Mike Vaccaro

Mike Vaccaro

Sports

Impossible to believe Virginia could suffer this same fate twice

There are a zillion cool things about sports, a zillion reasons why they capture our attention and our imagination — all of them good, all of them worthy. One of the things I’ve always loved is how every now and again, something happens in sports that is impossible to explain but you simply have to marvel at.

Here is example one for me:

The first nine baseball players to win back-to-back MVP awards represented all nine positions on a baseball field (for the chronological record: 1B-Jimmie Foxx, P-Hal Newhouser, C-Yogi Berra, OF-Mickey Mantle, SS-Ernie Banks, OF-Roger Maris, 2B-Joe Morgan, 3B-Mike Schmidt, OF-Dale Murphy). Just thinking of the mathematical likelihood of that gives me a headache, but it is pretty cool.

This has always been my favorite: the Frank Reich Factor.

Before Reich became the patron saint of Patriots haters worldwide by helping the Eagles beat the Pats last month, he’d already established one of the most unlikely and improbable records ever: He guided the greatest comebacks in both college football and pro football history.

Frank ReichGetty Images

On Nov. 10, 1984, while quarterbacking the University of Maryland, Reich brought the Terrapins back from a 31-0 halftime deficit to beat Miami 42-40 after entering the game in the third quarter. He threw for three touchdowns and ran for one. Then, on Jan. 3, 1993, Reich led the Buffalo Bills back from a 35-3 hole to beat the Oilers in an AFC playoff game. Crazy enough that it was the same guy; crazier that he was a backup on both of those teams.

Which leads us to Virginia, which has had plenty of basketball seasons in which it has performed with polish and efficiency, which once had the biggest star in the sport in Ralph Sampson and now has one of the most respected coaches in the business in Tony Bennett.

The Cavaliers are an excellent basketball program with a fine history, but even the most fervent Wahoo yahoo would be hard pressed to say Virginia exists in the same pantheon, for better or worse, as the behemoths: Duke, Kentucky, Carolina, UCLA, Kansas, and so on.

And yet thanks to the wonderful events of Friday night, when UMBC became the first of 136 No. 16 seeds ever to topple a 1-seed, it is the University of Virginia — Jefferson’s school, one of the storied bastions of learning anywhere — that has been on the wrong end of the two biggest upsets in college basketball history.

It was hard to believe anything could ever top the shocking news that arrived two days before Christmas in 1982, when top-ranked, Sampson-led Virginia lost to Chaminade, an NAIA school, 77-72. But even that game had a thin explanation: The Cavs had played two games in Japan and used the game in Hawaii to stay sharp before flying back to the mainland. Also, please note: That was a five-point game.

UMBC 74, Virginia 54 was something else. For one thing, it was a blowout, and a stunning one. If you had the Retrievers and took the 20½ points, as Warner Wolf would say … you won! By 40½ points!

There have been enough close calls across the years that we always believed this was going to happen at some point. Except every year, another quartet of 16s would pair up with four 1s, and the lower seeds would express the same optimism, the top seed the same caution, and nine times out of 10 the games would be over by the third TV timeout. And you started to wonder: Maybe there really is such a thing in sports as a sure thing.

Thanks to the poor Cavaliers of the University of Virginia, we are once again assured that isn’t possible. You can really argue which is more shocking, Chaminade or UMBC, both are either 1 or 1A (I go with this one, personally). What is more amazing is Virginia was a reluctant witness to both.

Vac’s Whacks

I never realized how much I missed the Rob Lowe DirecTV ads until I started getting inundated 10 times a game by this very uncomfortable angry-breakup DirecTV ad.


After two years, I’m still an unabashed “This is Us” guy. And Tuesday’s season finale was an ultra-cool “Lombardi” reunion with old friend Dan Lauria showing up to play the father of Toby (Chris Sullivan, who portrayed Jim Taylor in the play).


#Unfurl


The Mets do understand that it isn’t, you know, illegal, to occasionally win a game during the old Grapefruit League, right?

Whack Back at Vac

Eli ManningN.Y. Post: Charles Wenzelberg

Ralph Amendola: The Giants are finally getting some linemen! I hope they can play.

Vac: Not half as much as Eli does.


Timothy Foster: I honestly believe if the Giants are lucky enough to grab Saquon Barkley at No. 2, they will win a Super Bowl. And it would be nice to do it with Eli.

Vac: Intellectually I suppose I understand the trend toward hating on franchise running backs. But, MAN, that kid can play.


@GaryLevick: If I’m a Virginia recruit, I de-commit today.

@MikeVacc: Funny, you hear all the time about whether the “Flutie Effect” is a legit thing, schools benefitting directly from athletic success. You don’t ever hear of any opposite phenomenon.


Jack McManus: Is there any other team — in any sport — on which more passionate fan optimism and printer’s ink are wasted than the New York Knicks?

Vac: No.