Perspective: It took winning a national championship, but Virginia finally rewrites the narrative
By Jerry Brewer Jerry Brewer Sports columnist Email Bio Follow Columnist April 9 at 12:28 AM MINNEAPOLIS — Look at them, those champion Virginia Cavaliers, inadequate no more. They can smile, see. They can dance. They can bounce on an elevated stage, in a supersized venue, during the most precious moment of the final night of the college basketball season.
They won. Like, the whole thing. With an 85-77 overtime victory against Texas Tech in the men’s national championship game Monday night, they tossed the monkey on their backs, their demons and their haters to the rafters of U.S. Bank Stadium. And then white, silver and gold confetti rained on the Cavaliers. If all those lost Marches over the past six years had soiled them, they now bathed in triumph.
Virginia’s Kyle Guy celebrates the Cavaliers’ national championship victory over Texas Tech on Monday night in Minneapolis. These Cavaliers only knew how to play tournament games that make the heart rate surge. They only knew how to survive them, too. They fell behind by 14 points in the first round against Gardner-Webb and flirted with another debacle against a 16 seed. They could have lost to Oregon. They should have lost to Purdue.
In the extra period, it was Virginia’s time to be reborn. The Cavaliers are no longer an annual tournament disappointment. They’re the best team in men’s college basketball. No more questioning their style or their nerve. They made 12 straight free throws in those final five minutes to end the drama.
The defensive discipline of both teams added to the spectacle. It didn’t minimize it. On every possession, you saw well-schooled players passionately adhering to just about every assignment and defensive detail, hustling to every rotation and competing with incredible effort. It was inspiring whether you were watching the Cavaliers’ clogging pack-line scheme or the Red Raiders’ souped-up matchup zone that attacks, pressures and mixes concepts like few half-court defenses ever have.
Before a crowd of 72,062, Virginia and Texas Tech made their point. They’re not great teams that don’t run. They’re great teams, period. Despite all the focus on their defenses, Virginia entered the title game with the nation’s third-best adjusted offensive efficiency. Texas Tech ranked 28th in that category, and over the past two months, the Red Raiders’ offense had been even better than that.
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