Virginia
During Tony Bennett’s nearly 15 years in Charlottesville, Virginia basketball has been in fantastic shape. The Cavaliers haven’t been on top of their game recently. They began 9-1 this season but got blown out by Wisconsin, Memphis, and Notre Dame. In fact, all five of Virginia’s losses this season have come by at least 16 points. Fortunately, they’ve gotten on a bit of a winning streak in recent weeks.
That streak hit five games earlier this week when they avenged their earlier defeat to Notre Dame, defeating the Fighting Irish 65-53 back on Wednesday night. The most impressive win of this current streak was this weekend, as the Cavaliers went to Clemson and beat one of the top teams in this year’s ACC, getting a clutch 66-65 victory with another solid team performance.
Now winners of six straight, Virginia has seen their NET rise to 42, the highest it’s been since their Quad 3 loss to Notre Dame right before New Year’s. The Cavaliers are now 8-3 in ACC play, putting them alone in 2nd place, but their resume still needs some work. They’re just 2-2 against Quad 1 and won’t have a ton of opportunities to improve on that, though they’ll see both Duke and North Carolina in the weeks ahead, hoping to keep this streak going and make an impact.