It has been a long time since I considered myself a sports fan.
I still love baseball, but I have little or no interest in the other professional sports. The year before the pandemic might have been my favorite year as a fan — Washington won the World Series and Virginia men’s basketball won the NCAA championship.
After that, things got weird.
We lost about two-thirds of the 2020 baseball season, and Washington did badly in the games that were played. Virginia struggled early, but came on strong late in the season. But then the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament was cancelled because of the virus and so was the entire NCAA tournament.
No one really knew what to expect of this season, but after a shaky December and a few stumbles in February, the Wahoos managed to win the regular-season ACC title. Things were looking good in the tournament, but a positive Covid-19 test put them out after the quarterfinals and left their status in doubt for the NCAAs.
Freshman Reece Beekman hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to lift the ‘hoos past Syracuse, and apparently the daily testing since is positive enough that Virginia didn’t declare itself out of the tournament next week.
They won’t play till late in the week, and there will be teams ready to replace them if they can’t.
Their first two matchups as a No. 4 seed both look winnable, first against Ohio University and if they win, they get the winner of Creighton and UC Santa Barbara in the second round.
The fascinating matchup would be in the Sweet 16 with No. 1 and undefeated Gonzaga, which beat them by more than 20 points the day after Christmas.
If they get that far, I have no doubt the rematch would be a much better game.
If they don’t, damn that virus.