NCAA tourney, spring football
With Virginia cutting down the nets after a thrilling NCAA men鈥檚 basketball championship win over Texas Tech, focus will shift to football in the eyes of most college sports fans.
However, the baseball and softball seasons are warming up along with the weather and spring football games are here!
Virginia wins best tourney ever?
While no one will ever confuse Virginia as being a great team in the annals of time, was this year鈥檚 March Madness tournament the best ever?
Virginia could have realistically lost in any of its six tourney wins, but the Cavaliers showed resilience en route to cutting down the nets Monday night.
In its first game, top-seeded Virginia trailed 16th-seeded Gardner-Webb by 14 points and Virginia was staring at a second straight historical first-round exit.
But the team pulled out a 15-point win and then pulled away late to down Oklahoma in the second round.
Trailing with five minutes to go in the Sweet 16 to Oregon, Virginia escaped with a four-point win before a three-game stretch that will be hard for anyone to top.
In the Elite Eight, Virginia scored at the buzzer at the end of regulation to send the game to overtime and then pulled out a five-point win over Purdue.
Saturday night, Virginia tripped up Auburn by one point before winning Monday in overtime.
Some say Virginia was the recipient of favorable calls Saturday and Monday, but both calls were made by the book.
All four Elite Eight games could have gone either way, and if the Final Four with this year鈥檚 four teams was played 10 times, each team would win the title at least once.
No, there weren鈥檛 a lot of upsets in the tournament and a Cinderella did not make a deep run, but this was the most exciting March Madness tournament that I have seen.
Virginia鈥檚 resilience, no doubt, stems back to last year when the Cavaliers became the first top-seed to lose to a 16-seed.
Does anyone else think a movie could be made about Virginia鈥檚 last 55 weeks?
Spring games a plenty
This coming Saturday, Pitt, Penn State and West Virginia will all hold their spring games.
Pitt kicks off at noon at Heinz Field while WVU kicks off at 1 and Penn State at 3 p.m.
We will take a deeper look at all three games next week.
Baseball and softball pick up
Also next week, we will take a deeper look at local teams as well as players who are making a name for themselves at the collegiate level.
Share college sports news and names!
If you know someone currently playing a sport in college, coaching, or holding another role, email me or tweet me and we will get them mentioned in this column!
Email questions/comments to Bill at powerhousehughes@gmail.com or tweet them to me @BillHughes_III.