One Year Later, Virginia Finds Redemption and Wins the N.C.A.A. Title

The Epic Comeback for the Virginia Cavaliers will go down as a historic win for the ages!!!!! Go Hoos! Congratulations on this incredible NCAA VICTORY! WahooWa!!!!!

The game was extremely competitive and you have to like that both teams had student-athletes that have also been accomplishing something in the classroom while playing at such a high level. The fact that the one and done rule bending schools didn't make the finals, makes the results that much sweeter.

UVa should have never been in the finals. Refs missed the double dribble by Jerome. Oh well, congrats anyway to the Hoo's

Tony Bennett, his staff, and his players embody the adage about "get knocked down seven times, get up eight." More importantly, they go about their business the right way. Last year, following their almost utterly incomprehensible blowout loss to UMBC in their first game, Coach Bennett did not shrink in the face of criticism. Nor did his kids. They not only owned what happened, they learned from it, and they grew from it. Someone considerably wiser than I once observed that whatever does not kill you, makes you stronger. Coach Bennett and his Cavaliers demonstrated that it not only makes you stronger, every once in a while, it makes you a champion. Congratulations to them on their victory. Congratulations to Coach Beard and his Texas Tech Red Raiders, who left everything they had on the court. Bravo on a job very well-done, albeit one that they completed with one less victory than they had hoped to attain.

We had to wait 52 years for this moment but it was worth every minute of it. 71 Wahoo.

This was a great game for sure, and what a comeback for the Cavaliers considering what happened to them last year. Both coaches should be proud of their teams and of the way they were coached. Texas Tech should hold its head high. The game was well-played by both teams and it could have gone either way.

What a great game......love defense! Love the Bennett family! As a professor at UW-Green Bay, I had a locker next to Dick Bennett. Occasionally, I shagged balls for Tony as he practiced by himself for hours in the gym (Dick watched just outside the gym to be “legal”). More than every, I cherish my Tony Bennett signed BBall shoes, dated NCAA 1990-1991 Tournament!

It was a great game. Both coaches model true leadership and the players reflected it. They all seemed to be good sports. I am glad about the outcome, but I thought Texas Tech was amazing and Chris Beard is clearly a gracious guy as well as an awesome coach.

"[V]iewers got a matchup of teams that rely on a throwback style of play — methodical offense, lunch-pail defense and rosters long on experience." That's team play. A joy to watch.

Naysayers!

I'm so proud to be a Wahoo and see an amazing team win. Bennett is an amazing coach and I'm so proud of them! GO HOOS!

I don't follow college basketball (or the NBA for that matter), but watched part of a few games at the beginning of the tournament and was sucked in for the remainder...quality and exciting play by all the teams, and individual players, especially as it got to the Sweet 16...good luck to all the fine young men in their life after college (this year or later)...also, of course, to all the fine young women...quality and exciting play in their games as well...

Condolences, Texas Tech. I was rooting for you, after you beat Auburn, the team the defeated my own New Mexico State University. However, this means my alma mater, Texas Western College (now Univ. Texas at El Paso), is still THE ONLY TEXAS TEAM to win the NCAA championship. More importantly, TWC fielded, for the first time, an all-African-American group of players (none of the white TWC players played in the championship game), which defeated the all-white team from segregated University of Kentucky under legendary racist Adolph Rupp. That pretty much makes the 1966 championship game THE MOST IMPORTANT GAME in NCAA history.

Could CBS have done a worse job on this show? Probably not. The National Championship game is NOT the time for trick photo shoots and bad camera placement. Hello? You know you are airing TOO many ads when one of your own announcers, Charles Barkley, complains about them. I believe they aired more air time on ads,than the game itself. Time out, ads. Finish shooting free throws, Ad. Over and over and over. Last question. Does Jim Natz get paid by the word? Yes,I guess he does How does he talk for two hours, for every second and still breath? Some of comments where absolutely insane. Great game spoiled by NCAA and CBS greed.

Q- Does College Basketball need overhype to be interesting ? Q- Does it need overhype when the matchups do not naturally have excellent teams with a history that is well known ? Q- Can today's overhype in sports go too far and surround a contest with false expectations and players with excessive hype that makes it hard to live up to ? Q- If the viewer is not rooting for his or her alma mater is it impossible for the viewer to relate to emotion of those wearing the team's colors ? These questions came to mind because without a horse in any contest I tuned in for minutes from the start of the tournament to the end last night and saw contests of nervous players trying to hard and mostly throwing up brick after brick after passing around until they had no choice but to shoot . I also heard the overhype from the talking heads that ESPN especially has ruined sports by reducing it to 2 min or less snippets by a gazillion talking heads and pretty women who knew nothing about the sport before getting the job for the sole interest of generating as much money from commercials as possible . I hope it's just me for I was so bored and turned off by the overhype that I could not watch even a quarter of the games including last night's final now being painted as great . Wish there was some way we could put what's happened to sports along with reality shows and Rap Music back in a bottle and thrown them all in the ocean .

Some great basketball in this tournament! Refreshing to see different teams towards the end too. Most every game "on the edge of my seat" the last two minutes. As it should be! Congrats to Virginia...it was their time, and to all the teams who made this tournament full of "madness."

It was basketball as basketball should be played. The matchup reminded me once more why I prefer NCAA hoops over watching the NBA. GREAT GAME - go UVA!!

They are a TEAM of students who play together. Who could ask for more?

decoding the secret language of the Universe through sports God, the creator of all can not speak directly to human beings because no human can handle it, so the creator must speak in a side ways manner, an indirect manner and one of the ways he speaks to us is through sports consider the story: the same team that suffers the most humiliating loss in the history of the NCAA, the same kids, the same coaches come back the next year and play some of the most exciting and improbable games anyone has ever seen on the way to winning the National championship game...in over time?! It seems that the creator of all tries to speak to us through symbols and the language we can understand and comprehend, the language of sports, where people work together, people of all different skin colors and faiths, work together to ultimately succeed . Those who suffer a loss but persevere and never give up. Maybe the human race, which is almost mystically programmed to love sports , will one day listen to the messages hidden within. The world is absurd in its random cruelness but sports are orderly and played by strict rules. We as human being born of free will are always searching for the same rules. Though in reality god the creator gave us those rules eons ago. The ten commandments. ten rules, and laws it is human being who stretched the rules out to include everything spitting on the sidewalk. If the human race would follow the 10 rules we would have contentment. Anyway, great game.

This win was a big package of love. Charlottesville has really needed a boost after all we’ve been through. This basketball team loves each other and it shows in their performance. What fun we had last night! All over town there was a love fest going on with joyous dancing in the streets. I can’t begin to count how many bear hugs I got from strangers of all sizes, ages, sexes, races, backgrounds. As we said in 2017......hate has no place here. We are love. Thanks guys, thanks Tony!

It's nice to see new faces in the final. The cast of usual suspects was getting to be problematic. Kudos to both UVa and Texas Tech for breaking the mold.

Wonderful game from two great teams; thanks to both but Go Hoos. After every close game, referees being human, there's something to carp about. Mistakes get made, but usually they even out. Let's not go there.

An outstanding game marred by poor referring in OT. In the pivotal play of the game Tech's Moretti was first fouled by Guy and then raked on the arm by Hunter... and when Virginia got the ball after the freeze frame review, I knew the game was over with the thumb on the scale for Virginia. Very sorry that a terrific game was decided in that manner.

What a ballgame! Well coached, played hard, with both great defense and shot making. Great, great way to end the season and a feel-good narrative, too. Best Monday night I’ve had in a while. Congrats Cavs, but thank you, too, Red Raiders. Chris Beard a very deserving national Coach of the Year.

I can't stand the time spent on reviewing officials' calls. This often kills swings in momentum and isn't always conclusive anyway. For me, living with an official's call, good or bad, has always been part of the game.

Why do we love sports? Some say its because sports is a great distraction. Or, the great love and passion, that even the worst defeat creates the fire that spurs you toward the ultimate victory, maybe its looking forward and always having something to look forward to. The thing we ask so much of but asks so little of us. Or maybe it gives us the chance to continue dream Maybe we love sports because it is the most human of preoccupations, everything about it has the human element, all of it to be scrutinized and contextualized. maybe we love it for its simplicity. It's very simple in many ways, you work as hard as you can, you practice as much as you can, you take any talent that you have and magnify it, perfect it, streamline it. Maybe we love sports because of its magical properties, when a bounce of the ball, a wrong call, a coaches mistake can change the games fortunes, there is no way to know what will happen next. It is one of the few things that cant be predicted, something always happens that blows up even the most perfected plan or maybe we love it for the storylines, those remarkable storylines that could have their roots in tragedy and from tragedy and disappointment a champion emerges. The fires of life burnishing the athlete and driving him to succeed or maybe its the will of the athletes that we love, the indomitable will, that in the end must bow to time and age. The answer also could be as simple as..it's fun to play, and its fun to watch

It is gratifying to see the programs with upperclassmen get rewarded and find success in the NCAA Tournament. I am not against the rise of one-and-done freshman, but there is something to be said for staying in school and getting your education in addition to playing a sport at a high level. There are plenty of problems in college sports that need to be addressed, not least of which is the amount of money that pervades the system, but the the NCAA Tournament is a reminder of the many good and exciting things about college sports. And, p.s., what a pleasure to see a coach like Tony Bennett who is calm and poised on the sideline, who engages his players in decisions at pivotal moments in the game, and who guided his team from an historic loss to an historic championship by staying faithful to their core principles. Congratulations to UVA - and to Texas Tech and Coach Beard for their class and grace in defeat.

How much were the winners paid? How much direct and indirect revenue did the winners' employer make from this tournament? Did the winners' supervisor receive a performance bonus?

I've been a college basketball fan since I was eight years old. Growing up in Albuquerque, I rooted passionately for the Univ of New Mexico, which had some strong teams but never did well in the tournament. Later, as a faculty member at the Univ of Pittsburgh, I cheered on some very good squads, one of which made it to the Elite 8 before losing on a last-second shot to Villanova. And for the past six years, teaching at UVA, I've seen Coach Bennett and his players play extraordinary basketball during the regular season, only to fall short in the tournament . . . until now. And they did by playing the game their way, with faith in teamwork and fundamentals, all in the face of endless criticism about their style. Congrats to this team, its coaches and fans. What an accomplishment!

A Super Bowl dominated by defenses, now an NCAA title game where both teams bothered to play defense as well. Did someone forget to tell them that all fans want is points, points, and more points. What's happening to sports in the US?

It was a GREAT game. Thrilling to watch. Both teams played with their hearts and souls. Congratulations to Virginia. Texas has a lot to be proud of too.

Kudos to Virginia; very tough-minded. And, I'll just add: if I'm ever in a foxhole, I'd like Matt Mooney in there with me.

I am grateful to see the town ‘Charlottesville’ in all the newspapers referring to something joyous. Enjoy the celebration!

I had no dog in this fight; but I have to say that the officiating in this tournament was less than stellar. Not only the missed double-dribble at the end of the Virginia Auburn game; but the apparent widespread disregard of the walking violation. I was a basketball official for three decades and it is second nature for me to keep count of the number of steps a player takes before dribbling the basketball. It was pretty routine in this tournament to see a player catch a ball, take two steps and then throw the ball. Allowing this gives the offense an unfair advantage. And don't get me started about carrying the ball! Or three second violations! It's all a big-money show now.

Meet Virginia. Quite a Virgin victory for Virginia. Congratulations Virginia for a well deserved Victory in a season where none of the Kentucky teams went past the last 16.

Congrats to fellow ACC member, Virginia.

What a pleasure! A quality academic university (routinely # 1 or 2 public school in the nation) wins it all. And although there is always controversy on the court, UVA basketball had no controversy off the court. And although there are better individual college ballers, UVA’s true student-athletes led the nation in both defense and scoring, and won a national championship as a selfless team. “A team for the ages!”