The last five years have been a whirlwind at Virginia Basketball; there’s surely no doubt about that. These Cavaliers fell to 16-seed UMBC back in 2018, rebounding by cutting down the nets and winning the program’s first national championship the following year. Since that time, we’ve experienced a national pandemic, the retirement of two of the greatest ACC head coaches of all time, and a few seasons that the Cavaliers surely want to forget about.
Two seasons ago, the Cavaliers saw their Tournament dreams end in the first round to Ohio, but that was still a more productive year than last season. The Cavaliers finished 6th in the ACC but had to settle for the NIT, missing the Big Dance for the first time in nearly a decade. While Virginia won a pair of games during the NIT, a quarterfinals appearance in that tournament was certainly not the goal for Tony Bennett’s squad.
In recent memory, Virginia has been a very impressive team in the ACC. In a conference with great programs like Duke and North Carolina (who were both in the Final Four last season), the Cavaliers have won five of the last nine ACC regular season titles and have been to the Big Dance eight times since Bennett took over the program in 2009. However, that aforementioned sixth-place finish was their worst in over a decade.
Looking ahead, there is absolutely reason for optimism for these Cavaliers. Last year’s squad has seen a few players depart, but Virginia will return much of last year’s production, losing just a few bench pieces to transfer or graduation. As we’ll see later today, they’ve also added a significant amount of young talent as well as utilizing the transfer portal for themselves.
We’ll be looking closely at this Cavaliers program as it currently stands, diving into the roster, the schedule, and what we should see from Virginia this season. Returning their entire starting lineup is always a good start, but does this program have enough talent to contend for another ACC crown? There’s certainly great talent at the top of this league, but there’s plenty to like about these Cavaliers as well.