Tony Bennett: Virginia's First Round Loss to Furman Was a "Gut Punch" – Sports Illustrated

Virginia’s men’s basketball team experienced an unforeseen setback when they were defeated by Furman in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Head coach Tony Bennett expressed his profound disappointment with the loss, calling it a “gut punch.”

Bennett, who had guided the Cavaliers to four consecutive NCAA tournament berths prior to this season, expressed his dismay at the team’s unexpected defeat.

“It’s a gut punch,” Bennett said. “It’s a tough one. It was a great opportunity for us, and it’s hard to take. We had some good moments and some chances, but we couldn’t get it done.”

Bennett highlighted several areas in which the Cavaliers fell short, including missed shots and a lack of rebounding.

“We didn’t shoot the ball well,” he said. “We didn’t rebound the ball well. We had some good looks, but we didn’t make them.”

The Cavaliers had been projected to make a deep run in the tournament, and Bennett acknowledged that the loss was a difficult pill to swallow.

“It’s tough,” he said. “It’s tough to take. We had a great season, and we had aspirations to make a deep run. This loss is a gut punch. We’ll have to regroup and figure out how to get better.”

Despite the disappointment of the loss, Bennett expressed his pride in the accomplishments of the Cavaliers over the course of the season.

“We had a great year,” he said. “We had a lot of success. We worked hard, and we did some great things. We just didn’t finish it the way we wanted to.”