Virginia was going to choke regardless, just like perennial chokers Michigan St and Kansas. LOL at any bracket with any of those 3 as the winner

well Kansas is gonna lose to Penn anyways

The ball is tipped, and there you are. You're running for your life, you're the first #1 seed bounced by a 16! errrr

I think this is a pretty huge loss for Virginia.

It basically takes away any lineup flexibility they have. I think Bennett realized early on that any lineups with both Diakite and Salt are too offensively challenged to be viable.

Beyond the 8-10 mins where Nigel Johnson spells the guards, this means that Wilkins has to play 40 mins almost automatically, and Hall/Jerome/Guy all probably have to play 34-38 mins. When Hunter came in off the bench, he was basically the engine for the offense.

I think it just takes away so much of their margin for error wrt guard foul trouble, someone getting banged up mid game, etc.

My mother went to Radford. Felt like everyone should know that.

JFC, I have 55 brackets this year

I am now in my 13th consecutive hour lol

I would say this is all correct except for Diakite. He's a solid offensive player and has stepped up in the last few games. His problems are foul trouble and strength, but the latter is made up for with athleticism. It's the Wilkins/Salt combo that is challenged offensively.

Problems without Hunter:

1) Depth - one or two guys who barely play will now have to get minutes. All the bigs will play more, which means more foul trouble. Obviously, more minutes equals more fatigue.

2) Shot creation - while our guards are great, Hunter is the one guy who can reliably create his own offense. In an offensive that relies entirely on teamwork, he's the guy who can get the team out of a jam if they can't find a shot.

3) Defensive flexibility - he can guard 2-5 depending on the lineup. His athleticism also allows him to save some defensive lapses.

4) Rebounding

5) Offense against zone - he is our zone breaker. Hall will have to move into this role.

I would think Virginia will still get to the Sweet 16 (though I'm not putting money on it - second round just got a lot tougher), but Hunter's absence against Arizona or Kentucky will be VERY noticeable.

Let's lighten things up:

I never fill out more than one bracket. If I do well, I want to be able to say, "yeah, I picked this bracket" instead of having 2 good brackets and 8 ****ty ones.

just coming back online to see this news. i mean come the **** on man. hate this for you dlk and wahoo. this ain't right.

20% chance that I buy them...

lol

My dad went to PENN, but hss spent most his life in the KC metro and he likes KU, so he's likely to be all ****ed-up as to who to root for. Bless his heart.

Pac-12 already going down in the play-in games lol.

game

Get it right

next year's hot seat if it isn't this year has Steve Alford on it

Holliday really lost composure down the stretch

Maybe he’ll give Indiana a call.

There more than 1 play-in game right? There's 4, I know Pac-12 isn't a part of all of them but I'm not seeing your point here

LOL Holliday hero ball.

Does Steve Alford actually do anything?

There’s another play in game the PAC’s gonna crush ��

not sure I have seen anything like it

word actually came out in this area last week that Alford has contacted Louisville

And USC about to lose in the NIT.

Alfords made 3 Sweet 16s in 5 years at UCLA while having a top 50 offense all 5 years. Not great by any means but certainly not awful as well.

I find it mildly amusing that Wikipedia's Steve Alford page has him listed as the "former head coach of the UCLA Bruins' men's basketball team", an edit which was made at precisely 4:20.