Give @MattZemek a twitter follow and check out his musings on college sports at https://www.patreon.com/Zemek.
ACC QUESTION of the WEEK : Will Virginia win It All?
When I made my picks at the start of the 2019 NCAA Tournament, I thought Virginia would make the Final Four.
When the Final Four arrived, I thought Virginia — which I originally had against Kentucky in my bracket — would defeat Auburn by a narrow margin.
I believed in this Virginia team. I love Tony Bennett. It is a feel-good story to see this program and these players get rewarded after the bitter experience of losing De’Andre Hunter before the 2018 tournament and then losing to UMBC. It is uplifting to see Bennett reach Monday Night — the last night of every college basketball season — one year after suffering a 16-over-1 loss and absorbing everything that entailed. If Virginia had to go through hell in 2018, being dealt the cruelest hand by the fates, those same fates have paid back the Hoos, who have won two NCAA Tournament games in which they trailed entering the final second of regulation time.
Monday’s game against Texas Tech is simultaneously easy and impossible to predict. It seems like the kind of game which should be 55-54. That’s the easy part. Which one will have 55, though, and which side will have 54?
Virginia will have chances to win. Virginia and Texas Tech should both put on defensive clinics. Neither team figures to separate itself from the other, though if the Matt Mooney-Ty Jerome matchup produces one player who flourishes and another player who stumbles, the game could become lopsided. (I expect both men to play well.)
Ultimately, Hunter has to find his jump shot. It seems to defy belief that Virginia can finish the race if Hunter can’t knock down jumpers to draw the Texas Tech defense out of the paint and spread the floor for UVA’s guards. Maybe Virginia can go against the odds one more time, but Texas Tech beat Michigan State by 10 points without Jarrett Culver — a better player than Hunter — enjoying an efficient offensive performance.
If I felt Hunter would outplay Culver, I could reasonably pick Virginia… but I am not confident there.
I believed Virginia could get this far, and I believe Virginia will come very close to a title, but Texas Tech seems to be the better, more authoritative team right now.
I know the Virginia fans hope I am wrong. If I am, it wouldn’t be the first time… and it certainly won’t be the last.
Make sure you follow the All Sports Discussion Twitter account at @AllSportsDACC and please like our Facebook Page
Leave a Reply