NCAA Basketball: Purdue, Virginia falls, Marquette and Gonzaga rise in top 25 power rankings

16. Virginia Cavaliers – 21-6 (13-5 ACC)

Virginia has been skating on thin ice for the past couple of weeks, starting with that controversial overtime win over Duke that even the conference says, they probably should’ve lost. They followed that up with close wins over Louisville and Notre Dame by a combined five points.

The Cavaliers just haven’t been playing that well and eventually, it was going to catch up to them. That’s what happened this past week, starting with Boston College on the road. They were down early and often and ended up losing essentially wire-to-wire, 63-48. Virginia shot just 32% from the field and Jayden Gardner (16 points) was the lone double-digit scorer in the game for them.

The road game at North Carolina basically went the same way, with the Cavaliers down by 16 points at halftime. They made a couple of runs to try to get back into the game but the Heels maintained their distance, getting the 71-63 victory. Gardner had another good game, leading the team with 19 points and 12 rebounds. Armaan Franklin chipped in with 14 points but as a team, they made just four shots from three-point range.

Virginia does have a chance to still get at least a share of the ACC regular season title but due to tiebreakers, can’t be a 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. But they need to worry about playing better first, starting with a matchup against a surging Clemson squad at home. Louisville at home rounds things out on Saturday.