Last night, the UVA men’s
basketball team beat Virginia Tech to clinch a tie for the ACC regular
season title. If they beat Wake Forest (on the road) this Saturday,
they will claim the title outright.
Does anyone else think
that this is TOTALLY INSANE? I mean, even at the halfway point through
the season we’d already exceeded our expectations. I knew it was
already going to be a good year. But to have a chance at the regular
season title? Where in the world did this come from???
In my
opinion, last night’s game was probably the biggest game UVA has had in
this decade. Forget about the “Commonwealth Cup” or the fact that we
abhor the Hokies and they beat us by nearly 30 points a few games back.
When was the last time we had a legitimate, realistic shot at winning
the ACC regular season championship? At 10-4, we were in a three-way
tie at #1 with UNC (a favorite to win the national championship) and
Virginia Tech. We were playing Tech. UNC was playing Georgia Tech. You
can picture the scenarios, and they all come down to us MUST winning
the game. Well, not must. We were already winners for our outstanding
season. But… we are greedy.
Thank goodness we were playing at
home. We just played a great game, and Virginia Tech was a little off
theirs. For once, we didn’t completely screw up in the 2nd half, we
overcame some adversity not having seen much of before (our star Sean
Singletary in foul trouble), and some big plays at the end (and some
lousy ones by Tech) sealed it up. We had some key contributions outside
of the Big Two (JR and Sean) – great signs for next year. And we just
didn’t let them get close enough to believe that they had a chance.
When
I got home from watching the game (at a bar called Wahoos, mind you), I
immediately started tracking the UNC game. By the time I pulled up the
box score, UNC was already down 7 points. Of course, it was only the
first half and I was expecting that UNC would come back. But they
didn’t. Georgia Tech pulled off a huge upset. And there it was. At
11-4, we were all alone at the top.
Beat Wake Forest, the last
regular season game, and we get to stay all alone at the top. It won’t
be easy – on the road, only 42 hours after the VT game – but it sure
will be sweet.
I will say it again and again. This season has
been awesome. We’ve done things that we hadn’t been able to before: win
on the road, win close games, come from behind to win… win in general?
Holy crap, we have 11 wins in the ACC! We’re #1! (These facts hit me
with surprise about every 30 minutes and I go into shock). No matter
what happens against Wake, we’re winners!
But every game is a must-win, right?... so… BEAT THE DEACS! GO HOOS!
