Virginia will tip off with Colorado State Tuesday night in a First Four NCAA Tournament game, and despite what resident AFP chucklebum Scott German has to say, the Cavaliers absolutely deserve to be here.
That was a powerful moment when our name came up,” UVA coach Tony Bennett told reporters in Dayton on Monday. “It was real emotional, and it was exciting to celebrate with them because a lot of the brackets, I don’t look into that, but one of our SIDs said, or actually it was someone said, well, you’re not on many of those brackets. So, I don’t know what your chances are. So, I’m thankful to be here.”
The SID, or someone, whoever that was, didn’t consult my final pre-tournament analysis, done early Sunday afternoon, that looked at the 16 teams that resident ESPN bracket useful idiot Joe Lunardi said were on either side of the bubble – the final eight in the field, the first eight out.
Virginia’s resume was clearly in the top eight – I posited after the analysis, which looked at the teams’ average computer rankings, records in Quads 1-4, strength of schedule/nonconference strength of schedule, and road win-loss records – that the ‘Hoos were closer to the top of those eight.
The NCAA Tournament selection committee agreed, slotting Virginia as the #41 overall seed, so, basically, fifth among the final eight teams in the field.
Another way of looking at the seeding: not the last team in, not the second to last team in.
Consider yourself lucky that you have access to my mania when it comes to relentlessly breaking down numbers.
Full disclosure: I assumed when I started work on that exercise that it would demonstrate that Virginia, in fact, would not deserve a bid. Even I was surprised that the numbers suggested that the ‘Hoos should be in.
I say that to next say, we’ll give a pass to the folks around Bennett for not being able to read the bubble; Virginia hasn’t been a bubble team, as the kids like to say, in a minute.
The 2022 season ended with an NIT bid, and that Virginia team was out of contention for an NCAA bid in mid-February.
Other than that one blip, Virginia had been no lower than a five seed since the 2011-2012 season, in which Bennett led the Cavaliers to its first NCAA Tournament bid in his tenure as a 10 seed.
The basis of my chucklebum buddy’s ham-fisted analysis to the effect that UVA shouldn’t be here is the massive failure in the endgame in last week’s ACC Tournament semifinal loss to NC State, which went on a night later to cap a historic five-day run with a win over North Carolina.
If Virginia was going to be left on the outside looking in, it would have been nobody’s fault but their own – there’d be no crying over a computer ranking, a la Rick Pitino, no whining over, well, that bad loss to a team with an 8-24 record was months ago.
“I thought we had chances to put that game away, especially when I stepped to the line,” said Isaac McKneely, who had 23 points in the OT loss to State, but missed the front end of a one-and-one with 5.3 seconds left that left the door open for a game-tying, buzzer-beating three by Wolfpack guard Michael O’Connell.
“It’s good to have another chance to play because I would have hung my head on that forever if we wouldn’t have got in. So, just having the chance to play with the Selection Show, the uncertainty if we were going to be in or not, seeing our name, getting this chance, I think we’re just going to make the most of the opportunity. I know we’re all really thankful to be here, for sure,” McKneely said.
“That loss kind of hurt us a lot,” sophomore guard Ryan Dunn said. “We were kind of just figuring out, we were on the edge a lot, and we didn’t know what was going to happen for us. We kind of needed that win. And it was kind of a crazy loss for us to have.
“But being back here, with the opportunity, we’re just, again, grateful,” Dunn said. “We don’t know what could happen. Anything could happen for us, for anybody. We heard there were a lot of a lot of brackets, like, 63 brackets out and only one of us had us in. And we were kind of, we probably might, might not, don’t know. Hearing our name called and being back on the stage and being back in this arena and this platform, it’s just great to be back here.”
OK, so, it’s all well and good – Virginia got a bid, a chance to redeem itself.
They can’t play this like they’re just happy to be here, or they won’t be here very long.
“This was a reason I came back,” said senior guard Reece Beekman, the team’s heart and soul, who came back for his senior season – after testing the NBA Draft waters – for two reasons: to get his degree, and to make one more run at the NCAAs.
“Been here two times, been knocked out the first round both times,” Beekman said. “Just to have the opportunity just to lead this team and see how far we can go, I feel like we’ve got a good chance. I feel like we’re playing some of our best basketball right now, and I’m just excited to see how far we can go.”
The bracketology jerks who didn’t have Virginia in the field, got it wrong, then doubled down after the field was announced, are now waiting for the Cavaliers to lay a big, ugly egg tonight in Dayton.
If there’s any pressure on the Virginia kids, it would be that – proving that they deserved a bid.
Bennett, for his part, is trying to steer clear of letting that kind of thinking rule the day.
“If you’re trying to prove to everyone who says you’re not good or you don’t belong, that’s a tiresome battle. You’ve got to look at your group and say let’s play to our fullest abilities, let’s go after this and get after it,” Bennett said.
“Who doesn’t want to come into this NCAA Tournament and advance? So, that part is there. But I think the excitement of getting in, and then again knowing you’re going to have to play well, and you’re going to have to execute on both ends to advance, is where the focus is, and you think of it that way. That’s, at least, our approach.”
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Chris Graham
