It’s Happening

That’s what I texted Brian when it was 21-21 at halftime last night of the Virginia-UMBC game. I didn’t really believe it but everything I had said about why Virginia is so vulnerable in March was exposed in that putrid half of basketball.

I started believing when UMBC went up 27-21. I assumed UVA would come out and start the half on something like a 15-5 run and UMBC would get rattled and we’d move on to Sunday and hoping Kansas State could somehow beat them. The Retrievers were having none of it.

Earlier this week on The Athletic, Nicole Auerbach wrote about how “true” basketball fans should embrace and love Virginia. Local Wisconsin sports jackals told Badger fans to adopt Tony Bennett, beloved son of Wisconsin and Virginia because among other things, it’s a beautiful style of basketball and they do it the right way. When you have to tell someone to love a style of play or team and that the haters are wrong, you’ve already lost the argument.

Tony Bennett’s system works. You don’t have the success Virginia has had in the ACC and say it doesn’t. It’s also incredibly tedious to watch and prone to offensive basketball that can’t handle aggressive and confident basketball teams. That’s what makes them walk the razor’s edge in March. 

Someday, they will breakthrough to a Final 4. Everyone will tell you “I told you, so” but you know what? We were right, too. And in March, we’ve been right a lot more often than we’ve been wrong about his basketball system.