Mamadi Diakite grew up in Conakry, Guinea and learned about basketball watching grainy Michael Jordan videos. He didn’t play organized basketball until he came to the United States for high school. He knew nothing about the pomp and circumstance of the NCAA Tournament, of March Madness and brackets and “One Shining Moment” and the legends that are born in March and April.
And so when No. 1 seed Virginia lost to No. 16 UMBC in 2018 — the first 16-vs-1 upset ever — Diakite was in for a surprise.
“I knew it was bad,” Diakite said back in 2019, as Virginia was on its way to a national championship. “I didn’t know how bad it was until we got on the bus and we couldn’t get in the hotel from the front. We had to go all the way back. And that’s when I knew it was really bad.”
He pauses.
“I was ashamed of myself.”
Virginia basketball, in that moment, could have been ashamed of itself, too. The Cavaliers had endured plenty of tough March moments in previous years under Tony Bennett and were already regarded as slow-paced, low-scoring underachievers on the largest stage. But this? There was no coming back from this, right? Virginia players cried. Kyle Guy’s tear-streaked face became the face of the program.
“If you play this game and you step into the arena, this stuff can happen,” Bennett said astutely after the game. “And those who haven’t been in the arena or in the competition, maybe they don’t understand that. But there’s chances for wonderful things to happen, but when you’re in the arena, stuff like this can happen and all those who compete take that on. And so we’ll accept it.”
Bennett’s tenure at Virginia ended suddenly Thursday when the Cavaliers’ all-time winningest coach retired just weeks ahead of the 2024-25 season opener. His legacy is defined by several aspects — the pace and the defense that constricted and enraged, the building of a program from nothing to arguably the ACC’s best…
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