The Ultament Comeback Season
The University of Virginia made history last year during 2018 March Madness tournament. But not in the way you want to, being the first ever one seed in the tournament to lose to a 16 seed. The overall record between one seed and a sixteen seed is 135–1. Imagine being the first team lose a 130 plus streak. That has to be devastating to you and your teammates. But the thing is the way this team reacted to this loss is incredible. Players had the mascot or symbol of UMBC on their phones to use that as motivation.
“I think that’s what their program is all about — humility. When you attack it together that way, as they did, you have a really good chance for success. It’s never as bad as it seems. Yeah, they were the first to lose to a №16 seed. It was one game. Now they’re in the title game.”-Odom [UMBC Coach].
The UMBC beating the Virginia team was probably the best thing that happened to this team because, after the loss to a 16 seed, all of the players decided not to ever let that happen again and really started to take care of their responsibilities on and on the court. Even after the loss, they come back together as one. Which is probably the most important part of this comeback season is that they did not just try to force this one player or say that is was one person’s fault more than another. They took this as a team loss. They took this as motivation to get better. As one can tell, it worked out pretty well for them in the long run.
They worked over hours to craft the gift of basketball to get back to where they were in the NCAA tournament (A number 1 seed in the tournament). The four best teams in the tournament get to opportunity to be the number one seed. The year after the loss Virginia is back again being the number one seed in the tournament and again playing another 16 seed because the best teams play the worst at the beginning of the tournament. They beat them pretty easily after being down for a majority of the game.
Then the head coach speaks on hardships: “You certainly feel things and things bother you, but where do peace and perspective come from? I always tell our guys, it has to be something unconditional. I know I have that in the love of my family. And I know I have that in my faith.” I believe this kind of mentality certainly played a big role in the teams biggest comeback season of a lifetime. To the first ones out to the last ones standing in one year. What a turn around for such a great team.
“Virginia is good at basketball. The narrative from last year’s loss won’t go away anytime soon, but there’s a reason the Cavaliers won as many games as any power conference team in the country this year. Bennett’s team was one of only four squads all year to rank in the top 10 of Ken Pomeroy’s offensive and defensive efficiency numbers. While last year’s Virginia team only ranked 30th on offense, this one has no such difficulties. That was apparent in the second half.” As you can tell the team the year before was not the same as the team if became after the loss to the surprising UMBC underdogs in that game. It seemed that is only made the players stronger as a whole and that everyone on that team wanted a chance of redemption and to prove that they are the top dogs of this game.
The Virginia team in the first half of the game, in the round of 64, they came out playing timid and were not playing the type of basketball that they have been playing all season long up to that point. People all over the country were starting to say that it might happen again to the same team, but something happened over the half time of that game. From then on out, those players, coaches did not seem to look back. They started dominating from every aspect of the game, defensively, offensively, rebounds, assist, etc. They were doing everything to give their team the best chance to win this game and the next one until there was no time left in the game they were playing they were not going to give up and they did not. They won the whole tournament.
The last two games they played were very dramatic and came down to the wire. Against Auburn, it came down to seconds and a couple of clutch free throws on a fouled three-pointer. Which gave Virginia’s best player a chance to win the game. And that is exactly what he did. He came out on the court after the time out and one has never seen a player more confident. You could just see that he was not going to miss any of these free throws. Makes all three of them and puts his team up by one point. When the clock hit zero the score stayed the same and Virginia was headed to the national championship game where they would face Texas Tech.
The game against Texas Tech went into overtime but after that Virginia came out firing on all cylinders and Texas was just trying to hold on but Virginia overpowered Texas Tech and ended up winning it all. Tech kept trying to come back and go for a run and it was going back in forth all game. The only difference between the teams was who wanted it more. With the loss to UMBC Virginia was playing with a chip on their shoulders. That chip on their shoulders was the difference between becoming national champions or just being running up. They ended the season the best way anyone wishes. No one could believe that won it after such a devastating loss, that now they would be standing where they are. Number one in the country.
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