The magic number for Virginia men’s basketball and its fans will forever be 28.5. Had 28.5 seconds late in regulation across three games gone differently, Virginia wouldn’t have been crowned NCAA champions.
The 28.5 seconds that defined Virginia basketball’s 2019 NCAA tournament run
If three late-game scenarios had gone any differently, Virginia’s hopes would have ended in heartbreak for the second year in a row. Instead, the Cavaliers are champions.
Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images
Instead, the Cavaliers’ storybook ending of its dreams came true after losing in historic fashion to 16-seed UMBC a year ago. The Cavaliers secured the program’s first national title with an overtime 85-77 win over the Texas Tech Red Raiders Monday night.
The championship game featured a chaotic and intense finish, just as most other Virginia games did throughout March Madness. On three different occasions, Virginia was a single missed or made bucket away from packing its bags and heading home.
Let’s review Virginia’s miraculous, late-game heroics, and what nearly was a gut-wrenching nine days for ‘Hoos fans.
1. Elite Eight: Mamadi Diakite’s buzzer-beater
Guard Ty Jerome, who had stepped up so many times before for the Cavs during his college career, missed the front end of a one-and-one with 5.9 seconds left in regulation that could have brought the Cavaliers within one point of No. 3-seed Purdue. But in extreme good fortune, the miss ricocheted to the perfect place for center Mamadi Diakite to back-tap the ball and give Virginia a last-chance possession.
Purdue still was up two points with less than three seconds left. The Cavs had no timeouts. One stop would send the nation’s best team home and punch an unexpected ticket to the Final Four for the Boilermakers.
But a laser of a pass from Kihei Clark ended in an improbable Diakite runner, sending the game to overtime for another five minutes of play.
The rest is history.
2. Final Four: Kyle Guy’s free throws
There we were again, with the Cavaliers down by four points with the ball and the clock ticking with under 10 seconds left. Guy sunk a clutch three-point shot from the corner to bring his team within one, then Auburn’s Jared Harper split a pair of free throws to make it a two-point game.
Auburn used its fouls to give, then made the worst possible mistake, hacking Guy in the act of shooting from behind the arc with 0.6 seconds to go. Guy stepped up to the line and drained all three for the win.
(And oh yeah, those free throws likely would not have been possible if referees hadn’t missed a blatant double dribble on Jerome).
3. Championship game: DeAndre Hunter’s three
In familiar form, Virginia had another late-game deficit, trailing by three points to Texas Tech with 22 seconds to go in the title game. This time, a new hero stepped up: Hunter hit an open three that saved the game.
This was Virginia’s year.
The Cavaliers went 35-3 on the season and were the best team in college basketball since October, according to advanced metrics. Even if the Cavs didn’t always roll through their stiff competition in April, it’s fitting that they should be the team cutting down the nets.
But, sheesh, everything could’ve been different had those 28.5 seconds gone any other way.
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