CHARLOTTE, N.C. — No. 1 Virginia, riding the crest of its biggest success in 34 years, laid an egg large enough to cover the city of Charlotte in omlette Friday night, becoming the first No. 1 seed to lose to a 16 seed since the NCAA Tournament expanded in 1985.
In order to put this monumental landslide in perspective, 33 seasons and 135 No. 1 vs. No. 16 matchups had passed without incident. UMBC, an unheralded, if not obscure team from the Baltimore suburbs, changed all that with a stunning, history making, 74-54 upset over the snake-bitten Cavaliers.
As far as Wahoo history goes, this was the most embarrassing loss since that whole Chaminade thing back in 1982, when the No. 1 Cavaliers with Ralph Sampson were ambushed on Christmas Eve by a team no one had ever heard of in Hawaii.
That one was broadcast by a tiny radio network in the middle of the night, not on national television while the whole college basketball world was watching.
The nation’s No. 1 team, ACC regular season and tournament champions, more resembled a mid-major from the American East, home of UMBC, than a team that had ripped through the nation’s best league nearly unscathed. A 20-point favorite, the Cavaliers were soundly beaten from stem to stern, losing by 20. The Retrievers, who needed a desperate buzzer-beater with six seconds to play in its conference championship game to gain entry into the Big Dance, dominated UVa in every phase of the game.
“I guess we didn’t come ready to play,” said sophomore guard Ty Jerome. “We didn’t shoot well, that definitely doesn’t help. But to only have five total assists as a team is pretty bad. So, I guess we didn’t move the ball well, didn’t shoot well. We probably should have gone into the post more. I don’t have the answers.”
Actually, Jerome pretty well summed up his team’s plight. The Cavaliers didn’t do anything well.
Oh, yeah, and that thing they built their whole program upon, the Pack Line defense, was almost nonexistent, bedazzled by UMBC’s quicksilver, four-guard lineup. The Retrievers shredded UVa’s defense to the point that the Cavaliers resorted to a last-ditch desperation move late in the game, futilely attempting to trap UMBC away from the basket.
Nothing worked. Zero, zip, nada.
Pouring salt into Virginia’s gaping wound was the fact the shocking assassination of the nation’s top-ranked team was executed by a couple of key conspirators deep with Wahoo roots.
UMBC coach Ryan Odom, the son of a former UVa assistant coach, served as a ball boy back in the Sampson days, and acquired his love for the game in the Cavaliers’ old gym, University Hall.
Then there was Jairus Lyles, who machine-gunned the Cavaliers’ defense to ribbons, turning Spectrum Center into his personal shooting gallery with a game-high 28 points. When everything was on the line, Lyles was unstoppable.
And, get this. Lyles happens to be the son of former Virginia football defensive star Lester Lyles from the George Welsh era. His mom, Carol Motley, also is a UVa grad.
The Cavaliers had no answer for Lyles, who led the Retrievers with a 9-for-11 shooting performance, missing only one of nine shots in the second half when UMBC outscored UVa 53-33, and shot 68 percent from the field, 58 percent behind the arc.
Only Louisville had managed to shoot at least 50 percent against the Cavaliers in 33 previous games this season. UMBC shot 54 percent.
“They thoroughly outplayed us and they did a heck of a job,” said Virginia coach Tony Bennett, whose teams continue to struggle in NCAA play. “I told these guys in the locker room, ‘you know a week ago we were cutting down the nets at the ACC Tournament,’ and how good that felt, and they had a historic season. And now we had a historic loss.”
ACC crowns are nice, particularly considering how Bennett has pulled off his best Moses impersonation by leading Virginia’s program out of college basketball’s wilderness. Bennett has done everything right in his nine years of making hoops relevant again in Charlottesville, except for the NCAA Tournament. If he has but one blemish, that is it.
Suffering back-to-back-to-back, lopsided early exits from the NCAAs at the hands of Florida (65-39), and now, to a 16th seed, is downright inexplicable. Parlay those shockers with the collapse vs. Syracuse in Chicago three years ago, and you have a devastating menagerie of setbacks for the long-suffering fan base.
Yes, each agonizing defeat came minus key personnel, last year to the team’s “glue guy,” Isaiah Wilkins, and this year to the unicorn, redshirt freshman De’Andre Hunter, a nightmarish matchup who broke his wrist in Brooklyn a week ago.
Still, this one is going to hurt for a long, long time. Unforgettable. Unforgivable in many a Wahoos mind. Forgive them if they choose not to show up at work come Monday, something about avoiding being the butt of every jokester in the office.
Bennett, who appropriately pointed out that this one is going to sting, recognized in advance what the rest of us didn’t see. UMBC ran exactly the kind of offense that has given his teams, his vaunted Pack Line troubles in the past. The Retrievers boasted quickness with the ball screen, an ability to spread the floor, to play effective defense, and shoot the 3-ball, all of which played a part in Virginia’s demise.
“We’ve had a little trouble with four-guard teams,” Bennett said afterward. “This is not an excuse, but without De’Andre [Hunter], I thought we had enough with what we had, but that allows us to sometimes switch [defensively] with his versatility. We didn’t have that.
“[UMBC] runs its offense so fast, that ball is just pop, pop, pop, and if you’re not really disciplined and really solid, we worked as hard as we could to prepare for it. We lost our way, got out of character. I made a lot of poor adjustments, that’s part of it. I’ll grow from it by a coach.”
As much as Bennett attempted to fall on the sword in taking the blame for this one, his players failed to execute. Virginia didn’t defend, it didn’t get to the free throw line (4-8), gave up an atypical 11 fast-break points, shot poorly (41 percent), and even worse from the 3-point line (4-22).
As guard Kyle Guy commented, once the Cavaliers got down 8 or 10 points, “we were trying to make home run plays because you don’t want to be in this position.”
Once they fell haplessly behind by 17 (the most UVa had trailed this season was 13 before the miraculous comeback at Louisville), it was just a matter of time.
The more Virginia allowed the underdog Retrievers to hang around, the more their confidence grew. They could sense it the final 10 minutes, and never took their foot off the pedal.
“These are the moments you dream of,” said Lyles of the upset. “Once we saw we were a 16 seed, we knew we could make history.”
UMBC has inked itself permanently in college basketball history, so much in fact that the school’s website crashed immediately after the game. Written off by much of America, including its hometown paper, which hired a correspondent to staff the game, the Retrievers proved everyone wrong.
“I think we kind of all wanted to be in the ‘One Shining Moment’ video,” said UMBC forward Joe Sherburne. “We were all in the locker room singing the first line because that’s all we know, but I think we’re going to have to learn the rest of the song.”
Virginia, which had designs on being the focus of that traditional song and video, has likely been recast to a cameo appearance. You know, where they show the heartbreak.
Unfortunately for the Cavaliers, it’s a role they have become all too familiar with.
