April 8, 2019. The night the Virginia Cavaliers completed one of the most remarkable turnaround seasons in sports history with their first national championship.
That night, Tony Bennett finally exorcized his March demons, including the first-ever 16-vs.-1 upset loss to UMBC the previous season, and ascended to the top of the mountain in college basketball. The Cavaliers had been excellent for the better part of a decade, and now finally had the validation of a championship to go with it. Had you suggested to anyone in the confetti-lined building that night that Bennett wouldn’t win another NCAA tournament game in his career, they wouldn’t have even acknowledged it as a possibility.
