Cavalier Corner

April 2019

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14 CAVALIER CORNER BY BRAD FRANKLIN T HE DAY BEFORE HIS team played for the national championship, Virginia head coach Tony Bennett recalled floating down the New River in West Virginia when the team went whitewater rafting last summer. As he floated in the river that day, he recalled thinking to himself, "Lord, what's this year going to bring, I wonder?" Little could he have known that he and the Wahoos were about to embark on the greatest season in school history. The Cavaliers finished off an incred- ible run April 8 in Minneapolis, besting Texas Tech 85-77 in overtime to win the school's first NCAA Tournament title. "I remember just like it was [yester- day]," Bennett said the day before his first title. "The most beautiful setting, just floating down the river with these guys, and I remember saying that in my mind. "And I relayed that to them before the Purdue game, and — I actually got a little emotional with them — I said, 'Here we are.' This was on the verge of the Elite Eight game. I'm floating on that river. What's this year going to bring? Because it's a significant year. I thought that. I was thinking, 'Wow, here I am.'" Significant indeed. The Hoos won a school-record 35 games, secured their fourth ACC regular- season crown in six years, advanced to the Final Four for only the third time in school history, and then cut down the nets at U.S. Bank Stadium as the confetti gathered on the floor around them. It was the best game that UVA's "Big Three" of third-year guard Kyle Guy, redshirt second-year guard De'Andre Hunter and third-year guard Ty Jerome played in the event. Guy, who was named the Final Four's Most Outstanding Player, scored 24 points in the title game after hitting a late three-pointer and then three free throws to secure UVA's spot in a come-from- behind 63-62 win against Auburn. Hunter, meanwhile, had easily the best game of his postseason, going for a ca- reer-high 27 points — 22 of them in the second half on 8-of-9 shooting — and grabbing nine rebounds. And then there was Jerome, ever the playmaker, who notched 16 points, six boards and eight assists, none bigger than his kick-out to Hunter in the corner for three to tie the game in the waning sec- onds and force overtime. "I think it was a terrific game, to see how these guys played," Bennett said after win- ning the championship. "… Before in the locker room, I said, 'You guys faced pres- sure that no team in the history of the game has faced, well, really all year, but being down 14 against Gardner-Webb — you did not panic in that moment, and you fought and you found a way out. "'That, I think, has prepared you for this moment to be able to handle the pressure or the intensity of a national championship game.' "And these guys stepped up," Bennett said of the aforementioned trio, while sitting next to them at the postgame press confer- ence. "De'Andre — is that your career high, 27? Yeah, what a game to have it. He was terrific. "These three all year have been unbeliev- able. If one was a little off, someone picked up the team." The Cavaliers' tight bond made the postseason success especially sweet. "This is everything you dream of since you're a little kid," Jerome said after the title game win. "… I'm just thinking this is a dream come true, and it's even more than that because you never even imagine you'll be able to spend a year with people you actually love, your teammates and your coaches. "Not a lot of people get along like we do, and to share this moment with them is unbelievable." UNITED PURSUIT UVA Came Together For An Incredible Championship Run

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