The University of Virginia No. 1 seed men’s basketball team will take on No. 16 seed Gardner-Webb on Friday in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Virginia enters the tournament as one of the strongest teams in the nation, as the Cavaliers boast a 29-3 record, including a 16-2 record in ACC conference play.
The Cavaliers are favored by 24.5 points, and you would be hard-pressed to find any experts who are actually picking them to lose.
But lose they must.
Gardner-Webb, a school that is in (let me load up the ole Wikipedia here) Boiling Springs, North Carolina and whose nickname is The Runnin’ Bulldogs, finished 23-11 with a 10-6 Big South Conference record and made the tournament when they beat Radford in the conference championship.
And they have to win.
Why? Do you remember when then No. 1 Virginia lost to No. 16 UMBC? That was like the funnest day ever. We forgot all about how terrible the world was and we laughed and laughed.
The UMBC Twitter account got cooking, and was making fun of Virginia fans, and we all made fun of Virginia fans, and it was beautiful. A lowly 16-seed actually won an opening round game. We never thought it would happen, and it happened, and it was glorious.
Do you know the only thing funnier than a No. 1 UVA team losing to a 16-seed? A No. 1 UVA team losing to a 16-seed twice. Can you imagine? I just started clapping my hands together like a little child at the thought of such a thing.
UVA fans will probably take this article personally, because they are very sensitive indeed, and they might also note that I once wrote an argument publicly rebuking their team titled “UVA basketball keeps winning but that doesn’t mean we have to like it.” They got upset about that one, and hey, I was a bit unfair.
Actually no forget that I wasn’t unfair at all. UVA was boring then. They were boring as all get-out. They’re less boring now, but their fans still said mean things to me and they’re all way too sensitive about everything and I hope Gardner-Webb wins by 40.
Do it, Gardner-Webb. We need this. Everything is terrible. You can make it better. For however brief a moment.
