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MINNEAPOLIS — De’Andre Hunter did not play in last season’s NCAA tournament with his teammates, tending to a broken wrist, but he felt what his teammates felt: all summer, all fall, all winter, all spring.
Failure.
He had to hear about it. See it. Feel it.
No. 1 seed Virginia loses to No. 16 seed UMBC in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
But Monday night, Hunter would score and sprint and show up time and time again to lift his team to accomplish something that no college basketball team may ever accomplish again in the span of one year: bounce back from losing to a No. 16 seed to winning the national championship.
“We embraced it. We didn’t run away from it,” says Hunter, who had a career-high 27 points. “We just embraced all those questions, all the media who questioned our team. We just did what we had to do.”
Hunter hit big-time threes at the end of regulation and in overtime to help Virginia beat Texas Tech 85-77 to win its first-ever national title. He was so poised, so clutch, so confident, so aggressive in the second half of regulation and down the stretch when the two teams were trading baskets that it’s hard to pick just one of his moments. He hit mid-range shots. And-1 putbacks. More threes.
At one point, treading back on defense, Hunter smiled, and then his face shrunk to deadpan serious. He shook his head three times with a look that said, There’s no way in hell we’re losing this game.
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Not after everything they endured up to this point. Humiliation. Despair. Fear. Dejection. Angst that kept each player up at night. That kept each player in the gym. More shots, more discipline.
Each player knew they would not be able to quiet anyone until they…did it.
“We had a chip on our shoulder and that’s what we carried for the whole year,” says Virginia forward Mamadi Diakite. “Every time that we were down a few seconds before the end of the game, we didn’t worry about the score or the time. We just kept being focused and executed well.”
They pushed past a resilient Red Raiders team that refused to quit. Every time Virginia stole the momentum, Texas Tech took it back seconds later. It was riveting. Powerful. Beautiful. Loud. Intense. Exciting.
Everything you’d want in a national championship basketball game.
Everything no one thought this national championship game would be.
But that was fitting. The Cavaliers did what no one thought they could do. Did what no one liked that they do: play fundamentally sound, methodical, fingertip-to-fingertip basketball, pass-pass-pass for the best shot and sit down, slide and contest every shot.
“I’ve never seen a more mentally tough team,” says Texas Tech coach Chris Beard.
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Every player played his part, not just Hunter. It was Kyle Guy, pummeling his way to the hoop, somehow finding a way to score, finishing with 24 points as the Most Outstanding Player. It was Diakite’s critical block in overtime, his relentless protection of the rim inside, doing the dirty work that doesn’t always get praised. It was Ty Jerome, who never looked worried when he caught the ball, faced the basket. He just held on. Just wanted to outlast Texas Tech.
“We have a saying, ‘the most faithful win,’ and these guys stayed so faithful,” says Virginia head coach Tony Bennett. “Obviously, we had some amazing plays. This is about the young men. They made the plays, they did the stuff. Coaches get too much credit when it goes well and they get too much blame when it goes bad. These young men deserve this championship.”
They remained poised every time the Red Raiders came firing back. When Brandone Francis hit another clutch shot. When Jarrett Culver hit a key spin-around layup in the lane. When coach Beard waved his arms up in the air, inciting the crowd to become its loudest. Hell, even when big man Tariq Owens, playing on a painful sprained ankle, rose up and threw down a monstrous two-handed dunk, Virginia looked calm. Been-through-too-much calm.
Last year’s loss against UMBC, and the loss to Florida the year before that in the NCAA second round, prepared Virginia to be that calm. The sting, the embarrassment of both losses taught them that.
That’s the thing about basketball: Players play to win, sure. But they also play not to lose. To not get embarrassed. From the moment they pick up a ball in pickup or on grade-school teams, they learn early: Never get embarrassed. Never let anyone see weakness. And never back down.
David J. Phillip/Associated Press
So they didn’t, all tournament, when games came down to the waning seconds against Purdue and against Auburn, and now Texas Tech.
Monday night, the Cavaliers worked for every bucket. Worked for every defensive stop. The Red Raiders spilled their guts out onto the floor. Every time you thought they were out of it, they were in it.
They did not play like they were lucky to be there. They earned the right to be there, with a coach who encouraged a blue-collar mentality on defense that oozed out of every player every time they touched the floor.
Virginia did, too, playing the kind of basketball that many call boring, that many say isn’t exciting. Fake a pass before you make a pass. Crisp cuts. Charges. Offensive rebounds. Extra passes. Making contact with the offensive player before leaping for a board. Being under control as you close out on a shooter, dipping down low to slide so they don’t blow by you. Having your palm face the right direction in the passing lane so to most efficiently snag the deflection.
These details aren’t glamorous. Fun. Exciting. But they matter. And they just produced a championship run like we’ve never seen before and probably won’t see again.
Mirin Fader is a writer-at-large for B/R Mag. She’s written for the Orange County Register, espnW.com, SI.com and Slam. Her work has been honored by the Associated Press Sports Editors, the U.S. Basketball Writers Association, the Football Writers Association of America and the Los Angeles Press Club. Follow her on Twitter: @MirinFader.
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