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Of course the meltdown UVA had the last 8 minutes against an inferior Syracuse team in the Elite 8 two seasons ago was an extremely devastating loss for UVA as well.
Was UVA overrated? Was UMBC underrated? Did the selection committee know what it was doing? Etc... etc...
UMBC perhaps should have been a 15 seed. But what are you going to with UVA? The Deandre Hunter injury might have made the Cavaliers a low 1 seed, but I doubt a 2 seed, had this injury been documented before the selection process. And if UVA keeps winning the ACC and loses only about two games playing the same style they have been, people may well assume they'll keep coming up short in the Tournament. But it still won't matter. Can't seed them any place else other than as a one.
But there is even more blame to be assigned than credit. Because this is Virginia, and this is a continuation and confirmation that BennettBall is fatally limited come March.
This is the third time a Bennett-coached Virginia team has been a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tourney. This is the third time a Bennett-coached Virginia team has lost before the Final Four....
Virginia hoops as coached by Bennett is built on rigidity. You play by a set of well-defined beliefs and principles and rules. It is Swiss timepiece basketball.
So what happens when the watch stops? When the clock breaks? When things go wrong?
Panic is what happens. Take Virginia out of its narrowly constructed comfort zone, make it play faster or make more shots than it is accustomed to, and you can see the cogs and sprockets in Bennett’s precise head start to seize up.
The only time I watch basketball is the NCAA tournament. I saw history made tonight!
I got to see it in person! Unbelievable! It's like one of those "Holy Grails" in the NCAA tournament, and I was there. I thought it would eventually happen one day and it will undoubtedly happen again, but who knows when, but to be there, crazy.
I save all of my tickets, but this one will be special for sure. So now I have seen, in person, a #15 beat a #2 (Lehigh over Duke in Greensboro in 2012), a #14 beat a #3 (Mercer over Duke in Raleigh in 2014) and now the first time a #16 beat a #1.
Funny story, I was reading this article in the Sporting News earlier this week by a guy named Ryan Fagan, who has been covering the NCAA tourney for the last 11 years and has witnessed crazy top seed upsets, you have to read his article:
Anyways at the end of the article he mentions where he was going to be in the 1st and 2nd weekend of the tourney, and he says Charlotte, then LA. And I was thinking, that's cool, but I didn't think there was going to any upsets, like either UNC losing to a #15 seed or UVA losing to a #16 seed in Charlotte. I guess the 'Fagan Jinx' is very much real!
I got to see it in person! Unbelievable! It's like one of those "Holy Grails" in the NCAA tournament, and I was there. I thought it would eventually happen one day and it will undoubtedly happen again, but who knows when, but to be there, crazy.
I save all of my tickets, but this one will be special for sure. So now I have seen, in person, a #15 beat a #2 (Lehigh over Duke in Greensboro in 2012), a #14 beat a #3 (Mercer over Duke in Raleigh in 2014) and now the first time a #16 beat a #1.
Funny story, I was reading this article in the Sporting News earlier this week by a guy named Ryan Fagan, who has been covering the NCAA tourney for the last 11 years and has witnessed crazy top seed upsets, you have to read his article:
Anyways at the end of the article he mentions where he was going to be in the 1st and 2nd weekend of the tourney, and he says Charlotte, then LA. And I was thinking, that's cool, but I didn't think there was going to any upsets, like either UNC losing to a #15 seed or UVA losing to a #16 seed in Charlotte. I guess the 'Fagan Jinx' is very much real!
Holy Little Caesars on two accounts! Keep that ticket stub and enshrine it! That's quite a track record; I was there for Princeton-UCLA, and I knew some folks that were in Providence for that epic almost: Georgetown 50-49 over Princeton. Also I recall skimming that piece about the Fagan jinx. So he was there hey?
I am sure besides UVA fans and pickers, two others that aren't too happy about this upset were the bettors, one who tried winning about $12 on UVA straight up and lost thousands, another who had UVA with Purdue and UNC as a straight up parlay to win around $800 and lost 20 grand.
UMBC's win actually is the 2nd biggest upset in terms of spread; 20-1/2 points. Missouri-Norfolk St six years ago was slightly higher.
Congrats though to a guy who bet 40 bucks and won almost 8,000 big ones on a parlay of Marshall and UMBC. Marshall was a 13-1/2 point underdog, which I can't believe. If I had been in Nevada and known that, I would have plopped some greenbacks down on at least that spread.
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