Virginia is currently ranked 16th in the AP men’s basketball poll, and they sit 12th in the KenPom charts as well.
They’re also the #1 seed in the ACC Tournament, and while they’re not having the same kind of dominant year they’ve had in recent memory, Tony Bennett’s squad still clearly has March ambitions.
They almost started their postseason run with a loss, though, in today’s quarterfinal round of the ACC Tournament in Greensboro. Syracuse might be the #8 seed in the ACC, but they’re still having a solid season, and they handled NC State with ease yesterday.
It wasn’t an easy matchup for the Cavaliers, and with things tied at 69-69 (nice) and just seconds remaining, overtime looked likely.
Virginia guard Reece Beekman had other ideas, though:
Virginia beats the buzzer for the win! pic.twitter.com/s061DYWr3g
— The Comeback (@thecomeback) March 11, 2021
That’s a big win for Virginia; no tournament team wants to sit around for a full week stewing on an early conference tournament loss before the first round of action gets underway. It also meant they avoided having to go to overtime, which can’t ahead of their semifinal matchup tomorrow against the winner of Georgia Tech-Miami for a shot at the conference tournament title.
And, hey: it’s officially buzzer-beater season! More importantly: it’s officially buzzer-beaters during regular weekday work hours season! Truly the best season, especially after the pandemic took away a lot of this last year.
About Jay Rigdon
Jay is a columnist at Awful Announcing. He is not a strong swimmer. He is probably talking to a dog in a silly voice at this very moment.