If you’ve never been in an arena for an NCAA Tournament game, it can be hard to know just how tense it is just to be there.
I mean, I can’t imagine what it’s like to have to play, because it’s hard enough for me just to be there in person as a writer.
I’ve been in the gym for three #1 seeds falling behind double-digits to 16s – and one of them lost.
Game Details
- Wright State (23-11, #14 seed, Midwest) vs. Virginia (29-5, #3 seed, Midwest
- Day/Time: Friday, 1:50 p.m. ET
- TV: TBS
Forecast
- KenPom: Virginia 81-65
- BartTorvik: Virginia 80-64
- ESPN BPI: Virginia +16.2
I was courtside for a four losing to a 13 on a 27-foot three with 2.2 seconds left.
I was behind the basket for the three most dramatic free throws anyone will ever see.
I couldn’t feel my hands as the 2019 national championship game headed to OT.
And again, I’m just there with my laptop.
If I’m on the court, and have to catch a pass, shoot a shot, snag a rebound – there’s a puddle at my feet, is my point here.
Dallin Hall, and that’s it, in terms of experience
The 2026 UVA Basketball team is the third seed in the Midwest Regional, which, great.
The sum total of the NCAA Tournament experience in the rotation is Dallin Hall, whose BYU team was upset in the first round in 2024, and advanced to the Sweet 16 in 2025.
“I’m fortunate to be around some really high-character teammates and guys who have played a lot of basketball in their career. If you look at the guys next to me, they’ve played at some of the biggest stages in basketball, whether that be here or across the world in Europe,” said Hall, who averaged 5.0 points and 4.7 assists per game in his three NCAA Tournament games at BYU in 2024 and 2025.
The advice he’s giving to his ’mates:
“The intensity level, the focus level, the physicality level is very similar to what we just experienced in the conference tournament, every game, and you have to come out and dominate every possession from the start,” Hall said.
The key difference between the ACC Tournament and the NCAA Tournament being: Virginia was playing with house money last week in Charlotte, knowing that it had an NCAA berth in the bag.
This week, and going forward, it’s do-or-die.
The coaching staff: plenty of experience
“Yeah, quite honestly, we haven’t talked a ton about it. It’s not a topic that we bring up all the time,” Virginia coach Ryan Odom told reporters today after the team’s practice session in the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.
“The reality is, the tournament’s already started now,” Odom said. “You had the First Four, so our guys were able to watch that, and the energy and the enthusiasm with which those teams were playing with, the NC State and Texas game comes down to the wire. You watch the UMBC and Howard game. I didn’t get a chance to see the Prairie View and Lehigh game. Our guys know SMU and understand how good they are. You can learn from those games initially. The momentum, the discipline that you have to play with in order to win. I think our guys understand that.
“They’re going to be excited, and there’s going to be jitters,” Odom said. “The reality is, it wouldn’t be natural if you didn’t have those jitters heading into that tournament. Everybody has them. It means you care about what you’re doing, but ultimately, you have to settle into the game. I’m confident that our guys will.”
Great point there at the end from Odom. I do live TV and radio on a regular basis, and those come with jitters, too – which means, as Odom said, you care about what you’re doing, not screwing up, trying to sound like you know what you’re talking about.
Something would be wrong with you if you weren’t nervous.
But then, you settle into what you’re doing, and you do it.
ICYMI: 2026 NCAA Tournament
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It helps that the coaching staff has been to the rodeo before – Odom has taken four different schools to the Big Dance, and his staff includes Griff Aldrich, who was an assistant with him at UMBC, and took two Longwood teams to March Madness, and Darius Theus, who played in three NCAA Tournaments at VCU, including the program’s historic Final Four run in 2011.
“Without being too guarded with it, we make sure what they need to know we let them know,” Odom said. “I think when you focus on it that way, and you just lock in to what the process is, and you’re not having these peaks and valleys in terms of your emotions, I think you have a better chance to win.
“These guys have been locked in all year, and they understand how we prepare now. Initially, we didn’t, because there was a first time doing it as a group. Now we have all these shared experiences through however many games we played at this point, and so they can lean on those experiences that happen throughout the season,” Odom said.
Dallin and Devin: the old guys
Hall, with his choir boy looks, is the guy who sets the tone in the huddle, according to his head coach.
During a timeout in the 74-70 loss to #1 Duke in the ACC Tournament final last week, Odom said Hall was the one “making sure that the guys were present.”
“There was some frustration at times that we weren’t playing a little bit better than we had hoped to play. He just said, Hey, boys, we’re in the championship right now against the number one team in the country. Like, let’s go. This is fun. Let’s just attack it, and do the best that we can,” Odom said.
“If you have that mindset, and you have that type of leadership in your huddles and in the locker rooms, you have a fighting chance,” the coach said.
Hall thinks the Duke game in Charlotte was the best prep the ’Hoos could have possibly gotten going into this week.
“That physicality and desperation, I think it was important that we had that and experienced it beforehand. We utilized that going forward, and now we’re more prepared and better for it,” Hall said.
“The biggest thing for us is just to be us. No game is bigger than the next one. Kind of just giving us that mentality to take one game at a time,” said Devin Tillis, a 6’7” senior who has been playing since the pandemic.
Translation: he’s grizzzled.
“I played in the NIT the last four years, so I know a little bit about tournament basketball. Obviously, not to this extent, but just sharing that we need to be us and just continuing to do the things that got us here, continue to thrive in our roles,” Tillis said.
In one-and-done, anything can happen
In terms of respecting the opponent, well, Hall and BYU lost as a six seed to 11 seed Duquesne in 2024; and of course, the UMBC team that Odom, Aldrich and Bryce Crawford coached in 2018 beat a #1 seed.
“Well, at Virginia, we don’t talk about UMBC too much. That’s a touchy subject,” Tillis said, eliciting chuckles from the assembled media.
Too soon.
It will never not be too soon.
“But taking his experience being at a mid-major school and being one of the only 16 seeds to win a game, he knows that every team in this tournament is capable of doing anything, and sharing his experience from his time at a mid-major school, he knows that it means a lot to every school that’s in this tournament. He knows that, taking stuff away from that game, we need to continue to be on one and not take any game too lightly,” Tillis said.
“Wright State has earned the right to be here and is confident in their ability to advance as well,” Odom said, drawing from that well of experience. “Ultimately, it comes down to the 40 minutes or whatever, 40 minutes-plus, if it takes that, on the court. You have to play well on that day. We’re going to prepare just like we always have, and I know that Wright State will as well. They’re extremely well-coached. They know how to win. When you get in this tournament and play other teams, the majority of the teams have won a lot of games. Wright State is no different in that category.”
I’m about to vomit, and the game is tomorrow, just so you know.
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Chris Graham
