NCAA Tournament title game: Virginia needs Pa. native De’Andre Hunter to step up against Texas Tech

MINNEAPOLIS – Virginia coach Tony Bennett took his players on a team-bonding trip to West Virginia last summer for a day of whitewater rafting.

De’Andre Hunter wasn’t much in favor of the idea.

“I didn’t really enjoy it at all,” the Cavaliers’ redshirt sophomore forward and Friends’ Central graduate said Sunday. “I don’t like water. I’m not a big swimmer. So it was kind of tough to be there. But it was fun once I was on the boat with the guys. We were just having fun.”

The Cavaliers’ last two games in the NCAA Tournament have been like a trip down treacherous rapids without a life jacket. But working last-second magic in regulation of each contest has gotten them a date Monday night with Texas Tech at U.S. Bank Stadium for the national championship.

And Hunter, who came out of a mild offensive funk with a 5-of-5, 10-point second half in Saturday’s 63-62 nailbiter over Auburn, must be one of those players to lead the Cavaliers (34-3) against the constant, in-your-face half-court pressure of the Red Raiders (31-6).

It hasn’t been an easy tournament for him. He went for 23 points in the first-round win for Virginia over Gardner-Webb. In the next 3 ½ games, however, he shot 36.8 percent from the floor and 23.1 percent (3 of 13) from beyond the arc, and scored 35 points, a total that did include the go-ahead layup late in overtime in the Elite Eight win over Purdue.

Then came the second half Saturday night when he stayed aggressive after first-half shots failed to fall.

“I was really impressed with how he responded in that second half,” Bennett said. “He’s always defending. I just keep challenging him. He’s just scratching the surface of what he’s going to become. But who knows? It’s intense. The physicality goes up, the pace, everything, when you get in these settings.

“I think he’s hard on himself. If he’s missing shots or not helping his team, he puts a lot on himself. We talk about it – ‘be free, man, go after this, we need you, be a player.’ If the shot’s not going in or whatever, impact the game in other ways. That’s kind of what we talked about, and I thought he took a step for sure in [Saturday’s] game. We’re going to need it, obviously" on Monday.

Hunter agreed with his coach about how hard he is on himself.

“It’s tough,” he said. “I’ve got to stop doing it personally. Like he said, he talks to me about it all the time. I am tough on myself but I’m trying to not do that as much.

“I just try to calm myself down. I can feel myself when I get frustrated. I try not to show it and I just try to keep playing through it, really.”

Hunter doesn’t have to carry the team by himself. He is one of the team’s three primary scorers, joining guards Kyle Guy, who hit the three winning free throws Saturday night, and Ty Jerome. If he feels as if he has to make a play, he’s not feeling a lot of weight on his shoulders.

“I don’t necessarily feel pressure,” he said. “I just try to live up to my own expectations. I know how hard I work, the things I do every day. It gets kind of frustrating at times but I just try to get back doing what I do, playing the game free.”

The Cavaliers have the chance Monday night to complete a remarkable turnaround, from making dubious history – last year’s shocking first-round upset as the No. 1 overall seed to 16-seed UMBC – to capturing their first national championship.

Hunter, who watched the upset from the bench because of a broken wrist, would love to make some new history.

“The journey is what makes everything worth it,” he said. “If we win the national championship, the journey is going to be amazing and people are going to see a total flip of the script, a comeback story, a Cinderella story, whatever you want to call it. It’s a great feeling to be in it, honestly. We’re just one game away.”