 67.
ICYMI
- Madness: Late Furman steal, three stuns fourth-seeded Virginia
- ‘Would we be in this spot without him?’ Tough end to a storied career for Kihei Clark
The roar of the crowd at the Amway Center after the Pegues’ three dropped through the net is still here with me as I sit writing in 2026.
It felt as if my soul left my body when that shot went through the net.
Virginia led by as many as 12, twice, in the second half, the second time after back-to-back threes by Isaac McKneely put the Cavaliers up 50-38 with 11:54 to go.
Furman coach Bob Richey went to a 1-3-1 zone a minute later after reinserting his leading scorer, Mike Bothwell, who had picked up his fourth foul earlier in the half.
To that point, Virginia was shooting just under 50 percent – 20-of-41 – from the floor.
The Cavaliers would shoot 4-of-13 from the floor the rest of the way.
Furman stormed back to take the lead with a 19-4 run, capped by an and-one by SoCon player of the year Jalen Slawson, who was as good as advertised, with 19 points and 10 rebounds on the day, at the 5:02 mark that put the Paladins ahead, 57-54.
Virginia seemed to take control with a late 7-0 run that had the ‘Hoos up 67-63 with 19 seconds left, but they left two chances to put the game away on the table – McKneely missed the front end of a one-and-one with 35 seconds left that could have put Virginia up five, and Clark missed the front end of the two-shot foul with 19 seconds left.
Hien got free in the lane and drew a foul on Shedrick, who played his ass off – 15 points, 13 rebounds, four blocks, and honestly, I thought he got the Hien layup clean – and converted both free throws with 12 seconds left to get the margin to two.
All Virginia had to do was get the ball inbounds and let Furman foul, but inexplicably, Clark tried to avoid the contact, perhaps thinking a long pass could run the clock out.
It was an unconscionable miscalculation from a guy who is otherwise the smartest basketball player I’ve ever seen play.
It’s simply awful that this is the way his career ended.
“I’ve loved coaching him in his career,” Bennett said. “He had the most amazing assist to get us to a Final Four. We would not be in this spot without him, all the success, and he’s had an unbelievable career.
“You always look to that last moment, and there’s so many what-ifs and who knows. But in time, that will fade, and what he’s done, what he’s meant – and like I said, I love coaching him and these guys. I feel for all these guys, feel for us, but it’s just a hard way to end, but there’s also a whole lot of good when you look at the whole picture.”
2024: It ends with a thud
A near-unanimity of the pundits said the 2024 Virginia team didn’t deserve an NCAA Tournament bid.
The Cavaliers, over the course of 40 almost entirely inept minutes of basketball, proved them right.
The final score was, whatever it was.
The scoreboard said: Colorado State 67, Virginia 42.
It wasn’t that close.
ICYMI
- Virginia proves the critics right: Cavaliers plainly inept in 67-42 loss to Colorado State
- First Four in Dayton: Virginia falls to Colorado State in 2024 NCAA Tournament
This one was the sixth loss of the season by 20+ points, and as was the case in those others, it was over by halftime.
Virginia didn’t score in the final 9:20 of the first half, shooting, and I’m not making this up, 5-of-29 from the floor, missing their final 15 shots of the half, but was somehow only down 27-14.
Any thought that, hey, they can’t keep shooting that bad, well, yeah, you’re not going to shoot 17.2 percent for 40 minutes.
Though actually, the streak of misses would get to 19 before Beekman bounced one off the front rim at the 16:37 mark.
The make elicited a sarcastic cheer from fans at the UD Arena, as it should have.
Colorado State opened the second half on an 8-0 run to get the lead past 20, and Virginia only got as close as 15 once, and very briefly, on a Jake Groves three at the 10:02 mark that made it 44-29.
UVA made three of its last 11 shots after that Groves three to fade into the night.
The mover/blocker offense that won Bennett a national title and eight ACC titles finally ran its course in this one.
In what would turn out to be his final postgame presser, a reporter asked Bennett if the trend of early NCAA Tournament exits had become systemic, which got Bennett to ask what was meant by systemic.
“It’s frustrating because, before that, we’ve been to a couple of Sweet 16s and an Elite Eight and a national championship, but there have been some hard losses in the first round. That’s frustrating,” Bennett said.
The Sweet 16s, the Elite Eight, the national title run, that was all between 2014 and 2019.
It was starting to feel, yeah, like the magic has run out.
That’s what was meant by systemic.
“I think, absolutely, I always have to examine our ability to advance,” Bennett said. “We’ve raised the bar really high here. We’ve qualified for this tournament, which is not an easy thing. We’ve done well.
“But it’s stung to get to this point and not advance. So, of course, we’ve got to keep adding quality players. We’ve got to look at things, certainly, from a system standpoint, absolutely,” Bennett said.
“I wish we could have played better and played quality because we were so excited to get this chance, because this team maxed out for the most part in the regular season at times, and this happened.
“But you know, it’s something that I’ll always look in the mirror after every year and say, OK, what adjustments, we gotta get the right pieces in place. So, I think it’s probably both, to be honest,” Bennett said.
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Chris Graham
