SportsPulse: In a history making stunner, No. 16 seed Maryland Baltimore County upsets No. 1 seed UVA in the first round of the NCAA tournament. USA TODAY Sports
Maryland-Baltimore County played inspired basketball for 40 minutes and the No. 16 seeded Retrievers didn't take their foot off the gas pedal in upsetting No. 1 Virginia on Friday in the first-round of the NCAA tournament.
But the greatest upset of all-time didn't happen off a buzzer-beater in some David-over-Goliath thriller. It was a 20-point blowout over the top overall seed in the NCAA tournament. As great as UMBC played behind hot 50% three-point shooting and Jairus Lyles' 28 points, Virginia also played a role in this historic outcome — by playing unbelievable throughout the entire 2017-18 season...and then playing absolutely horrible on college basketball's biggest stage.
Simply put: This is the most stunning collapse of a dominant team in college basketball history. And how it happened is even more perplexing. Because Virginia was frankly very un-Virginia like all game. The Cavaliers took stupid, contested shots, didn't share the ball and were unbelievaly stale on offense. That's one part. But this isn't a team that prides itself on its offense. On defense was the most head-scratching. UVa got beat in transition. That never happens. The Cavs let guys drive the lane and get to the basket at a higher rate than any game this season. Everything they did, especially their hedging on ball screens, was slow.
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How on earth did the nation's best defense (allowing opponents' 53.4 points a game) let the a team that ranks 212th in offensive efficiency score 74 points? Whether ACC Sixth Man of the Year De'Andre Hunter's absence was felt or not, there's no excuse for this upset of epic proportions. None.
To put into perspective how staggering this upset was, it has to be understood how good Virginia was and how the Cavaliers' vulnerabilities came out in imperfect fashion. Coach Tony Bennett, the national coach of the year, is all about tempo. The best teams in the country — Duke, North Carolina, the whole ACC — all fall victim to some degree to UVa's tempo-controlling offense and nation-leading defense. But UMBC did what other teams couldn't do all season, including West Virginia and Virginia Tech (the two other teams to beat the Cavaliers in the regular season). The Retrievers dictated the tempo from the get-go.
Virginia has never been some overpowering, super-athletic team that can punish mid-majors for their lack talent. This is a program that has prided itself on beating the country's best team without McDonald's All-Americans and with chip-on-their-shoulder guys who fit perfectly into Bennett's disciplined system.
So in essence coach Ryan Odom's game plan was perfect: Let his guards penetrate and fire at will, then play inspired defense in the process.
"They got in foul trouble," Odom said after the game. "And that broke their momentum a little bit."
We can look at Xs and Os of the game all we want. Virginia lost a lot of battles it usually wins (getting out-rebounded, shooting 18% from three and only tallying five assists). But the fact of the matter is UMBC came out swinging with knockout blows from the get-go, meaning they controlled the tempo UVa is so good at seizing. And they also handle Virginia's counter-punches incredibly well.
The difference-making catalyst was undoubtedly Lyles, who made would make a tear-dropping lay-up or key bucket whenever Virginia would start to build momentum or chip away at the Retrievers' lead.
Virginia was expected to be in the Final Four and a top pick to play in the national title game. Brackets were busted everywhere. UMBC should be considered the greatest Cinderella of all-time. Nothing that the Cavaliers did or didn't do takes away from that. But this should also be considered one of the biggest flops in the history of sports.
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