Next Stop for 'Hoos: Minneapolis!
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By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – For the University of Virginia basketball fans who soaked in every second of the postgame celebration at the KFC Yum! Center late Saturday night, the enduring image figures to be the sight of Tony Bennett atop a ladder, exulting as he waved the net that signified a milestone for his program.
But so many moments led to the jubilant scene that followed top-seeded UVA’s 80-75 overtime win over third-seeded Purdue in the South Region final.
Where to begin? With Kyle Guy’s second-half tour de force? Ty Jerome’s all-around brilliance? Kihei Clark’s poise under pressure as the final seconds ticked away in regulation? Jack Salt’s relentless rebounding? Mamadi Diakite’s season-saving shot? The De’Andre Hunter basket that put UVA ahead for good in overtime?
All of those merit mention, but let’s go back even further: to March 30, 2009, a day that changed the fortunes of a once-elite program that had sunk into mediocrity.
On that day, Bennett agreed to leave Washington State, where he’d succeeded his father, Dick, as head coach, and come to UVA. Ten years later – to the day — Bennett guided Virginia to its first Final Four appearance since 1984.
“It’s a pretty good 10-year anniversary gift, for sure,” Bennett said.
Craig Littlepage, the athletic director who hired Bennett in 2009, made his way onto the court for the postgame festivities Saturday. Others in the throng included Littlepage’s successor, Carla Williams, and UVA’s new president, Jim Ryan.
Players, coaches and staffers exchanged hugs and, in some cases, shed tears of joy.
“This means the world,” said associate head coach Jason Williford, a former UVA player who, like strength and conditioning coach Mike Curtis, joined Bennett’s staff in 2009.
“It’s been an amazing journey,” said Curtis, another former Virginia player.
In 10 seasons under Bennett, UVA has become an ACC power and a fixture in the NCAA tournament. But his teams had often underachieved on the college game’s biggest stage, most memorably in 2018, when Virginia became the first No. 1 seed ever to lose to a No. 16 seed, falling to UMBC in Charlotte, N.C.
UVA has now exorcised that demon. The Wahoos (33-3) are headed to Minneapolis, where they’ll meet Auburn or Kentucky in the NCAA semifinals next Saturday. This will be the third Final Four in program history for Virginia, which advanced twice under head coach Terry Holland (1981 and ’84).
“I’m so happy for my teammates and my coaches and for myself to be able to break through in the way that we did this year,” Guy said. “Not only did we silence [Bennett’s] critics, we silenced our own, and we’re so grateful for our fans that traveled and have always believed in us.”
Jerome said: “To be the team that gets him to the Final Four, I think that’s what means the most. But he’s believed in every single one of us. He has our best interest at heart, on and off the court. And he’s a great person.”
Bennett was a volunteer manager on his father’s Wisconsin team that in 2000 defeated Purdue in the Elite Eight to advance to the Final Four. Bennett’s parents, his wife, his children, his sisters and other relatives were at the game Saturday to provide emotional and vocal support.
“I’m so thankful,” Bennett said after praising his staff. “I don’t deserve the credit. I don’t care about the critics. I don’t even pay attention to that. I really don’t. I just know it was really hard to lose in the first round [to UMBC]. It stung. It was a painful gift. It was so humbling, but it drew me and drew our team closer in a way we couldn’t have [done otherwise].”
Hunter said: “It’s amazing. We knew what we were capable of at the start of this year. We put the past behind us, we put that game behind us, and we just focused on this year.”
If not for an improbable sequence in the final seconds of regulation, Virginia’s season would have ended in the Elite Eight. But the KFC Yum! Center, of course, is where the Cavaliers scored five points in the final nine-tenths of a second to stun ACC rival Louisville last season, the final three coming on a Hunter buzzer-beater. More magic unfolded there Saturday night.
“We’ve had amazing games here,” Bennett said.
After Purdue went up 69-67 on guard Carsen Edwards’ 10th 3-pointer of the game – no, that’s not a misprint – UVA turned the ball over at the other end.
Edwards then missed a 3-point attempt, but Grady Eifert grabbed the offensive rebound for the Boilermakers (26-10) to extend the possession. Virginia was forced to foul, sending Purdue guard Ryan Cline to the line for a one-and-one with 16.9 seconds to play.
Cline hit his first free throw to make it 70-67, but he missed the second and UVA rebounded. The Boilermakers did not want to give up a game-tying 3-pointer, so with 5.9 seconds remaining they fouled Jerome. He made the front end of his one-and-one, but his second shot hit the front of the rim and bounced off.
“I didn’t really miss it on purpose,” Jerome said later. “I short-armed it.”
Had the Boilermakers collected the rebound, they almost certainly would have also secured their first trip to the Final Four since 1980. But the 6-9 Diakite batted the ball into the backcourt – one of 17 offensive rebounds for UVA in this game – and Clark tracked it down it near the near 3-point line.
Three seconds remained. On the Virginia bench, Hunter feared the worst. “I was like, ‘The game’s over,’ ” he told reporters later.
Ah, but it wasn’t, thanks to Clark, a fearless freshman who made what Jerome called “the play of the century.”
Clark caught up to the ball, turned around, took two quick dribbles and fired a one-handed pass to Diakite, whose 12-foot jumper barely beat the buzzer to send the game into overtime.
“It was unbelievable,” Diakite said. “I don’t know how to talk about it.”
In overtime, Virginia trailed 72-70 and then 73-72. Two free throws by Hunter at the 1:42 mark put the Cavaliers up 74-73, but Edwards answered with his 41st and 42nd points with 42 seconds left.
This Elite Eight game did not produce a vintage outing from Hunter, but the second-team All-American delivered in OT. His layup with 26.8 seconds remaining gave Virginia a 76-75 lead. Edwards missed another 3-point attempt, and the 6-2 Guy came down with the last of his career-high 10 rebounds.
Purdue fouled Guy, who calmly sank two free throws to make it 78-75 with 5.7 seconds to play. The Boilermakers turned the ball over on their next possession, and Clark sealed the victory with two free throws with 1.3 seconds left.
“Amazing feeling,” said Clark, who finished with five assists, three rebounds, two points, one steals and no turnovers. “I’m at a loss for words right now.”
The team’s veterans had more to say after what was, for all intents and purposes, a road game for the ‘Hoos. The large majority of the fans in the crowd of 21,623 came to cheer for the Boilermakers, but that didn’t faze Virginia.
“Calm is contagious,” Guy likes to say, and the Cavaliers never panicked Saturday night, even after Purdue hit seven 3-pointers (in 10 attempts) in the first 12 minutes.
At halftime, Guy was 0 for 3 from beyond the arc, which made him 3 for 29 from long range in the NCAA tournament. But Purdue’s lead was only one, 30-29, and the Cavaliers were confident Guy would eventually regain his shooting touch.
It happened in a flash. In the second half, the 6-2 Guy, who grew up in Indianapolis and was a Purdue recruiting target, hit his first four shots from beyond the arc. He finished with a team-high 25 points and, with his 10 rebounds, posted his first double-double as a Cavalier.
Guy singled out his teammates for “looking for me even though I struggled in the past few games. All the credit goes to them.”
Four players scored in double figures for UVA: Guy, Jerome (24), Diakite (14) and Hunter (10). Diakite tied his career high with four blocked shots and also had seven rebounds. Jerome had a game-high seven assists to go with five rebounds Salt, in 34 minutes off the bench, pulled down eight rebounds, five at the offensive end.
For Purdue, the only player to score more than seven points was Edwards, a 6-1 junior whose shot-making ability was mesmerizing. He made 14 of 25 shots from the floor, including 10 of 19 from beyond the arc. His 10 treys are the most ever by a player against UVA.
At times the Cavaliers went big against Edwards, putting the 6-7 Hunter on him, and at times they went small, with the 5-9 Clark. No matter.
“Those guys are amazing defenders, and he was making everything,” Salt said. “It was a credit to him. Just an amazing performance by him.”
Jerome said: “That was the best performance I’ve ever seen. That was the best performance I’ve ever played against. Kihei and Dre are both great on-ball defenders, and he just hit everything. Going to the basket, step-back 3s. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. I told him after the game that he’s a hell of a player.”
It was, Guy said, a “performance for the ages — by him and by both teams.”
SOUND BITES: The victory improved UVA’s all-time record at the KFC Yum! Center to 6-1. Among the postgame comments:
* Guy: “Most of the credit goes to the guys who aren’t here anymore, and to Jack’s class. They did all the work and built the foundation, and we were lucky enough to walk into a great program with the best coach in the country.”
* Guy on the ankle injury that left him writhing in pain late in the first half: “I stepped on someone’s foot, and I heard it pop. That’s kind of mostly why I was rolling around like I was, because I was really scared. But I thought what was best for me was to get up and let everybody know I was fine and let Ethan [Saliba], our trainer, assess it.”
* Clark on the final play of regulation: “I knew we didn’t have much time, but I tried to advance the ball up as far as I could to Mamadi, and luckily he got it off. As soon as I caught it and I was dribbling, I saw him right away.”
* Purdue head coach Matt Painter: “I want to congratulate Tony Bennett. He’s a really good coach. He’s a better guy. And Virginia’s a class program.”
* Edwards on Diakite, who met at an all-star camp in Charlottesville: “Good game by him. Good player. Good dude as well.”