Watching March Without Virginia Hits Different
You tell yourself it’s time to move on. Focus on the portal. Start building next year in your head. But then March keeps going… and something feels off. Because deep down, you believed this Virginia team had more in it. That they’d be part of these games—not watching them. This piece captures the feeling every Hoos fan knows right now—the space between what’s next and what could’ve been. Go Hoos.
Jay Ballard
3/27/20262 min read
You try to move on quickly.
That’s the lie I told myself after the Round of 32 loss.
“Good season.”
“Building toward something.”
“Next year’s gonna be different.”
I said it, and part of me believed it. I jumped straight into offseason mode. The transfer portal became my new focus. I’m scrolling names, watching clips, imagining fits.
The kid from Blacksburg pops up and I can already see it—him running alongside our two Euros, the way that lineup could stretch the floor, the way it could work in Odom’s system. For a moment, it feels like progress. Like we’re already turning the page.
Then the games start back up.
I turn one on thinking I’m just going to enjoy it. No stress. No expectations. Just good basketball.
It doesn’t take long to realize something’s off.
I’m watching teams play in spots I thought we’d be in. I catch myself checking game times, looking at matchups, and instead of just taking it in, I start picturing Virginia there. How we’d look. Who we’d trust late. What it would feel like if it was us.
That’s when it hits me.
I started to believe.
Not in a hopeful, “maybe next year” kind of way. I mean I really started to believe this team had something. That we were building toward a run. That we were about to be part of these games again, not just watching them.
That’s what makes this part hard.
The portal is exciting. It gives you something to grab onto. It lets you fast-forward to what’s next and convince yourself it’s coming together.
It just doesn’t compare to this.
It doesn’t compare to a possession that matters. To a game that carries weight. To that feeling in your chest when everything is on the line and it’s your team out there.
Now it’s not.
Now it’s just good basketball that belongs to someone else.
I’ll keep watching. I always will. There are still great moments, great players, great games.
It just feels different when you’re on the outside of it.
The portal will keep moving. The roster will come together. The optimism will build again.
This weekend just reminds me what I’m really waiting on.
Not the next commit.
Not the next projection.
Just the next time Virginia is back in this thing, and it feels like it matters again.
Go Hoos.