16. Virginia (14-2)
We’ll see a lot more in the coming weeks how Virginia stacks up against the rest of the ACC, but for now this looks like a team that can make noise and get back to the Big Dance in Ryan Odom’s first year in town. The Cavaliers don’t have a ton of performances that stand out, but double-digit road wins over NC State and Texas aren’t too shabby at all. They also got a chance to build on their early success this week.
That began Wednesday as a result of a very solid 84-60 home win over California. Malik Thomas had 20 points as the Cavaliers did more than enough to take care of the Golden Bears. A similar story was told on Saturday afternoon, with Virginia triumphing 70-55 against Stanford. Thijs De Ridder was the standout this time with 22 points in a solid enough win over the Cardinal.
That wild triple overtime loss at Virginia Tech is the only early blemish for the Cavaliers in league play. They didn’t exactly run either of those West Coast teams off the court, but Virginia did more than enough to handle their business and get to that 3-1 early mark in league play. The real challenges start to come at them next week with road tests against Louisville and SMU, two programs who certainly look pretty good so far this season.