NCAA Basketball: Preseason Top-25 power rankings for 2020-21 season

Losing Mamadi Diakite and Braxton Key may not seem like big losses production-wise, losing Diakite in the frontcourt certainly stings. The 6’9 forward was one of the best individual defenders in the frontcourt in all of NCAA Basketball last season and could spread the floor with his shooting.

The good news for the Cavaliers is that they already have his replacement on the roster in Marquette transfer Sam Hauser. The second-team All-Big East forward averaged 14.9 ppg as a junior and shot 40% from three-point range on over six attempts a game. He’s also a very good rebounder and passer as well, which makes up for his perceived defensive deficiencies.

The good news for the team is that senior center Jay Huff is still around. His numbers won’t jump out at you but that’s not his main objective. The 7’1 big man is an outstanding defender and will have to be that way against some of the top frontcourt the ACC and the rest of the country have to offer. Hauser and Huff pair well with each other, while Justin McCoy, Francisco Cáffaro, and Kadin Shedrick will provide depth off the bench.

"As always, expect Virginia to be an aggressively defensive team. As long as Tony Bennett is the coach, don’t expect that to change. The struggle for the Cavaliers will ultimately be finding guys who can be counted on to put the ball in the basket. – Karl Heiser (@karlheiser17)"

The Cavalier’s ceiling will ultimately decide on how the guard play looks. When the team was struggling in the first half of last season, it was due to poor shooting and offense overall on the perimeter.

Kehei Clark did produce all-around numbers and averaged in double-digit scoring overall but does need to shoot better than 38% fro inside the arc, which happened to be the same percentage from beyond it. Thomas Woldetensae was a solid JUCO impact player with his three-point shooting, while Casey Morsell is due for a breakout sophomore campaign.

Virginia looked like a national championship contender at the back-end of last season and with an improved offense, should be that way again this year. As long as the top-tier defense isn’t a trade-off, this is a top-5 caliber team.