MINNEAPOLIS — The Virginia Cavaliers FINALLY got a chance to not only look over into the promised land but they were able to walk into it on Monday night. After becoming the first No.1 seed in the history of the NCAA Tournament to lose to a No.16 seed a year. They bounced back to win it all 85-77 over the Texas Tech Red Raiders in overtime.
Now let’s not lie to folks. It was the worse basketball game known to man in the first half. After 4 minutes of play it was a total of 4 points and I was literally about to check out. Duns couldn’t buy a bucket and boy tried to disguise it as defense. It wasn’t defense in the first half playa it was a lack of being able to shoot. By the time we got to the break it 32-29 Virginia and I needed an IV to stay alive to watch the rest of this foolishness.
Luckily for the viewing audience Texas Tech shook things up in the second half outscoring Virginia 39-36 to give us a real basketball game to push it to overtime. That woke things up as De’Andre Hunter led the Cavaliers with a career high 27-points after going the first 18 and a half minutes without a bucket. I guess ole boy was looking for a reason to get loose but he sure scared the Virginia faithful by not giving up the goods until late.
Down the stretch of regulation the Cavaliers saw a 10-point lead turn into a 3-point deficit. Then Hunter pulled the rabbit out of his hat to knock down the game-tying 3 with 12 seconds left in regulation. Then ole boy came up big with another one with just over two minutes left in overtime to put them up for good.
What started off as the worse national title game known to man turned out to be a great game and we actually saw some real basketball being played with some real heart.
Give Texas Tech credit for showing up and playing their hearts out. They had 5 players finish in double figures led by Brandone Francis with 17 points off of the bench. However, it wasn’t enough to get past Virginia who only had two players finish in double figures. Obviously, Hunter put up his career high of 27 points but the homie Kyle Guy dropped off a smooth 24 points on their way to their program’s first national championship. Congrats on a great season.