March Madness Earns its Name
March Madness just lived up to its name. Syracuse, a 10 seed, overcame a double digit deficit in the second half to beat Virginia, a 1 seed. What made the difference was Syracuse’s decision to use a full court press early in the second half that got Virginia out of its deliberate tempo and played to Syracuse’s superior athleticism. With Syracuse’s win, 3 of the 1 seeds have lost, and the fourth, North Carolina, is playing Notre Dame, as I write.
A touching moment came at the game’s end in an interview with Virginia coach Tony Bennett outside his team’s locker room. Bennett said he drew on scripture to console his dejected senior-laden team after what was a crushing defeat, telling them, “Weeping may last for the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning.”
As someone who played basketball in grade school, high school, and college, my guess is Bennett is right. Virginia’s players will feel the pain of this defeat for a while, but joy will come in the morning as they reflect, not on the outcome of a single game, but on their whole career.
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Not just their whole career, but a good season, performing at a very high level, they took it to the elite 8, put things in perspective it’s the journey. In the end it’s just a game. ND kept the loss to 14 points, NC had a good 2nd half ND didn’t, but really an overachieving team took it to the elite 8, a glorious season for them and really does the university proud. I was never much of a basketball player, football baseball and track and I could throw a football or baseball really well, but basketball was funny I would shoot around, get into some games, and every once in awhile get into a zone where I would start hitting long shots 5 or 6 or whatever in a row, normally I might be 1 out of 12 or something. could never predict it. teams run that way too, hot and cold.