“There’s those moments where you sit and you just ponder.”
With those few words amid a media session prior to a Night With The National Champions on Friday night, Virginia basketball coach Tony Bennett captured exactly what many Cavalier fans still experience following a year to remember. There are times when the mind just drifts away to the incredible, improbable, inconceivable story that led to the program’s first National Championship.
From the depths of the UMBC loss to the despair that turned to jubilation three times over in the next year’s NCAA Tournament, UVA authored one of the greatest redemption stories in all of sports. The Cavaliers created memories that exist in reality, but still carry that ethereal quality of an unbelievable dream come true.
So, yes, Virginia is the 2019 National Champion. But even when you sit and you ponder the whole thing, it still doesn’t quite feel real. It might never fully sink in.
“It has and it hasn’t,” Bennett said. “There’s those moments where you sit and you just ponder. Just thinking about preparing some remarks for the celebration, I started thinking about things in a way I hadn’t. Alright, I want to share some things and I came up with a bunch of memories and then all of a sudden, bang, a bunch more memories came back that I didn’t even think about. There’s so many things happen along the way, it almost made me appreciate it even more.”
“It’s tough, right, because I’m constantly trying to improve and get better and grow so I haven’t haven’t had time to sit back and be like ‘Wow, we really won a National Championship,’” Virginia’s Ty Jerome said. “Whenever I watch a video or see a Tweet or someone sends me something, it doesn’t feel real. I don’t think it’ll ever actually feel real. It’s something I dreamed about since I was a little kid and to actually accomplish it with the group of guys we had, I don’t think is ever going to feel real.”
The Cavaliers provided a final chapter for the story Friday night at the John Paul Jones Arena. Just five months removed from standing under the confetti in Minneapolis, the program celebrated the 2019 National Championship and raised a banner to a solo spot above the floor. The white background cloth proudly displayed the Final Four logo and the orange letters National Champions with a blue and orange trim around the perimeter.
The players, coaches, and program staff also received a ring and a watch to commemorate the championship. The event also auctioned off memorabilia for fans and program supporters to do the same. Bennett said before the event that his message to the team was simple: “My message is enjoy this for what it’s worth. It’s special. Maybe it’s once in a lifetime. Maybe if you’re lucky enough, it happens a few more times or another time.”
The ceremony to present the boxed jewelry and raise the title banner completed a night-long celebration that included videos, stories, and shared memories of the championship run. Virginia Athletics Director Carla Williams gave some words of praise for the players and read a letter to them from the Seven Society. University President Jim Ryan presented a special poster to Coach Bennett that included win probability charts for the final three games of the tournament and the word ‘FAITH’ on it. The Hoos had less than a 25% chance to win in the final minute of all three games and a 9% chance or fewer to win in the Elite Eight and Final Four games against Purdue and Auburn, but somehow came out on top each time.
Bennett shared several of his memories with the crowd. He commented on how the Purdue game was one of the highest level games he had ever been a part of and how the Auburn game unfolded. He talked about the historic loss to UMBC, how Jerome and Kyle Guy faced the media questions after that loss, and the effort it took for the team to bounce back from it.
During his speech, Bennett referenced the Ted Talk that framed the challenges that followed the loss. The mantra the team latched on to from that was that if you use adversity right, it can buy you a ticket to somewhere you never could have gone otherwise. He held up an actual ticket from the UMBC game, which he said he kept as a reminder, alongside a ticket from the National Championshp to complete the story.
The Cavalier coach also recounted how he broke down in tears alone in his hotel room after the Auburn game.
“I was sitting on the bed and the floodgates opened. It’s true, they really did,” Bennett said to the crowd. “I just sat there. I realized at that moment all of the ridicule, all the criticism, all the humility, all the things that happened, at that moment it was crystal clear that it was all worth it.”
The redemption story helped Virginia’s National Championship capture the minds of many during their run and in the months after. That goes beyond the immediate fan base. Guy said he gets asked about it almost every week. Bennett said he was recognized on vacation outside of the country.
Whether it was the drama of it all from the Purdue buzzer-beater to overtime in the title game, the way they handled everything after the UMBC loss, a combination of it all, or something else entirely, it’s a story that connects with many outside observers.
“I think it’s really easy to follow a story like that or a headliner from two years ago to last year,” Guy said. “Then on top of that, the group of guys that we had were just really high character guys. Yeah, we had our haters, but at the end of the day a lot of people respected us as people more than players. I think we resonated with a lot of people.”
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Certainly, with no one more than Virginia fans. The Chaminade loss of yesteryear and not winning the NCAA Championship during Ralph Sampson’s career, the drought between ACC Tournament wins, the tough times that preceded Bennett’s arrival, the NCAA Tournament heartbreakers from Michigan State to Syracuse to UMBC had tested Hoos through their years of support. Still, Bennett insisted that if the program kept knocking then joy could come in the morning.
When it did? That changed everything. As Bennett said, it was all worth it. Whether that was through understanding what it meant when Rafael Nadal said that all champions must suffer, as Bennett mentioned during his speech, or simply realizing that dreams can come true, Friday night’s celebration preserved the journey and the title for eternity.
The night that a National Championship banner soared to the rafters at the John Paul Jones Arena may have remained a pinch me moment, but it’s something that will connect Hoos everywhere forever.
“When we came, our class, to Charlottesville, our big thing was that we want to do something special,” Jerome said. “We wanted to be remembered forever, we wanted to go out as quote, unquote legends. To have these encounters and interactions with fans at the parade or tonight or whenever we go to the football game tomorrow, it just reminds you of what we did and how supporting this community is and how much we can connect. It’s awesome.”
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