They didn't have to play a No. 1 seed during the entire NCAAs until their second CWS game versus Florida. It's rare to win a regional without meeting the top seed, but that's what Virginia did at Lake Elsinore. Seeded No. 2, UVa beat 3 seed USC in the opener, while 4 seed SDSU upset 1 seed UCSB. Virginia then beat SDSU while USC eliminated UCSB, and then beat USC again (14-10 in 11 innings) to win the regional. The Lake Elsinore winner played the Los Angeles winner, which was expected to be national 1 seed UCLA, but instead turned out to be 3 seed Maryland. UVa swept the Terps to make the CWS. There they beat another 2 seed, Arkansas, before finally facing a 1 seed in Florida, who they beat 2 out of 3 to make the finals.

After crushing Georgia Tech to reach the pool round, Virginia was walloped in 3 straight games, including 8-2 by ND. But they're 8-1 in the NCAAs.

And Virginia apparently made very good use of that time. Florida went 8-2 in the NCAAs, with their wins coming by a combined 88-22 (including 4-0 vs. FSU and Miami by a combined 49-14), but Virginia found a way to beat them twice. I'd like to see the Cavs win it all this week.