5. Virginia Cavaliers
Record: 9-0 (0-0 ACC)
Last Week: No. 6
You wanna know how good Virginia’s defense is? They did not allow opponents to score a single point during this past week. I don’t care that they didn’t play a single game; that is flat-out elite.
Okay, now that the joking is out of the way, I think everyone can agree that UVA is worthy of a top-10 ranking at this point in time. Sure, there will still be trolls in the comments bringing up UMBC but this is an entirely different season and the Cavaliers are once again one of the best teams in the nation. And, in my opinion, this season has been more about their offense than their defense.
Yes, UVA’s defense is still possibly the best in the nation but they really have three guys offensively that can go get their own basket consistently. Now healthy and with another year of experience for each, De’Andre Hunter, Kyle Guy, and Ty Jerome make up a fairly difficult trio to guard as each can get going offensively on any given night. That, to me, is the biggest step the team has taken from last year to his one.