CHICAGO — There were no No. 1 seeds or ACC championships when Malcolm Brogdon and Anthony Gill enrolled at Virginia, just a belief that the core and culture being built by Tony Bennett would lead the program to something better than it had experienced before.
What’s happened since then is almost hard to fathom: In a league with North Carolina, Duke, Louisville and Syracuse, nobody has been more successful over the last three regular seasons than the Cavaliers.
But as Brogdon, Gill and two other Virginia seniors reach the unforgiving moment of NCAA tournament play where their college careers could be 40 minutes from ending, it’s undeniable that Virginia’s national image will be directly tied to winning two more games this weekend at the Midwest Regional beginning Friday against No. 4 seed Iowa State.
If Virginia can reach its first Final Four in 32 years, the transformation into a legitimate power will be complete. If the Cavaliers exit a third consecutive NCAA tournament before the seeding suggests they should, the label of March underachiever will be hard to shake.
“I told our guys, I think nothing can take away the success they’ve had for the amount of time this group of seniors (has been around), what they’ve established with conference championships and the regular season and in the ACC tournament,” Bennett said. “(But) what a finishing piece (it would be) for this group to advance.”
Over the last three seasons, Virginia is 88-18 with two regular-season ACC titles, a conference tournament championship and a streak of 45 consecutive weeks ranked in the top 13. By any measure, it’s a crazy level of accomplishment for a program that reached just two NCAA tournaments between 1998 and 2011.
But it will be hard to celebrate that run without the validation of a deeper run than the Sweet 16, where the Cavaliers stalled in 2014 as a No. 1 seed with a loss to Michigan State.
“We thought we could have gone farther that year,” reserve forward Evan Nolte said. “It makes us hungry, but every team that has been to the tournament has that unless they win it all.”
While it’s true that 67 disappointed teams exit the NCAA tournament every year, the more barometers a program can reach over this three-week span always get far more attention and celebration than anything that was accomplished in the four months prior.
It’s not entirely fair given the often random nature of a one-and-done tournament, but it’s reality. And for a program like Virginia, where the regular-season dominance is at risk of being diminished without a big tournament breakthrough, it could be downright cruel.
“I think a lot of us, especially the seniors, are aware of this being our last go-round so we want to do it right,” senior center Mike Tobey said. “For that team two years ago, it was our first time being there. Having some of that experience is a big thing, being on that stage before.”
It’s almost counterintuitive that a three-year run like Virginia’s and the legacy of a core that has experienced so much success comes down to one weekend, but it represents the classic conundrum of college basketball. What matters more: Proving your worth over a 31-game season or one bad night in a tournament?
Last year the Cavaliers had another opportunity to advance as a No. 2 seed. Again, they got tripped up by Michigan State, which undeniably had a worse regular season and earned only a No. 7 seed. But by the end, the Spartans were in the Final Four and Virginia didn’t even reach the second weekend, making it harder to appreciate they’d done up until that point.
“It’s been in the back of our minds since we lost last year because we thought we were better than that,” Nolte said. “But what’s great is, you try to turn the page and learn from it.”
Iowa State, the Cavaliers’ opponent Friday, knows the feeling. The Cyclones were a No. 3 seed last year coming off a Big 12 tournament title and seemingly playing well enough to make a Final Four. As it turned out, they were the first team eliminated from the NCAA tournament after a shocking 60-59 loss to UAB, an image of which Iowa State star Georges Niang keeps as the background on his cell phone.
“The picture is of me with my hands over my head and just a depressed look on my face,” Niang said. “If I woke up a little bit tired, maybe I’m going to hit the snooze button, but when I see that screen saver it makes me realize I’ve got to get up and go get after it. I think it’s just a little extra motivation for me to get up and go chase after this dream.”
Similar forces are driving the Cavaliers, especially knowing that it’s the last go-around for the group that took Virginia from nothing to national prominence.
“You have to use that,” Bennett said. “It’s a great teacher. Last year getting outplayed against a tough team, that makes you hungry to try to advance. Two years ago, we played a heck of a game in the Sweet 16 and Michigan State got the better of us. It doesn’t take away from what’s been built, what’s been established all those games before, but it’s an opportunity to be at this spot and take the next step.”
It sounds so simple for Virginia: One step forward and a lifetime of labels change. But even for No. 1 seeds, the pressure of the NCAA tournament makes everything seem that much harder.
“I’ll think there are more things that me and my team could have accomplished (if Virginia loses Friday),” Brogdon said. “But honesty, if that’s the case, then it wasn’t meant to be, then God had a different plan for me and my teammates. That’s really how I see it.”
SWEET 16 TEAMS IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT
