Kambui Bomani
Sports Writer
The Virginia Cavaliers’ basketball program was at its lowest point at the end of the 2018 season.
They did have their fair share of accomplishments as a basketball team along the way, finishing with a 31-3 overall record and the ACC regular-season title in their possession.
They were rewarded with the NCAA Tournament’s number one overall seed and seemed destined to make a deep tournament run while possibly claiming their first national championship in school history.
Then, history struck at the worst accord for Virginia as they became the first one seed in March Madness history to lose in the Round of 64 versus a 16 seed falling to the University of Maryland Baltimore County by double digits in 2018.
Their best player, Deandre Hunter was out with a knee injury during the time of the game, but the rest of the unit was expected to pick up the slack and at least hold serve for a weekend until he returned.
Such was not the case as the Cavaliers’ three point shooting failed to arrive throughout the night and their pack line defense was exposed by the man movement and ball movement of the Golden Retrievers.
2019 was all about redemption for Virginia University as they set sights to vanquish their tournament demons from a year ago. Just like in 2018, they finished the 2019 season with only three losses all year.
However, the team’s end result wasn’t a playoff exit like the year prior, but a championship celebration on the hardwood of Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Sophomore Forward De’Andre Hunter scored a game-high 27 points while hitting four of his five three pointers, and junior guard Kyle Guy added 24 points on 8 of 15 shooting to help lead Virginia past the Texas Tech Red Raiders 85-77 in overtime to win the program’s first national championship.
Junior Guard Ty Jerome pitched in with 16 points on 6 of 16 shooting as the trio of Hunter/Guy/Jerome combined for 67 of the teams 85 points.
Hunter made the biggest three out of all of his five three-point attempts with a game-tying triple from the right corner with under 15 seconds left to help propel the game into overtime.
In Overtime, D’Andre made a go-ahead three-point attempt to put Virginia up 75-73 and from there, the lead was not relinquished as the Cavaliers made their last 8 free-throw attempts to help put the game on ice.
It was a wild-ride for Coach Tony Bennett and his Cavaliers team throughout the tournament that held an abundance of trials throughout their run.
They were down by nearly double-digits to 16-seeded Gardner-Webb at half-time before they went on a second-half surge to secure a victory.
Against Purdue, they were in danger of falling in the closing seconds before their Center Mamadi Diakite scored on a close shot at the rim to send the game into overtime.
Then, there was the team’s controversial game against Auburn where they seemed destined to fall in the waning moments before Kyle Guy was fouled while attempting a potential game-winning three at the buzzer.
Guy made all his free throws with .6 seconds left to allow Virginia to play for a national championship.
Heading into next season, it is safe to say the Cavaliers are an early pre-season favorite as a national championship contender.
Their versatile wing in D’Andre Hunter is expected to declare for the NBA draft.
However, Kyle Guy, who was the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player, is leading the charge of returnees for the defending National Champions who may return as many as four of their five starters from this year into next season.
For the majority of a group that’s won a combined 67 games in two years, to return for a title defense the next season is rare and vital in an era of one-and-done basketball for many major collegiate teams. Only time will tell how their future title defense will shape up to be.
For now, the program gets to revel in an array of confetti as they celebrate a job well done on a successfully completely Redemption Tour.
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