Virginia isn’t trying to forget the history-making upset. The Cavaliers aren’t obsessing over it, either.
As they near their first game together since becoming the first No. 1 seed to lose to a No. 16 in the NCAA tournament, last year’s ACC regular season and postseason champions are hoping to use that demoralizing setback to UMBC to avoid repeating it.
“Before our first practice, we watched a video on how things that happened to you in the past, if used in the right way, can take you to places you’ve never been before,” junior point guard Ty Jerome said in a phone interview. “We talked about using that loss in the right way, using it as motivation.”
Almost from the moment the shocker concluded, coach Tony Bennett has made sure his players owned it, telling them it’s part of their story. He hasn’t hid from the disappointment and neither have they. Bennett has talked about the need to learn lessons from that game, what can happen when you let up.
He has also made sure his players don’t forget about the special season that preceded the upset — Virginia’s 31-2 record, setting a program record for most wins in a single season and dominating the best conference in the country. Twelve opponents were held to fewer than 50 points and 25 failed to break 43 percent shooting. Their 53.1 points per game allowed in conference play was the third best mark in ACC history.
“Last year was a spectacular year,” Jerome said. “Some people are only going to remember how it [ended]. But we’ll remember the good and bad.”
Kris Johnson knows what the Virginia players are going through. He was on the 1995-96 UCLA defending national championship team that was stunned in the first round by Princeton in a 4-13 upset. His team used that loss as motivation to bounce-back the following year by reaching the Elite Eight.
“We used it as a constant reminder to keep each other grounded,” Johnson recalled. “It got brought up a lot amongst us. Somebody might be feeling himself in a practice or thinking he’s all that, and somebody would say, ‘You weren’t doing that against Princeton,’ or, ‘Your ass got back-doored against Princeton.’ We used Princeton as a jab when a guy started to get too big for his britches.”
Johnson’s advice to Virginia, based on his experience, was simple.
“Flush it,” he said. “Move on.”
The Cavaliers return a team capable of having a big year like UCLA did, led by the last year’s starting backcourt of Jerome and leading scorer Kyle Guy. Skilled wing De’Andre Hunter, the ACC Sixth Man of the Year who missed the UMBC game with a broken wrist, is back and a projected first round pick. Virginia also received some big news recently when Alabama transfer forward Braxton Key was granted immediate eligibility, which will help offset the loss of ACC Defensive Player of the Year Isaiah Wilkins.
“We can definitely be a great offensive team, but we have to go out and prove it,” said Jerome, a New Rochelle native.
On Tuesday, they get to begin to put the UMBC loss behind them. Soon, a new season starts, and last year’s results will begin to fade. Still, it likely is never completely going away. There will never be another first No. 1 seed to lose its NCAA Tournament opener.
“Any time someone says great season last year, I think about it,” Jerome said. “Any time you go on YouTube, there’s a highlight of it. You can’t run from it. It happened to you. You have to embrace it.”
“In a way,” he added, “I’ll never be over it.”
