Paris Clark abruptly hesitated after standing to leave the press conference. The senior zeroed in on her coach with a pressing question. 

“Can we have these?” she asked, pointing at the March Madness-branded nameplate tented in front of her. 

It’s how one knows the tiara fits. That and a team-wide sprouting of unwavering belief, despite brackets busting by the day. 

“We just believed that we were going to win this game before it even started,” fourth-year head coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton said.  

No. 10 Virginia stepped into the position of a historic Cinderella as the first First Four team to reach the Sweet 16, and the rare double-digit seed to advance out of the first weekend. The Cavaliers, making their first tournament appearance since 2018, upset No. 2 Iowa, 83-75, in two overtimes on the road at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City on Monday.

They were the only true upset of a chalky first round in a game that also required overtime. In all, they’ve played 135 minutes to most Sweet 16 teams’ 80 while lending legitimacy to the downtrodden ACC. 

The conference took beatings all season as an afterthought to the powerhouse SEC and the deep Big Ten. (The chaotic Big 12 is another conversation entirely.) It used to be about bragging rights. Now, units are involved, and the conference will reap financial rewards. 

Virginia finished eighth in the ACC and reached only its second NCAA tournament since 2010. The Cavs cemented the at-large bid with major upsets of Notre Dame and Louisville last month. This week, they knocked out Georgia, an SEC counterpart ranked for six weeks in the Associated Press poll, in the first round. And the Big Ten’s second-best squad in both the regular season and tournament in the second round. 

They are one of five ACC teams through to the final 16, quietly employing one of the conference’s most dynamic scorers. Kymora Johnson, a junior guard from nearby Charlottesville, Virginia, ranks second in scoring (19.5) behind National Player of the Year contender Hannah Hidalgo (25.2). She led all scorers with 28 points in the Iowa win while playing a full 50 minutes. 

“We’re a confident team and we believe in all the work that we put in,” Johnson said. “Not a lot of people have and they’ve kind of written us off. But we came into March trying to show what Virginia is about.”

The Cavs came in hungry. Agugua-Hamilton described it as “senior urgency” how starters Clark and Romi Levy stepped up over the last three games to give Virginia life. They outscored Iowa, 18-10, in the second overtime period. 

“They came in here and when you’re that underdog in March, most people cheer for the underdog,” Iowa head coach Jan Jensen said. “You can play with a lot less pressure and you come in here and you’re just kind of rolling, and they get one, and then they get two, and what do you really got to lose?” 

Iowa should know what there is to lose. It was four years ago that No. 10 Creighton came into Iowa City and upset the Hawkeyes. That’s the only time in the last six tournaments that Iowa didn’t advance, and the Bluejays are the last double-digit seed to do so. 

In fairness, most of these Hawkeyes weren’t on that pre-back-to-back title games squad. Still, they were too complacent for a No. 2 seed that played in its conference tournament’s title game this month. That 51-point loss to UCLA is looking more like a relegation on them than the Bruins’ dominance. 

They were more willing to soak in their accomplishments than add new ones. Being happy to be here is a one-way ticket to the exits. 

Iowa head coach Jan Jensen used the word “young” repeatedly this month for her team, and it showed on Monday. The Hawkeyes’ leading offensive threat, Ava Heiden, a 6-4 sophomore center, fouled out with two minutes left in the second overtime. Chit-Chat Wright, a sophomore transfer from Georgia Tech, bled the regulation clock too long, forcing a bad shot attempt on a possession that could have ended the game. In the overtime periods, she seemed unaware of the clock again and committed a foul on a 3-pointer shooter in the waning milliseconds of theirs. 

Veteran leadership still matters more than the numbers in front of the name this time of year. So, too, does money. None of the teams in the Sweet 16 are crying poor, which is why few of them are the worst seeds. 

Every modern Cinderella requires at least one major booster. Virginia’s is 2005 alumnus Alexis Ohanian, whose December 2024 donation reportedly consists of $776,000 annually for four years. Virginia, a 1990s powerhouse that featured South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley, posted its first winning season since 2018 last year. 

The next question is how far they’ll go.