I was texting with the boys and a conversation we had got me curious…
Looking back on the 2018-2019 regular season, how did you view it?
For me, I struggled to truly enjoy it. All that mattered to me was March and what we could do in the tournament. I watched every game and attended the entire home slate, but each game just meant we were one day closer to a chance at redemption…
For @BDragon and @DFresh11 it was far more enjoyable. They watched a dominant team and were able to take it in viewing every game as a referendum to prove the 2018 tournament was a 1 time thing.
I don’t think there’s a right or wrong answer here, just curious as to the lens others viewed it with. I will say my viewpoint is more from looking back now and realizing I didn’t value that regular season as much. How did you feel or now looking back how do you feel?
I loved all of it even though we all knew the test was in March. Will admit to stressing out when Kyle went into his slump that he refused to call a slump. He broke out of it just in time.
Kinda both. I knew we had a team capable of special things. The noncon was actually pretty lame for a team of that caliber, although Marshall remains one of the more memorable ones for me.
Then we had a lot of fun battles in the ACC, because the conference was loaded back then: Duke, VPI, UNC, etc
But there was also a feeling that it was all prelude leading up to the tourney, for sure.
There was always the looming thought of anxiety that we’d shit the bed again in the tournament, but I thoroughly enjoyed Guy, Jerome, and Hunter burying teams from the perimeter during the regular season. That was the most fun offense we ever had under Bennett.
Murder-balling Wisconsin in the B4A, beating Maryland in College Park, the Marshall game, blowing out FSU and VT when they were both top ten in the country, beating UNC in the Dean Dome, making the Pitt student section wait like eight minutes to throw their confetti because they couldn’t make a shot, and Ty breaking the Cuse zone. All great memories.
As @JBHoo mentioned the season was a giant revenge tour. Every game mattered because I wanted the Hoos to prove they were the best team in the Nation every time they stepped on the court. Yes, I was scared as hell about March, but one thing I learned from 2018 was it all matters and get as many receipts as you can along the way. Watching that team gel and dominate was never boring for me.
I also felt the team needed those wins to help rid themselves of the demons of 2018. I wanted to as confident as possible heading into the tournament and that meant they needed to see W’s.
The UNC game was where I got really hype. Just weathered the blows and daggered them in the Dean Dome. That was when I was like “we are built different this year.”
Likewise…it was a struggle because March was the only thing that mattered. And when we got down by 14 against Garner-Webb, I actually said to myself I might have to step away for awhile as fan, if it ended up being a UMBC repeat. Fortunately it didn’t, and the rest is history, but I didn’t breathe comfortably until after Purdue.
But then Auburn & Texas Tech took time off my life as well. But worth it.
Interesting to try to think back on the feelings of the 2018-2019 season. As with any retrospective, your thoughts and memories are clouded by the fact that you know the outcome, but I do know that I enjoyed the hell out of the regular season. I know this for two reasons: 1) I viewed that season as the revenge tour Tony Bennett will never admit that it was and 2) I had been burned by enough playoff failures (mainly by the Nationals and Capitals) to rationalize the thought that a team could be very good and possibly great despite playoff failures.
So, yes, I enjoyed the regular season journey. My favorite game was the Syracuse win where the Hoos hit 18 threes.
Yes, come March, I had jitters like everyone else. But I was secure knowing that Virginia team was a very good team. But maybe I only have that clarity because I know we won it all. I don’t know. There’s a banner in JPJ that means I don’t have to think about it too much.
I remember talking to a friend a few hours before the Auburn game and telling him " I don’t care what happens, we reached the mountain anything else is just gravy." He looked at me and replied “You know damn well that’s not true.”
By the time KG went to the line, I would have died if he missed one of those FTs. And if Dre didn’t hit that shot against TT, it would have been just as painful as UMBC to have been that close and not sealed the deal.
I think I had a lot of the same reactions as many of y’all. After the UMBC game I had thought we’re just cursed. I’d been a U.Va. hoops fan since the Lamp-Raker-Ralph days, and enjoyed enough incredible wins over the years to think we were up there with other ACC programs with proud histories like State, Wake, Maryland, but a step down from Duke and Carolina.
My expectations for the 2018-19 were that we’d win a lot of games and hopefully make a respectable run in the tournament, but I wasn’t expecting a Natty. So when we started winning, and made it to the Sweet 16, emotionally it was house money for me. And by the Final Four it seemed like destiny.
I walked out of the arena in Charlotte with 8 minutes left in the UMBC game, tore up Sunday’s tickets and flew home on the first flight out. I knew we’d get back and loved every game the next year. Sitting under the home basket during the first half of Gardner-Webb, I knew we were going far when Clark hit the 3 to end the first half. Purdue may have been the best non-final of any tourney game ever. I still dream of an Edwards 3 beating us, then the missed free throw after hitting from all over the court. The rest is history
For me Zion + RJ and the rest of that Duke team being so prominent in pop culture that year kept the previous tournament far from my mind during the regular season. Didn’t really think about it until the ACCT. Just wanted our guys to prove they were better than the circus in Durham
Low key wanted to meet Duke in the finals. They had all the weapons that were our achilles heels that season, but also felt like 3P variance was on their side in the first two match ups, and that we’d adjusted enough to take them down. Would have been so sweet to do that in the natty (but no regrets, obviously).
We had about the most incredible run you could think of to win it all.
With the “choke” vibes from 2018 adding additional pressure throughout the tournament, we overcame every obstacle put in our way. We rose to the occasion for unlikely wins 3 times when what was needed was for us to step up under pressure and for the opposition to fail in similar situations. It was truly amazing. It would have been amazing even if 2018 hadn’t happened.
There was definitely a touch of “come on let’s get to the real show and just stay healthy” from me, which I regret some now because we were so dominant and that regular season was fun
