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Virginia Basketball: Can The Virginia Cavaliers win a National Title in 2015-16?

By James Fitzgerald

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Virginia Cavaliers head coach  Tony Bennett has established himself as one of the best coaches in the entire country.

The defensive style of play that he is running with the Wahoos has culminated into back-to-back 30 win seasons.

The fact that Virginia is 60-11 over the last two seasons, and will be returning an experienced team led by 6-foot-5 shooting guard Malcolm Brogdon, is a big reason why the Virginia Cavaliers are ranked No. 6 in the Men’s Basketball Coaches Poll as well as being seen as a threat once again to win the ACC crown.

At this juncture of UVA basketball, given the success that they have had over the last couple of seasons, people are more concerned about the Cavaliers’ National Championship aspirations and less worried about how they will dominate the ACC.

Let’s face it, after a team teases you with back-to-back 30 win seasons the way UVA has, Final Four and National Championship talks are in order.

The question in the end is, “Can the Virginia Cavaliers win a National Championship in 2015-16?”.

Most would give the simple answer that they have as good a chance as anyone in the country, especially since the cliche is “defense wins championships” and the Wahoos play plenty of it.

Virginia, over the last two seasons, had led the nation in opponents points per game yielding a mere 51.5 points per game in 2014-15 and 55.7 points per contest in 2013-14. That is ridiculous defense!

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Besides the points they yield, or don’t yield to opponents for that matter, teams have a hard time hitting shots against the Cavaliers overall.

In 2014-15, opponents were only able to hit 36.7% of their field goals against UVA and in the previous season foes knocked down only 38.8% of their attempts.

They even had the nerve to hold three teams to under 30 points last season in Rutgers, Harvard, and Georgia Tech respectively.

Going into the 2015-16 season though, UVA is going to be without two important players from last season–6-foot-8 forward Darion Atkins who was a senior last season, and 6-foot-6 guard Justin Anderson who was a first round draft pick of the Dallas Mavericks in the 2015 NBA Draft.

Fortunately, Tony Bennett is returning enough experienced players to his system to be a threat again this season, and having experience is a valuable commodity.

But even with Malcolm Brogdon, Anthony Gill, London Perrantes and Mike Tobey being the main people he will be depending on, the concern for Virginia is not so much what they do in ACC play, but what they do in tournament play.

Are they going to be able to put up enough points to go along with their tenacious defense?

Jan 13, 2015; Charlottesville, VA, USA; Virginia Cavaliers guard Malcolm Brogdon (15) passes the ball against the Clemson Tigers at John Paul Jones Arena. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

This is where the difficulty is going to come. In the NCAA Tournament you can have a game where you may be able to dictate the defensive terms as you would like, but in the end, the team with the most points wins.

Even though Virginia’s defense is going to be felt  in most games, the concern is going to be how are they going to handle teams that smack them right back in the mouth with their defense?

That seemed to be the issue in Virginia’s loss to Michigan State in the 2015 NCAA Tournament. Virginia shot 25.8% from the floor in that game and only knocked down 2 of 17 treys.

It is not like Virginia is an offensive juggernaut to begin with averaging 65.4 points per contest.

To put that in perspective, Virginia was in the bottom four of the ACC in scoring along with Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech and Clemson.

You could blame it on the pace that they play, you can blame it on UVA being a halfcourt offensive team, or you can say that it is not hard to defend UVA on offense.

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    • That is why when it comes to the Virginia Cavaliers ultimately winning a National Championship you have to believe it is a long shot.

    They would virtually have to “play the right way” like the 2003-04 Detroit Pistons did in the NBA.

    In fact that is the mindset that the Virginia Cavaliers are going to have to carry into the 2015-16 season if they are going to win it all.

    They have to believe that they can shut down everyone, but they are also going to need to get all the timely buckets and shoot efficiently game after game to get it done.

    Virginia can win a National Championship if things go right, but their lack of comparable offensive balance to their defense is a huge reason why we have a hard time picking them to win it all.

    This year will be no different. Virginia is not hoisting the trophy, book it!

    Next: Takeaways From The West Coast Conference Tip-Off Event

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