No one would have faulted the Selection Committee if Virginia, now in the Sweet 16, after an improbable three-game run in Iowa City this past weekend, hadn’t gotten an invite to the 2026 NCAA Tournament at all.
The Cavaliers lost to Clemson, 63-50, in the second round of the ACC Tournament on March 5, shooting just 32.8 percent, committing 13 turnovers, making two buckets in the last 6:48 after cutting the deficit to six.
That one was the third loss in a row for the UVA team heading into Selection Sunday.
“I mean, obviously the way we ended the regular season was disappointing. We had a three-game losing streak there. But still I knew we were better than what we were performing and what we were displaying,” Virginia coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton said at a Friday press conference in Sacramento, on the eve of the Sweet 16 matchup with TCU.
Game Details
- #10 seed Virginia (22-11) vs. #3 seed TCU (31-5)
- Day/Time: Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET
- TV: ESPN
Virginia was literally the last team to hear its name called into the tourney field on the Selection Sunday TV show on ESPN – with its invite being to the First Four, as a play-in team.
Agugua-Hamilton had her team working from the day following the March 5 loss in the ACC Tournament all the way through to the March 15 announcement of the NCAA Tourney field as if they were getting a bid.
“The first couple of days were tough. It was all about toughness. It was all about being urgent. It was all about competing. It was about being together but pushing each other,” Agugua-Hamilton said.
First-team All-ACC guard Kymora Johnson said the first thing that comes to mind about that period was trust falls.
“We had to stand up on a box. It was really tall, actually. And everyone had to stand behind, one player at a time, you had to get up and fall back onto each other. It took a couple of people a lot of times to get up there. The nerves were real, but we trust each other, and so we all completed the task,” said Johnson, who is second in the ACC in scoring (19.5 ppg), and leads the conference in assists (5.8 assists/g).
Yeah, I’m not sure about a trust fall standing on flat ground, so standing on a tall box, that’s next-level.
It clicked; Virginia has had no margin for error in any of its three games in the NCAA Tournament to this point, beating Arizona State, 57-55, in the First Four, taking the lead for good on a Johnson three with 30 seconds left, then upsetting #7 seed Georgia, 82-73, in OT, after a Romi Levy three with 1:26 to go that sent the game to the extra five minutes.
ICYMI
- UVA Basketball: Kymora Johnson, Coach Mox, finally going dancing
- UVA Basketball: Virginia holds off late charge from Arizona State
- UVA Basketball: Short turnaround for Virginia for Saturday NCAA game
- UVA Basketball: Virginia upsets #7 seed Georgia in OT, 82-73
- UVA Basketball: Well, Virginia, looks like we have a Sweet 16 team after all
- UVA Basketball: The phone call that got Virginia back to the Sweet 16
- ‘Hoos in the Sweet 16: What UVA Basketball fans need to know about TCU
The upset of #2 seed Iowa on Monday included a rally from nine down in the fourth quarter to force OT, a runner in the lane from Johnson with 13 seconds left to force a second OT, and a 10-1 run in the second extra period to take control.
That all started on the practice court after the ugly loss in the ACC Tournament.
“We were able to kind of peel back some layers there and get better outside of, like, off the court,” Agugua-Hamilton said of the pre-tournament prep. “And then we came back again before the Selection Sunday and then got after it on the court as well. There was a lot of growth. There was a lot of growth, basketball-wise, x- and o-wise, team-wise, urgency, competing, mental, physical toughness, all that stuff. And it was needed.
“I guess those three games that we dropped were needed for us to do what we needed to do, because we have talent, obviously, but it just wasn’t coming together the way it should, and we were able to fix that,” Agugua-Hamilton said.
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Chris Graham
