ACC Basketball: 2020-21 power rankings after non-conference play

After Gonzaga, Baylor, and Villanova were the consensus top-3 teams in the preseason, No. 4 seemed to be up for grabs. Virginia got the nod, thanks to three primary reasons; the Cavaliers had a great second-half run and brought back a ton of production, Coach Tony Bennett’s defense should still be top-tier, and Marquette transfer Sam Hauser now in the mix to add offense and three-point shooting.

Yet so far, none of that has happened to this point. The offense has looked mostly the same, with the guards having struggled overall. One bright spot has been Rice transfer Trey Murphy, second on the team with 12.2 ppg while making 56% from three-point range. Hauser does lead Virginia at 12.8 ppg but he didn’t do well against the team’s top opponents and has been below average on defense, particularly when defending on the perimeter.

The Cavaliers defense gave up nearly 100 points to top-ranked Gonzaga and was never in the game. They also lost to another WCC opponent in San Francisco in an early upset after giving up 13 made three-pointers. When you include nearly losing to Kent State in overtime, this team is far from the top-5 expectations at the beginning.

They’re a little better on offense but worse on defense, with the trade-off not helping them on the court. What should help Virginia is its very easy upcoming stretch of ACC games, including Notre Dame twice, Wake Forest, and Boston College. If they can’t be in first place in the conference standings in a couple of weeks, the Cavs will be in major trouble in terms of the league title.