MINNEAPOLIS -- Virginia can exhale now.
The Cavaliers can laugh too because last year's upset loss to UMBC, it seems, was just a step toward the most redemptive season in the history of college basketball.
The joke was on us.
Because of Monday night's 85-77 overtime win over Texas Tech in the national championship at U.S. Bank Stadium -- the first championship for the Cavaliers -- Virginia falling in the first 16-over-1 loss in NCAA tournament history means less.
The UMBC game will never be forgotten. In the future, however, it will only be mentioned as a footnote because of what Virginia accomplished in Minneapolis one year and 23 days later.