With some of our extra time while social distancing, @Benrekosh and I have created this bracket to determine the best Virginia basketball game of all time. More than anything though, we hope this serves as an opportunity to take a trip down memory lane and look back on the highest highs for the UVA Basketball program. We’ll hold voting on one match up daily, and I’ll provide a brief summary/recap for each game. Everyone can determine their own criteria for what the “best” game is, but for us, the seeding came down to scenario (ex: ACC Championship scenario holds more weight than regular season), opponent, entertainment quality of the game, and then the implications it held moving forward (ex: 2019 Elite Eight win holds more value because of the National Championship that followed, while the 1981 and 1984 Elite Eight wins were followed by losses). Hope this can provide as a bit of a distraction from everything!
Here’s the full bracket:
This is a really great idea and nicely executed. It had to have taken a huge amount of work. A bunch of us weren’t even alive when some of these games were played.
Alright so for Matchup #1 we have the National Championship game between Virginia and Texas Tech from last season, and the 2016 contest between Virginia and UNC in Charlottesville!
I’m certain we all have fairly good memories of the National Championship game, so I’ll just mention that the final score was 85-77, Deandre Hunter led the way for the 'Hoos with 27 points and 9 rebounds, and that he canned both the game tying shot to send the game to overtime with 12 seconds in regulation, and the go ahead three-pointer with roughly two minutes remaining in overtime. Kyle Guy and Ty Jerome both hit double figures as well, scoring 24 and 16 points, respectively, as Jerome also tallied eight assists. This was the program’s first National Championship (of hopefully many), and could not have come in more dramatic fashion.
The 2016 contest between the Cavs and the Tar Heels brought College Gameday to town and saw the two top teams in the ACC that year go at it for the first time. Fortunately, the 'Hoos came out on top, 79-74. Malcolm Brogdon was huge for the Cavs, scoring 26 points and playing 38 minutes. Devon Hall also consolidated his role in the starting lineup, contributing 11 points in his 27 minutes. Defensively, the 'Hoos employed their post trap to hold UNC big man Brice Johnson, who came in averaging 18 PPG, to a mere 12 points on 5-9 shooting. That said, Joel Berry nailed 5 triples to keep the game close, but the Cavs knocked down enough late free throws to seal the deal in a phenomenal home environment.
**To vote: Vote on the poll down below!
Ben and I will tally the votes late tonight, and will declare a winner tomorrow when we post the next matchup!
National Championship. The UVA-UNC game was a great game and Joel Berry kept UNC in the game but we are talking about our 1st (of hopefully many) natty. No contest
I think @Hoosthechamp said it best. That UNC game was great, but the natty will forever be an all time classic with all the memories and implications it holds. I mean we won a freaking national championship… can’t get much better than that!
Couldn’t agree more with what’s already been said! In all fairness, it was exciting to actually win a College Gameday in C’ville in 2016 (was that the only one we’ve won to date?), but I’d take winning a national championship over winning College Gameday any day!
This got me thinking, I wonder if we’ll have a 1-seed upset by a 16-seed in this bracket
