Well, here we go. Obviously, after what happened in the first round last season, people are talking about the chances of No. 1-seeded Virginia falling to a 16-seed again. As I’ve said before, if Virginia and UMBC had played 100 times last year, Virginia would’ve won 99 of them. UMBC just happened to win the first one.
This Virginia team has advantages that last year’s team didn’t have, the most important of which is full health. As you probably know, De’Andre Hunter was injured during last season’s ACC Tournament, and he missed the NCAA tournament. You may not know, however, that Jay Huff was also injured in practice prior to the UMBC game.