The Editorial Board USA TODAY To anyone not enthralled by college basketball, Monday night's NCAA final between Texas Tech and the University of Virginia provides another moment to criticize the role of big-time sports at American universities. It’s not a hard argument to make. Many a top hoop prospect attends college for just one year before charging off to the NBA, complying with the league’s “one and done” rule that draftees must be one year removed from high school. Many of those who stay longer are only passingly interested in the scholastic opportunities available to them. Coaches, schools and broadcasters make big money; the vast majority of college athletes who don't go pro, not so much. This year’s championship game brings a new twist, however. Thanks to the recent college admissions scandal, Americans have come to realize that it is not just big-time universities that are turning themselves upside down over sports. And it is not just big-time sports like football and basketball that are causing this inversion. Among other things, the sweeping FBI sting revealed that some parents were paying bribes to coaches — of sports such as water polo, sailing and soccer — to have their sons or daughters listed as athletes when, in fact, they had no such skills. Obviously, colleges need to do more vetting and oversight to make sure that applicants listed as coveted athletes really are as advertised. But more important is why these colleges are so interested in sports, and why they are so willing to compromise their standards and make exceptions to achieve nonacademic goals. USCAA:College admission scandal is not a nationwide epidemic With football and basketball at major universities, there is at least a hope that these widely followed sports turn a profit. But one has to wonder why schools would care so much about wrestlers, pole vaulters and such, or why colleges with enrollments as small as 1,200 would place such an emphasis on fielding competitive football teams. The only real answer is that they have allowed sports to pervert their core mission, which is to educate young men and women and prepare them for life. Flooded with qualified applicants, colleges often look to extracurricular activities to single people out. But all too often, sports has become the one nonacademic factor that really matters. The FBI did not come up with examples of parents paying bribes to have their child’s bassoon-playing skills inflated. The fixation with sports might be the most galling at the most storied schools in America. Although Ivy League schools don't offer athletic scholarships, a recent study at Harvard found that applicants with a 16% chance of acceptance would see their odds shoot up to 83% if they had the potential to be a varsity athlete. At small colleges that compete in a range of intercollegiate sports, 15% to 20% of the students could be athletic admits. At a college with an enrollment of 1,800, for instance, a 60-person football team alone might account for about 7% of the male enrollment. American high school students have become skeptical about colleges for a host of reasons — their soaring costs, their willingness to employ professors who don’t spend much time in the classroom, and their opaque admissions processes. One of the easiest and most dramatic changes schools could make would be to stop admitting so many because of their prowess at sports. If you can't see this reader poll, please refresh your page.<doc-sep>0 of 6 Morry Gash/Associated Press The 2019 NCAA men's Final Four wasn't star-studded, but there was no shortage of drama. Top-seeded Virginia squeaked past No. 5 Auburn on three last-second free throws from Kyle Guy, while No. 3 Texas Tech held off No. 2 Michigan State with a strong defensive performance to set up a title game between two first-time participants, the Cavaliers and Red Raiders. This game is going to be a defensive battle. Both of these teams made it this far by stifling opponents, so don't expect a high-scoring affair. Here's everything you need to know about the title game, which tips off Monday on CBS at 9:20 p.m. ET.<doc-sep>MINNEAPOLIS -- Only college basketball could give us something so storybook -- too rich for movies; too perfect for documentaries -- like Virginia winning the 2019 NCAA championship. On Monday night inside U.S. Bank Stadium, UVA coach Tony Bennett, humbly seated on his stool, dropped his head in blissful victory, the weight of his own desires and dreams finally vaporizing around him, as the game clock expired and these Virginia Cavaliers completed the greatest redemption arc in college hoops history. Virginia's 85-77 overtime triumph against Texas Tech and its No. 1-rated defense came in an undeniably epic, and historic, 2019 national title game, just the eighth ever to require OT. Virginia's first championship in school history and Bennett's first title as a coach completes the circle, the curvature of which started on March 16, 2018, when No. 1 overall seed UVA lost by 20 points to No. 16 UMBC and became the most infamous loser in NCAA Tournament history. Now that historic loss is but prologue to the epic victory Bennett and his Cavs earned over a Red Raiders team that was agonizingly close to winning its first national title. "I'm thankful in a way for what happened because it did, it drew me closer, most importantly, to my faith in the Lord, drew me closer to my wife and children, just because you realize what's unconditional," Bennett said Monday night. "In those spots when the world's telling you you're a failure, you're a loser, and you're the worst thing going, and all that stuff, you say, OK, what really matters? And it pushed me to that in a way." The scenes about the stadium were indelible as the title was clinched. Kyle Guy leapt through the air, goofy grin and all, and De'Andre Hunter threw the ball seemingly halfway to the ceiling as the clock hit all-zeros. Bennett was hugged by his assistant, Jason Williford, as every UVA player and coach convened on the court -- except one. Ty Jerome was cry-smiling as he climbed over the team bench to get to his family first. They, and hundreds of others in the Virginia fan section, were drenched in tears. Confetti falling, streams of gold and silver draping Virginia and its fans in victory. The Bennett family, seven rows back, bear-hugged each other and practically fell over in their seats. This was catharsis. "It means the world, and I wish I had the words, but it still does not feel real". Virginia junior guard Kyle Guy It also felt inevitable. "The whole time I believed we were going to win," Laurel Bennett, Tony's wife, said. "It felt too storybook not to happen. I'm not saying I wasn't nervous -- I just believed it was going to happen. .... There was a fire in his belly. He said, 'I want to win a national championship more than ever before.'" The dichotomy of 2018 vs. 2019 is phenomenal, and appropriate (the University of Virginia was founded in 1819). The images of UMBC's win will live forever as part of the power and stun-factor of March, as will Virginia's slouched-over grief. Now, this. A baptism by championship. "Joy is in the competition," Guy said. "But to be able to give him (Bennett) a national championship and do it for him, the program, and our families, it means the world, and I wish I had the words, but it still does not feel real." A peaceful, thankful, joyful Dick Bennett soaked in the scene on the court afterward. He didn't come for Saturday's semifinal win over Auburn, but he was not missing this, be it in a win or a loss. "Words aren't very accurate when your emotions outrun them," he said, later adding, "the thrill is worth the anguish, believe me." Virginia responding to the loss to UMBC by winning 35 of its 38 games this season was masterful. The Cavaliers needed strokes of luck, sure, but they earned and deserved this. Things got dark, if not bizarre, after the UMBC loss, much more than some might even realize. "The team got these death threats," Laurel Bennett said. "They did take a police escort back to the hotel, they came in through a side door, a policeman went up with each of the guys to their rooms. It was ridiculous and it made it feel so much worse to them, I think." Tony Bennett cut the last strands of the net after leading UVA to thenational title. USATSI It exacerbated the situation. In the days and weeks after, Tony and Laurel decided for their family and for this program that the loss would be the start of something positive. It had to. No matter what the next season would bring, 3/16/18 wouldn't define Virginia basketball. In light of this win, though, it has. It's the ultimate example of popping back up after getting knocked down. This story has no parallel in the history of American sports. "We had so many talks and they were all good," Laurel Bennett said. "They were hard and he was upset, but it was perspective, what really matters, what that loss meant, what we would learn from it. Already thinking about how this is going to be talked about forever, how are we going to deal with that with the team. He had that interview about the man in the arena, and I think people were more struck by that response to a loss than they've ever been or will ever be to something he says about a win." On Monday night, Bennett was the man in the arena -- the biggest of them -- and the one on about to conquer the incredible. And of course it had to be like this. After the magical escape against Purdue in the Elite Eight; Kihei Clark's pass to Mamadi Diakite is the Decision of the Tournament. After the freaky escape from Auburn in the Final Four; the foul on Guy a cosmic kiss, yet again, in UVA's favor. On the final night of this 2018-19 season, one more elite opponent to topple. It would be dramaturgical, the typical situation for this team, this tournament. For the third straight tournament game, Virginia trailed late into second half. Hunter's 3-pointer from the corner -- great pass, Ty Jerome -- giving way to overtime, making true the first title game to go to OT since 2008. "My (Apple) Watch kept telling me to breathe," Kathi Bennett, Tony's sister, said. Hunter, Guy (the Final Four's Most Outstanding Player) and Jerome played as well together on Monday as they had all season, combining for 67 of the team's 85 points. The Hoos scored 1.21 points per possession on the best defense, statistically, in two decades. This was a coronation. A game expected to be a race to 60 wound up being the highest-scoring title game in 19 years! And yet Virginia, dominant as it was for most of this 2018-19 season, never made it easy in the postseason. Even the 2019 first-round game against Gardner-Webb was rife with horror flashbacks, UVA trailing by double digits in that game before coming back to win. "The one thing I said to them before in the locker room, I said, 'You guys faced pressure that no team in the history of the game has faced, well, really all year, but being down 14 against Gardner Webb, and you did not panic in that moment,'" Bennett said. "'And you fought, and you found a way out. That, I think, has prepared you for this moment to be able to handle the pressure or the intensity of a national championship game."' The clutch play of Hunter -- his 3-pointer to tie the game at 68 with 13 seconds remaining in regulation is one of the biggest shots in school history -- and the resolve of UVA to steady itself in the extra period was the right ending. Virginia does drama, but it also separates and, normally, suffocates the opposition. How incredible that the first title game in college hoops history to have both teams make at least 10 3-pointers came from two epic defenses? This was the finish this NCAA Tournament deserved.<doc-sep>
Minneapolis — Now that, Virginia, is the way to close out a season. And quiet those critics, too. Led by De'Andre Hunter and his NBA-ready game, the Virginia Cavaliers turned themselves into national champions Monday night, holding off a tenacious, ferocious Texas Tech team for an 85-77 overtime win — a scintillating victory 388 days after a crushing setback that might have sunk a lesser team for years. But Virginia was better than that. The Virginia Cavaliers celebrate with the trophy after their 85-77 win over the Texas Tech Red Raiders during the 2019 NCAA men's Final Four National Championship game at U.S. Bank Stadium on April 8, 2019, in Minneapolis Getty A season after becoming the first No. 1 seed to lose to a 16 seed in the NCAA men's basketball tournament — the one thing that had never happened in a tournament where anything can — the Cavaliers watched a 10-point lead turn into a 3-point deficit before Hunter came to the rescue. The sophomore made the game-tying 3 point shot with 12 seconds left in regulation, then made another with just over two minutes left in the extra period to give the Cavs the lead for good. "Surreal," Hunter called it. "It's a goal we started out with at the beginning of the season. We knew we were going to bounce back from last year. We achieved our dreams." He helped the Cavs bring home the first NCAA title for a program with a colorful, star-crossed and, now, very winning history. The title tilt involved two teams that had never played in a championship game. The NCAA marked Virginia's remarkable climb from historic upset to top of the men's college basketball world: "It goes from stunned in Charlotte to redeemed in Minneapolis." Soak it in, @UVAMensHoops 👏#NationalChampionship pic.twitter.com/l650WrgTQB — NCAA March Madness (@marchmadness) April 9, 2019 All of Virginia's 34 wins leading to this year's final and each of its mere three losses were punctuated by the reminder that only the end result would serve as the ultimate report card on whether the Cavs could truly shed the baggage of last year. And what a ride this year's tournament was. A 1 seed once again, they fell behind by 14 early to 16th-seeded Gardner-Webb in this year's opening round, and a nightmare seemed to be unfolding. But this time, they overcame it. Then, they beat Purdue in the Elite Eight when the game looked lost, and did the same against Auburn on Saturday — getting bailed out by a foul call and Kyle Guy's three free throws with 0.6 seconds left. "I told them, I just want a chance at a title fight one day," Virginia coach Tony Bennett said. "That's all I want. ... You're never alone in the hills and the valleys we faced in the last year." Bennett soaked in a post-game basketball ritual for champs: President Trump tweeted his best wishes: Congratulations to Virginia - Great game! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 9, 2019 CBSSports.com's Kyle Boone and Chip Patterson wrote, "This national championship is the kind of thing that forever changes a college basketball program and its coach. Winning begets winning in this sport, and it took Virginia hitting the lowest of the lows last March before it could reach the highest peak." And the new champs strutted their stuff on Twitter: Students on Virginia's campus in Charlottesville raced outside to soak in the moments together: Students on University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville after school won its first NCAA men's basketball title on night of April 8, 2019 WUSA-TV Even the Empire State Building chimed in, lighting its top in the new champs' colors: Empire State Building lights up in colors ofnew NCAA men's basketball champion University of Virginia on night of April 8, 2019 CBS News As for the Red Raiders (31-7) -- the team full of overlooked grinders refused to quit. They fell behind by 10 twice in this game - seemingly too much in a match-up between two legendary defenses that allowed way more than the projected total of 118 points - but just kept coming back. "In terms of my guys, I've never been more proud," Red Raiders coach Chris Beard said. "This is real life. We'll bounce back."