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The Virginia men’s basketball team finished sixth in the ACC standings last season and missed the NCAA Tournament for the first time in nine years.
One season later, with the same nucleus of players and three important newcomers, the 13th-ranked Cavaliers claimed a share of the ACC regular-season championship and are a lock to at least earn an at-large selection into the NCAAs.
The second-seeded Cavaliers take on seventh-seeded North Carolina in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals tonight at the Greensboro Coliseum. The winner advances to Friday’s semifinals against the winner of the other late quarterfinal between Clemson and N.C. State.
“It’s another kind of season, so to speak, with the conference tournament and of course the NCAA Tournament,” Cavaliers coach Tony Bennett said. “It’s good to say that because last year we didn’t get to say that.”
UVA has made the NCAAs in seven of the last eight seasons the tournament has been played, notwithstanding the 2020 pandemic cancellation, and will most certainly hear its name called Sunday when this year’s field is announced.
The Cavaliers cut down the net after winning the national championship in 2019. Fifth-year seniors Kihei Clark and Francisco Caffaro were both a part of that team — Clark started 20 games as a freshman and Caffaro redshirted. During their time in the program, UVA has won or claimed a share of the ACC regular season championship three times and the national title in 2019.
Clark and Caffaro began the week seeking their first ACC Tournament championship, however.
While the Cavaliers would certainly welcome an ACC Tournament title, they are also eager to build on the momentum they established in the final week of the regular season following a late-season cold stretch that kept them from winning an outright regular season championship.
UVA lost consecutive road games against Boston College and UNC in late February before closing out the season with home victories against Clemson and Louisville.
“I’m just excited to play,” Caffaro said. “It’s another chance to show how good this team is, and it really can be special later on in March and early April.”
The Cavaliers have national championship hopes, one year after ending their season in the quarterfinals of the NIT.
When asked what changed from one year to the next, Bennett credits the work of the returning nucleus from last season’s squad — guards Clark, Reece Beekman and Armaan Franklin, forwards Jayden Gardner and Kadin Shedrick and Caffaro all started at least 16 games last year. And Bennett lauded the team’s newcomers — transfer forward Ben Vander Plas from Ohio and freshmen Isaac McKneely and Ryan Dunn.
“They all just tried to work really hard,” Bennett said. “I think going to Italy (in the preseason), coming together and saying, ‘How can we improve individually in our games? And collectively?’ They’ve been very coachable, and the additions of Ryan and I-Mac ... and Ben, all three of them have given us a little more depth and experience.”
Senior leadership has helped the Cavaliers stay afloat in rough waters late in the season. UVA went through a shooting slump during that late-season dry spell before finishing off with some convincing performances at home. They closed the regular season Saturday by shooting 58 percent and registering a season-high 25 assists in a 75-60 win over Louisville.
“That little slump that we had where we weren’t making shots, and I don’t think we were defending like we usually do, it was kind of meant to happen just for us to say, ‘Alright, time to turn the gears back up and let’s figure this out,’” said Cavaliers senior reserve Chase Coleman, a graduate of Maury High School. “I think the worst part of our season is already past and we can only go up from there.”
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UVA was dispatched from the ACC Tournament last year by North Carolina. They looked to return the favor tonight for a chance to reach the tournament semifinals for the seventh time in the last nine ACC Tournaments.
“It took a lot of work and determination,” the Argentinian Caffaro said of the team’s turnaround this season after last year’s disappointment. “A lot of us didn’t go home for much time. I didn’t go home at all last summer, just stayed here and worked out. I feel like having the ending we did last year compared to the ending we had this year, it kind of showed the work that we put in really paid off for us.”
ACC Tournament
Thursday, March 9
No. 1 Miami 74, Wake Forest 72
No. 4 Duke vs. Pitt | 2:30 p.m. ESPN/ESPN2
No. 2 Virginia vs. North Carolina | 7 p.m. ESPN/ESPN2
No. 3 Clemson vs. Virginia Tech | 9:30 p.m. ESPN/ESPN2