The NCAA Tournament selection committee’s controversial decision to include the University of Virginia men’s basketball team has backfired spectacularly after they put up one of the worst performances in the history of March Madness.
Selection Sunday had fans shocked at the inclusion of the Cavaliers as one of the last four teams into the tournament – despite almost every possible metric and analytic saying the team didn’t deserve to be in – over the likes of teams like Indiana State, St. John’s, Seton Hall, and Oklahoma.
Well, the Cavaliers repaid the committee for their generosity by putting up an all-time stinker of a shooting performance in a 67-42 loss to Colorado State in their ‘First Four’ matchup in Dayton, Ohio on Tuesday night.
Virginia shot an appallingly awful 5-for-29 (17 percent) from the field in the first half and didn’t score a basket for the final 9:20 of that period – heading to the locker room with only 14 points.
They didn’t break that duck until about four minutes into the second half – constituting nearly 14 minutes of game time and 52 minutes of real time between buckets.
The University of Virginia basketball team put up an embarrassing performance on Tuesday
Virginia only put up 42 points in a loss to Colorado State – stemming from a scoring drought
That drought spanned nearly 14 minutes of game time and about 52 minutes in real time
Virginia finished the second half shooting 9-for-27 from the field – ending the night 14-56 (25 percent) from the field and 3-17 (17.6 percent) from 3-point range.
Social media reaction to the game was a mix of anger on behalf of the teams that didn’t get in and being appalled at the display.
On the NCAA Tournament’s own post-game show, analyst Wally Szczerbiak said, ‘[The committee] made a mistake putting Virginia into the NCAA Tournament. Every bracketologist was saying it.
‘They go out and play like this. It’s unwatchable basketball the way they played today and on national TV.’
Other college basketball media sang a similar song about the Cavaliers – whose season ends with this loss.
‘A Virginia team that had lost 5 of its previous 9 games, was unable to score 50 points in 4 of its previous 8 games and is 18 spots worse at [analytics site] KenPom than the next lowest at-large team looked like it didn’t belong in this NCAA Tournament,’ wrote CBS Sports columnist Gary Parrish. ‘A lot of us said this two days ago.’
FOX Sports broadcaster John Fanta tweeted, ‘I normally dislike the takes of “they didn’t belong in the tournament” because anything can happen in one game. But, I’ll make an exception here. Nothing against UVA. Tony Bennett’s a hell of a coach. But this particular team had no business being in this field. It’s the truth.’
College basketball media and NBA players criticized the selection committee including UVA
Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy wrote, ‘Committee members should all be fired for putting Virginia in. Results matter. Disgusting.’
Villanova alum and New York Knicks guard Josh Hart defended fellow spurned Big East teams Seton Hall, St. John’s, and Providence, saying, ‘They really picked this Virginia team over the Big East teams.’
‘Don’t le the fact that Virginia plays a distressing, unenjoyable style of basketball distract you from the fact that they are also not good enough to be in the NCAA Tournament,’ wrote The Ringer’s Roger Sherman.