Virginia basketball made me question why I love sports, then it made me remember

More times than I care to admit, I’ve thought to myself, “why do I do this?”

“This” in this situation, is sports. Just sports in general.

One year and 25 days ago, I was stunned and trying to figure out what had happened. The No. 1 overall seed Virginia Cavaliers had just gotten their asses kicked by the No. 16 seeded UMBC Retrievers in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Stunned doesn’t accurately describe the feeling.

“Do you want to blog through it?” one of my editors asked.

Honestly? My first thought was, “my goodness no I don’t want to write about this. This was one of the worst nights of my life.”

I thought about if for a minute, then agreed. The resulting blog was cathartic as I got to pour my emotions into an empty page. My grandmother had passed away the same week, and I attended her funeral the day before the Cavaliers made history in the way you never want to see happen.

But blogging helped me get through it. All of it.

Now, 390 days later, I’m blogging to help me get through it again. Except this time, I watched one of the most amazing — if not the most amazing — runs of basketball I’ve ever seen. The Virginia Cavaliers streaked through Gardner-Webb, Oklahoma, Oregon, Purdue, Auburn, and Texas Tech over three weeks to win the program’s first ever national championship.

I never dreamt I would have a chance to cover a Final Four, let alone cover my alma mater winning a national title. From the pomp and circumstance of the event to the actual gameplay, the whole experience was mind-blowing.

For the Virginia fans, it’s wasn’t just getting over the Final Four hump or getting that first national championship. The 85-77 win over the super talented Red Raiders in the final was a huge middle finger to all the haters who say the Cavaliers are boring. To those who say they’re “ruining basketball”. To those who think they slow down the pace because they can’t succeed any other way. To those who think Bennett’s style “won’t work” in March like it somehow magically can take down the Dukes and UNCs of the world in February, but not the UMBCs days later. To those who think they don’t have athletes or rely on a gimmicky defense.

It certainly wasn’t easy. All it took was a miracle play against Purdue, three free throws from Kyle Guy to take a lead with 0.6 seconds left against Auburn, and a De’Andre Hunter three-pointer to force overtime against Texas Tech to keep the dream alive.

But, this is exactly why we do this. Why we deal with the UMBC jokes for 390 days. Why we still hold out hope when Carsen Edwards banks in his 10th and final three-pointer of the game with 1:10 left. Why you somehow still have faith down four with seven seconds left against Auburn. Why you wear the same pants and shirt and socks and underwear on gameday because you know deep, deep down that it really does matter.

For all the UMBCs, there’s eventually a Texas Tech, and the lows will never remotely touch the highs. As Bennett said, “If you learn to use it right, the adversity, it will buy you a ticket to a place that you couldn’t have gotten to any other way.”

Virginia fans would have been ecstatic with a title at any point, but the dealing with the extreme low in close proximity of dealing with the extreme high makes you realize just how amazing this feeling really is.

The Virginia Cavaliers are the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball National Champions. It’s incredible.