Virginia's brief stay in the NCAA tournament was sort of like the sun — you know it's there, but you sure don't want to look at it for long, if at all.
The Cavaliers, in fact, scored just a measly 14 points in the first half of their 67-42 First Four loss to Colorado State on Tuesday. In the final 9:20 of the first half, Virginia made zero field goals.
No, seriously. Zero.
Overall, the Cavaliers were just 5-of-29 shooting for 17 percent in the first 20 minutes. Colorado State scored the first eight points of the second half before Virginia finally hit a bucket.
And it's not like they were playing an absolute force. No disrespect to Colorado State, but they're out of the Mountain West Conference, which many consider to be a mid-major league. Virginia is a member of the ACC.
Some questioned whether the Cavaliers belonged in the Field of 68 at all, given their 23-11 record and list of bad losses.
And after watching the game, former NBA forward and current CBS Sports analyst Wally Szczerbiak took the NCAA selection committee to task.
"This performance matters by Virginia. Mountain West completely blew them off the floor. Mountain West, we've been saying, has been completely under-seeded, and the way you perform in this tournament, it puts the committee on notice," Szczerbiak said, via Outkick. "They made a mistake putting Virginia into the NCAA Tournament. Every bracketologist was saying it, they go out and play like this."
"It's unwatchable basketball the way they played on national TV."
Now, in Virginia's defense, Colorado State reportedly entered the game with the nation's 30th-best defense. When you consider how many Division I programs exist, that's fairly impressive.
That said, it's hard to justify a D-I program scoring just 14 points in a half.
The Rams (25-10) are a 10th seed and advanced to play seventh-seeded Texas in the official first round.
