Only bad part, this pod should have been in Pgh. Charlottesville is 45 minutes closer to Charlotte than Pittsburgh but Duke is much closer to Charlotte than Pgh. Also, most of UVa's fanbase comes from DMV which is 2 hours closer to Pgh than Charlotte.
UVA/UMBC
- Thread starter JD1976
- Start date
Missed that but he did block 1 for sure. Scramble then ball out of bounds. Princeton got ball with 1 sec. Cant tell from grainy video if second was blocked or not but got nowhere near the rim.
If I remember correctly, we were only up 1 or 2 when Gibbs hit a 3 with under 4 left against ETSU. On Selection Sunday, I posted that ETSU wasn't a 16. I had them as a 13 or 14 and I'm never off by that much. Not that I thought we'd lose but I wanted a true 16 seed which I didn't think ETSU was.
I checked UMBC's schedule/results for the year. They lost to Maryland 66-45 and Arizona 103-78. Barely beat Chicago State 84-73, who, if memory serves was one of two teams, along with Pitt, to not win a conference game. Until, of course, they did late in year. On, and they beat Delaware State by 20+. LOL.
Kind of think this was a perfect storm for UVA. Lost one of their best players days before tourney. Foul trouble. And most good P5 schools would be bad matchups for UMBC. Anyone with a good big who could play with back to basketball would have caused trouble. Anyone with quick guards. A team like VaTech, with Blackshear in the post, and their two quick guards would have been trouble. Shoot, BC's guards probably would have gotten it done. But UVA doesn't play with a good big inside, so they couldn't take advantage of the size mismatch.
The other thing that was interesting, in retrospect, is that the pack line actually became a liability as the game went on. UMBC's guards were beating the pack line traps around the edge consistently, turning the game into 5-on-3 in the half court. UVA clearly couldn't contain them. Most teams in that situation would have changed their defensive scheme, gone into a zone and forced UMBC to shoot outside. But I don't think changing defensive scheme is in Bennett's vocabularly.
Might not have mattered. This felt like the night Nova beat G'town in national title game. A once-in-a-lifetime night for these kids. Could do no wrong. Even hitting rainbow floaters from 17 feet after a foul call.
One thing's for damn sure: Never been more parity in college b-ball.
Kind of think this was a perfect storm for UVA. Lost one of their best players days before tourney. Foul trouble. And most good P5 schools would be bad matchups for UMBC. Anyone with a good big who could play with back to basketball would have caused trouble. Anyone with quick guards. A team like VaTech, with Blackshear in the post, and their two quick guards would have been trouble. Shoot, BC's guards probably would have gotten it done. But UVA doesn't play with a good big inside, so they couldn't take advantage of the size mismatch.
The other thing that was interesting, in retrospect, is that the pack line actually became a liability as the game went on. UMBC's guards were beating the pack line traps around the edge consistently, turning the game into 5-on-3 in the half court. UVA clearly couldn't contain them. Most teams in that situation would have changed their defensive scheme, gone into a zone and forced UMBC to shoot outside. But I don't think changing defensive scheme is in Bennett's vocabularly.
Might not have mattered. This felt like the night Nova beat G'town in national title game. A once-in-a-lifetime night for these kids. Could do no wrong. Even hitting rainbow floaters from 17 feet after a foul call.
One thing's for damn sure: Never been more parity in college b-ball.
It's always been said that a 1-16 would finally happen when a 16 seed got inappropriately seeded. UMBC finished 24-10. That's perhaps the best record I can ever remember for a 16 seed.
He sat on the bench for Bobby Mo for a semester a few years ago but transferred out cuz he was homesick.
Well I’m sick that he left!
But, still glad UMBC won of course!
#Dawgs
Watching press conference with UMBC head coach. One of the reporters asked how they were able to score against UVA's defense and be so efficient. Reporter said UMBC was 19-of-28 from floor for 68%. Against UVA. SMH.
It was.
I googled “biggest pointspread upset NCAA tournament “
I remember the game, only seemed special because Norfolk St plays in probably the worst conference in the country.
Our own RMUhoopsfan (close enuf) posted in another thread this kid just got homesick.
Just watched Tony Bennett's interview on CBS. Guy is pure class.
One of the hidden benefits of threads like this is that it brings out guys who will use any excuse to rip on Pitt. A 1 loses to a 16 by massive numbers and sure enough, a couple of self fladgellists bring Pitt into the mud.
Makes ignoring so easy.
Fantastic win for college basketball.
Makes ignoring so easy.
Fantastic win for college basketball.
So you think a 1 seed should player further away so a 2 seed should play closer? How does that make sense?
The pod system goes down the line in order of preference on the s curve.
Virginia gets their choice. They took the closest location. It is simple as that.
Why would they have chosen to play further away to let Duke play in Charlotte???
What if I told you that isn't even the best record by a 16 seed THIS year...
Penn University was 24-8 heading into the NCAA Tournament.
Haha exactly. People used to say Boheim was the coach who couldn't win the big game or wasted talent. Then he gets Carmelo, wins it all, and suddenly he is a genius. In reality, he was the same coach before and after that game. Ditto on Calipari, history quickly rewritten once he has Anthony Davis.
Cowher was the guy who could never win it all with his system, until he did.
People would talk about Guy Lewis when Houston went to five final fours and didn't win it all. How many final fours has Houston been to in the 30 years since? 0. How many sweet 16s? 0.
You have to get in the mix first. Bennett will have UVA in the mix. From there, anything can and will happen.
So you prefer losing over trying to win and falling short. Do you adhere to being a loser in your own life? I mean, heaven forbid you ever try to better yourself, you may fail.
Is that your way of not addressing the valid point that I made? Pittsburgh has made the playoffs 4 years in a row, and most people want the coach fired. Using your logic the Steelers have had four straight successful seasons so why do people want to fire the coach?
Most people want him fired? Did you do a poll? I wouldn't fire him. As we learned with Dixon, if a coach is getting close but failing, there is much more downside than upside in changing coaches. But I guess, some people never learn, do you? Oh, I remember, for you abject failure is better, because then you can hide in relative anonymity.
This is correct. It’s kinda funny because not only were Mizzou fans feeling down after losing to FSU, but this game had people bringing up the Norfolk State game again, which made it worse.
Marshall is now the only team left that I was originally rooting for. Life comes at you fast.
Most people certainly do not want the coach fired. However I will grant you that there is a very vocal minority of fans who are complete imbeciles who do want the coach fired. But just because stupid people can be loud that doesn't mean that they are in the majority.
If you say so. BTW I wasn't merely referring to fans you can hear the "fire Tomlin" comments from many in the media.
Point is teams can become victims of their own consistent success, if they are consistently unable to get over the hump. Although that could just be a result of today's media environment. Lebron James for example is probably a Top 5 player all time, yet if you listen to talk radio you wouldn't think that. He is actually routinely attacked for not winning more Finals, the fact that he has lost 5 (or 6, can't remember) NBA finals is held against him, rather than the fact that he has led those 5 or 6 teams to the Finals.
Lebron would would have done better to have become an accountant, and avoid the indignity of being criticized. Because being good at something and failing sometimes is MUCH worse than not trying at all.
Oh, well if some of the intelligentsia in the Pittsburgh media think it it must be so.
Anyone, media member, fan, random person in the street, who thinks that the Stillers should fire Tomlin is either a moron or someone who is pissed off because the Stillers have a black head coach.
Or both.
