Twitter reaction to Virginia’s shocking loss to Furman in NCAA Tournament

We did not have to wait long for the first magical moment of the 2023 NCAA Tournament as March Madness delivered right out of the gate. In just the second game of the Thursday’s early slate, we saw 13-seed Furman get a major upset over 4-seed Virginia Basketball in the opening round, likely busting a number of brackets across the nation, pulling out a 68-67 win.

The game itself was quite exciting even though Virginia looked in control at multiple times, scoring the game’s first 8 points and eventually holding a 5-point lead at the half. Early 3-point shooting kept the Paladins in this game and it became Furman’s saving grace in the end. Virginia led by 12 points with under 11 minutes to go, but Furman pulled off a significant 19-4 run to pull ahead in the final minutes. The Cavaliers had a run of their own, taking back the lead with just over 90 seconds remaining, though the game was certainly not yet decided.

After Kihei Clark split a pair of free throws with 19 seconds left, the Cavaliers held a 4-point lead that was cut in half by a pair of Furman free throws a few moments later, but this is when this game got crazy. Up 2 with just around 7 seconds remaining, Clark turned the ball over on a terrible pass, with the ball intercepted by Furman’s Garrett Hien at midcourt. Mere seconds later, JP Pegues put up the 3-point basket with 2.4 seconds left to give the Paladins the most unlikely of upsets.

What’s shocking is how this one was decided, with that head-scratching play by Clark leading directly to Furman’s game-winning shot. It was just four years ago when Clark was a freshman that he saved the Cavaliers with a half-court pass to Mamadi Diakite to force overtime against Purdue in the Elite Eight. That play remains one of the craziest moments in recent March Madness memory, but Clark is now on the wrong side of another one.

The Paladins did not play afraid, getting a 19-point, 10-rebound performance from star Jalen Slawson, the SoCon Player of the Year. They hit 35% of their 3-pointers and did just enough down the stretch, especially in that late run. Clearly, that play from Furman in the final seconds was an amazing moment that will be talked about in the days and weeks to come, but it also tells us a lot about Virginia.

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If you look at the Cavaliers, their last few seasons have been filled with considerable heartbreak much like these moments. No one has forgotten their loss to 16-seed UMBC, and their most recent trip before this year ended in a first round loss to another 13-seed in Ohio. Virginia’s national championship in 2019 is the saving grace, surrounded by three major upsets that really tells quite the story.

Tony Bennett and his team don’t just suddenly forget how to play basketball when the calendar hits March. This Cavaliers squad had actually been struggling in recent weeks and was a trendy upset pick, but nobody expected it to end quite like this. A fantastic five-year career for Clark ends sourly in disbelief while this Virginia team will look pretty different next season.

Meanwhile, let’s not forget that this upstart Furman team, which had not been in the NCAA Tournament since 1980, have an unbelievable first-round win and are riding high into the second. They’ll play a fellow mid-major in the second round on Saturday and have a pair of phenomenal athletes in Slawson and Mike Bothwell. Don’t be shocked if the story hasn’t been fully written about this year’s initial Cinderella.