The Virginia basketball team has obviously had some recent success in March Madness as they won the national title in 2019. However, since 2018, that 2019 season is the only year that the Cavaliers have advanced past their first game of the tournament. In 2018, Virginia lost to #16 seed UMBC in the first round. They have also suffered first round exits against 13 seeds Furman and Ohio, and on Tuesday night, they lost by 25 points in the First Four against Colorado State basketball. The final score was 67-42.
Virginia basketball and head coach Tony Bennett are clearly doing something right as they consistently make the tournament, but things also consistently go wrong in the tournament. Bennett knows that his Cavaliers have to be better in March Madness, and it starts with him.
“We've raised the bar really high here,.” Tony Bennett said after the loss to Colorado State, according to an article from ESPN. “We've qualified for this tournament, which is not an easy thing. We've done well. But it's stung to get to this point and not advance. Of course, we have to keep adding quality players. We've got to look at things, certainly, from a system standpoint.”
The Cavaliers have a unique style of play on offense, and it often times doesn't lead to a lot of points. Virginia also has one of the best defenses in college basketball, and that makes up for their low scoring totals sometimes. That wasn't the case on Tuesday night against the Rams.
“They did a good job pressuring the ball, being in the passing lanes and in the gap,” Virginia guard Reece Beekman said. ‘I think we ran some good offense today, as well. The shots weren't falling.”
Colorado State basketball came into this game knowing how slowly Virginia operates on offense. They had a good game plan, and they executed all night long.
“They're one of the slowest, if not the slowest-playing team, offensively, in the country,” Colorado State head coach Niko Medved said. “But if you look at us, we're one of the top two in the country in defensive tempo, meaning we force teams to play late in the shot clock. …Hard to imagine tonight going any better for us.”
“We didn't let them take us out of our game plan,” Colorado State guard Nique Clifford added. “We stuck to what we do and just were confident in it.”
Colorado State knew that they were good enough to win this game, but they also knew that Virginia basketball is a good team. They weren't expecting to go in and win by 25 points.
“We felt like we had an opportunity to win here tonight, but that's a Hall of Fame coach over there,” Medved said of Bennett. “That's an incredible program, one that I have an unbelievable amount of respect for. So I didn't see this coming tonight at all.”
Virginia is now done after the loss and Colorado State is still dancing. The Rams have officially made it onto the bracket now as they take on seven seed Texas on Thursday. The Longhorns are narrow favorites, but it should be a very good game.
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