This story appears in the March 12, 2018, issue of Sports Illustrated. Subscribe to the magazine here.
On Valentine’s Day, versions of the best-known love poem bounced around the Internet. The moderator of the Twitter feed that represents Reddit's college basketball subgroup published 11 different verses. This was the ninth:
Roses are red,
This joke has become lame,
Just like Virginia,
Who's ruining our game
The sentiment in that punch line is now as tightly attached to coach Tony Bennett’s team as Cavaliers forward Isaiah Wilkins is to opposing ballhandlers, especially as UVa (28–2 and the ACC regular-season champs) closes in on the top seed in the NCAA tournament.