The 2019 NCAA tournament national championship game takes place on Monday (4/8/19) at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. The Virginia Cavaliers meet the Texas Tech Red Raiders. Virginia (34-3) beat Auburn in the Final Four, while Texas Tech (31-6) beat Michigan State. Neither has won a national championship in basketball. Here’s all the info you need: Who: Virginia vs. Texas Tech What: Final Four 2019 championship When: Monday, April 8, 2019 Where: U.S. Bank Stadium, Minneapolis Time: 8:20 p.m. Central (9:20 p.m. Eastern) TV: CBS Livestream: fuboTV (free trial), CBS All Access, NCAA March Madness Live Line: Virginia by 1.5 (via VegasInsider) --- Preview The NCAA Tournament will take an ugly turn in its final or, depending on your perspective, be a masterpiece in defensive basketball. The national title game Monday night pits Virginia (34-3), the standard-bearer in lockdown basketball, against the new kids on the defensive block, the Texas Tech Red Raiders (31-6). The over/under for points is 118. The over/under on bruises may be higher. "People have been all over how bad the Final Four is going to be, the final game, the low scoring, whatever," Sacramento State coach Brian Katz said. "I love it. It's great defense. Fun to watch. If you're the casual fan and you've got one hand in the popcorn and beer, you're waiting around looking for the big dunk or whatever, you're probably bored. If you're really into the game, you get it." Here are a few things to know before watching what's expected to be one of the lowest-scoring games in title game history: FIRST TIME CHAMPION The NCAA Tournament will have its first first-time champion since coach Billy Donovan won it all with Florida in 2006. Texas Tech reached the Elite Eight for the first time last season and Virginia lost its previous two trips to the Final Four, in 1981 and 1984. The last time two teams who had never won a championship played in the title game was Michigan State against Indiana State in 1979. That's right, Magic Johnson vs. Larry Bird. VIRGNIA'S TIGHTROPE Virginia had two close calls to reach its first title game. The Cavaliers survived a scoring onslaught by Carsen Edwards (42 points) and forced overtime on Mamadi Diakite's short jumper to beat Purdue in double overtime in the Elite Eight. Virginia had another nail biter in the Final Four, beating Auburn 63-62 on Kyle Guy's three free throws with 0.6 seconds left. Down 2 with 1.5 seconds left, the Cavaliers got the ball to Guy, who was fouled by Auburn's Samir Doughty on a 3-point attempt. He sank all three free throws to send the Cavaliers to the title game. OWENS' STATUS Texas Tech outmuscled Michigan State 61-51 in its Final Four game Saturday night, but saw Tariq Owens roll his right ankle in the second half. The shot-blocking senior returned after taping his ankle up, but Red Raiders coach Chris Beard declined to give an update Sunday. Playing without Owens would be a huge loss for Texas Tech. CAVALIER TURNAROUND Should Virginia win Monday night, it will likely go down as one of the biggest turnarounds in college basketball history. A year ago, the Cavaliers became the first No. 1 seed to lose to a No. 16 when they were knocked off by Baltimore-Maryland County in the first round. Virginia has used the historic loss as motivation all season and is on the cusp of erasing it with the biggest victory in program history. THE SCORERS Virginia is led by the three-headed monster of Guy, De'Andre Hunter and Ty Jerome. Guy hit a late 3-pointer before the three massive free throws against Auburn. Jerome was the catalyst early against the Tigers and finished with 21 points. Hunter came alive after quiet first half, finishing with 15 points. Texas Tech's trio of Jarrett Culver, Davide Moretti and Matt Mooney do the most offensive damage for the Red Raiders. Mooney was money against Michigan State, hitting three straight 3-pointers to give the Red Raiders a 10-point cushion. Culver took over when the Spartans started paying more attention to him, scoring six straight points to stave off a Spartans charge. Though quiet against Michigan State, Moretti can get hot in a hurry, as he did earlier in the bracket. The Associated Press contributed to this report.<doc-sep>There will be no more bumming prime rib sliders off Jim Rome or sleeping eight to a room in the Courtyard Marriott. Chris Beard’s biggest worry after this week might be how many zeroes are at the end of his contract. The breakthrough star of the NCAA tournament has been the Texas Tech coach who continues his own Cinderella rise from cutting boxes behind grocery stores to putting his team on the verge of its own Wheaties box. What’s made Beard all the more alluring is that he’s enjoyed every low-budget motel and extra-value meal along the way to the national championship game, where his third-seeded Red Raiders (31-6) will face top-seeded Virginia (34-3) on Monday night at US Bank Stadium. Advertisement “I tell the guys to never forget where they come from and be you,” Beard, who’s in his third season at Texas Tech, said earlier this week. “For that young coach out there like me that sat in the open practices for 22 years and dreamed about being there, don’t give up. Keep at it.” Perseverance has handsomely rewarded the 46-year-old who didn’t get paid until his fourth coaching job, making ends meet before that by conducting private lessons and slicing the seams of those grocery store boxes. Sign up for our daily sports newsletter » Beard parlayed Texas Tech’s run to a regional final last season into a new six-year, $19-million contract that now seems woefully inadequate. Red Raiders athletic director Kirby Hocutt acknowledged to reporter this week that he may need to tear up that deal and lavish a massive raise upon a coach whose $2.8-million salary puts him tied for 27th among college basketball coaches, according to USA Today’s database. It may require a blank checkbook to keep a defensive wizard who just prevailed in head-to-head duels with John Beilein, Mark Few and Tom Izzo, three of the top coaches in the college game. UCLA fans continue to clamor on message boards for their school to make a run at Beard, however unlikely, for their coaching vacancy. Beard’s stories are the only things that have outnumbered wins on the way to Texas Tech’s first appearance in a national title game. There was the encounter with Rome in a hotel elevator at the Final Four in Phoenix, when Beard was a junior college coach and told the famed sports television host he was trying to scrounge up some food. Rome instructed him and his friends to raid the concierge lounge on his floor. “I will never forget it,” Beard said. “They had prime rib sliders and water and bars. We killed it, man.” Advertisement There was the time he went to see a 10:35 p.m. showing of “Sex and the City” at the Cinemark 16 with a coaching friend in a nearly vacant theater. “”There’s only three cars in the parking lot,” said Beard, who once enjoyed late-night movies as a release from his coaching stress. “That’s Bill’s [car], who runs the place, and I think that car’s been there for two weeks.” Coaches were crammed into that Courtyard Marriott at another Final Four. The coaches would sleep two to a bed without the comforters, which would go to those consigned to the floor. The unluckiest of them all would end up in the bathtub with some pillows. But even Beard had his limits. “I guess I’ll share a bar of soap if you wash it really good,” he said, “but I’m not sharing a towel with any other man. [So] we used to come to the Final Fours and bring our own towels.” Advertisement Beard knows all about sacrifice, having given up beer, desserts and candy this season. Some might say he hasn’t entirely kept his promise. “Did you know a Pop-Tart is not a dessert?” Beard asked reporters. “It’s a breakfast. I’ve eaten a lot of Pop-Tarts, man, since October.” Beard has asked his players to make sacrifices, too. Some have given up Netflix after 9 p.m. Some have stopped posting on social media. Some have given up fried food. None seem to mind given the results Beard has extracted for a team making its first appearance in the Final Four, not to mention the final game. Advertisement Said center Norense Odiase: “He’s sickly competitive. He drives us, he drives our coaches. He pushed the standards higher, higher, higher.” Said guard Jarrett Culver: “He brings the best out of you, no matter if you’re a walk-on, the best player, coaching staff, [graduate assistant].” About the only thing Beard doesn’t seem to enjoy these days is the narrative that his team plays only defense. Yes, the Red Raiders lead the nation by holding opponents to 36.8% shooting, but they’ve been playing some pretty doggone good offense, too. Texas Tech made nine of its first 11 shots in the second half against Michigan State on Saturday to start pulling away. Advertisement “I’ve never been a big believer of this team has this identity or this identity,” Beard said. “It all goes hand in hand.” Sort of like hard work eventually paying off. Beard acknowledged that his team’s run is as much for the future Chris Beards as the one playing on college basketball’s biggest stage. “Absolutely,” he said. “I hope those guys are having a blast watching our team.” ben.bolch@latimes.com Advertisement Follow Ben Bolch on Twitter @latbbolch<doc-sep>
MINNEAPOLIS -- This is not supposed to happen. Texas Tech is not supposed to be playing for a national title. Not in basketball, at least. And certainly not with a team that's composed like this: A team that's missing five of its top six scorers from the Elite Eight team last season, and a team that's made up of four transfers and zero top 100 recruits. Yet here they are, the No. 3 seed Red Raiders fresh off a 61-51 victory Saturday at U.S. Bank Stadium against favored Michigan State and all of Tom Izzo's experience at this stage. None of that mattered as Tech's Matt Mooney dropped 22 points and the hyper-elite defense locked in. What Chris Beard has done in his three years at Texas Tech -- three years! -- is nothing short of remarkable. Lubbock, Texas, is not exactly a hotbed for basketball. Bobby Knight went there, and he didn't take Texas Tech anywhere near this far. Tubby Smith went there, and he didn't take Texas Tech anywhere near this far. But Chris Beard went there, and boom: His team is already making history. "He told us this summer – I don't know if it was the first game, but it was early – but he said we have enough in this locker room right here to play on the final Monday night," Mooney said. Either coach is psychic, or – he might be psychic. Because here we are, on the final Monday night. We just believed in him and believed in each other." This is what happens when you get a bunch of under-recruited, overachieving players to believe in a system and believe in themselves. While Beard's team is not filled with McDonald's All-Americans or five-star recruits, it is filled with exactly the type of players he wants to build a program on. They're absolute dogs on the court, fearless, with one of the best defenses we have seen in college basketball in decades. They have one elite NBA prospect in sophomore wing Jarrett Culver -- who, incidentally, is from Lubbock, and whose older brother was a national champion high jumper for Texas Tech, and who was the very first person Beard called after he was announced for the job -- and then they have a bunch of players whose primary basketball attributes is that they have a desire to be great. It's not to say these are a bunch of scrubs. Far from it. Tariq Owens is one of the best shot blockers in college basketball. Davide Moretti and Mooney are both excellent 3-point shooters, as Mooney proved when he caught fire in the second half of Saturday night's upset of Michigan State. Norense Odiase is an immovable force in the post. Brandone Francis works his tail off on the basketball court. But these players will never be confused with the one-and-done level players who get the majority of the publicity in college basketball. "To be able to play through what we have, playing through foul trouble, playing through adversity, just sticking through and coming out with a W," Owens said, "this win just speaks wonders to our program." Instead, what they are are scrappers. They're a team that lives by the old Ben Hogan saying, "The secret is in the dirt," which has become this team's mantra. They're a group that has bought into the idea that they have to outwork their opponent in order to beat their opponent. They're a group that believed in summer that they could be a Final Four team, even as Big 12 coaches picked Texas Tech to finish in seventh in the 10-team conference. Texas Tech was never supposed to be playing for a national title in basketball. But if they were, it was always going to have to be with a group like this, and a coach like Beard. Because he's just like his players: A scrapper, who less than a decade ago was coaching semipro ball in Myrtle Beach, and who since then has coached in Division III, in Division II, in mid-major Division I, and finally to Texas Tech. What Beard did is he got players who were just like him: Under-appreciated, under-hyped and ready to prove everyone wrong. "Basketball is a team sport – a few guys believing they can do something," Beard said after beating Michigan State.