Was Virginia the better team? Probably. Does Virginia’s win make for an incredible 30 for 30 storyline? Absolutely. Did I bet (and lose) on Texas Tech? You’re goddamn right. But did Virginia deserve to win? I don’t know about that one folks. I spent exactly one (1) whole day as a Texas Tech fan and let me tell you, it was heartbreaking. The slow start, the comeback, losing the lead, the other comeback, and then losing it in overtime. I was so angry after that game and woke up this morning still upset with how that game turned out.
UVA needed so many things to go their way in order for them to cut down the nets last night. Texas Tech had God on their side in Jarret Culver’s pastor father, but UVA had the refs. A few crucial phantom calls near the end of the game kept UVA in it and eventually let them pull away. To start, Kyle guy draws a foul with under three minutes in overtime on a play that he clearly tripped over his own feet.
This call led to two free throws for Guy and brought Tech’s lead down to 1,but more importantly keeping UVA within striking distance and one score regardless of what Texas tech could do on the next position. Even if Tech were to hit a three on the ensuing possession, being down 4 is a massive difference than being down 5 or 6.
Virginia also got lucky at the end of overtime thanks to a replay that showed that DeAndre Hunter knocked the ball out of Davide Moretti’s hands but the ball grazed 1/1000th of Moretti’s finger as it sailed out of bounds.
This is a classic instant of where I believe replay has gone too far. In breaking this play down frame by frame, yes the ball technically grazed Moretti but Hunter clearly knocked the ball out. This takes all human element out of reffing and by this logic, every single play that isn’t 100% obvious needs to be reviewed with a microscope. At some point, people have to realize that replays like these take the basketball element out of basketball. Hunter clearly knocked the ball out of bounds and a simple review should have confirmed that. Instead, the play was broken into frame by frame replays and because Moretti, who clearly had possession before the ball was knocked away, touched the ball for a millisecond as it was leaving his hands, the ball gets rewarded to UVA. If you go back through other plays throughout the game and year, you will find other instances where technically the ball touched a player on *insert team* but because of common sense and not wanting to stop play to examine a replay of a camera zoomed in so close you cant even tell what you’re focusing on, this play and team is still rewarded the ball. At some point, refereeing has to be accepted as a human element part of the game with the replay there to supplement when the initial call is there. In this instance, the call was clear and yet we still had to sit through a lengthy replay in the middle of a fantastic finish to a fantastic championship game. Replay is great until it starts to literally not make basketball ~basketball~. This review should have never even happened because Moretti got hacked by Kyle Guy before Hunter could've knocked the ball out of his hands. Add that to my list of gripes I have with the officiating last night.
To UVA’s credit, they hit big shots when they needed to, but I believe Texas Tech had that game won and had it taken from them/gave it away. In the final minutes of regulation, you could see Jarrett Culver mentally decide that he was going to take this game over. That’s great and all being a lottery pick, you know, but the fact that he was settling for three-pointers was preposterous. He should have attacked the lane every time he touched the ball and at the very least drawn a foul or dished out to a teammate for a corner three. He absolutely should not have settled for three with 7 seconds left in overtime. I could come up 50 different ways to handle that situation that would have helped Tech out more. I mean if you’re going to settle for a three at least wait until the last second. On top of that, if TTU wasn’t as aggressive on defense on UVA’s game tying three and let Ty Jerome make that easy layup, turning the game into a free throw contest, the Red Raiders would have left Minnesota with a championship and I would be up money on my bookie. Overall, I am so angry with how this game ended and now we have to wait until stupid November for more stupid basketball so I can lose all my stupid money gambling on stupid games.