2018 NCAA Tournament: Virginia basketball alumni London Perrantes and Justin Anderson still believe in the Hoos

Losing DeAndre Hunter to a season-ending wrist injury three days before the No. 1 overall seed Virginia Cavaliers kick off the NCAA tournament is just brutal.

It sucks.

There’s no way around it. The Hoos, however, aren’t out of anything. As our very own Matt Ellis explained, the Final Four is still on the table. The margin for error is diminished, but the Virginia Cavaliers were still the very best team that took the court in the 2018 season, and they used players like Kyle Guy, Ty Jerome, Devon Hall, Isaiah Wilkins, Jack Salt, Mamadi Diakite, and Nigel Johnson to do that. Throw in Marco Anthony, who was clutch in Virginia’s home win over Louisville, and Jay Huff, and all is not lost.

Some of our favorite “experts” disagree, however.

Well, a couple former Wahoo basketball players were not fans of Goodman’s take.

Short, sweet, and to the point. The Hoos may end up benefitting from takes like Goodman’s as Coach Bennett spoke today about the need for them to maintain the underdog mentality, despite being 31-2 and the top seed in the tournament.

Bennett got advice from his father, Dick Bennett, about just that. “You’ve got to learn how to underdog the underdog,” Tony said of his father’s words. “You’ve got to out-underdog the underdog. And that’s the mindset, the grit and the fight that you’re going to need.”

Former UVA football player Chris Long agreed.

Obviously, we’ll all see what happens starting Friday. Til then? I’m not burning my bracket.