Think Atlantic Coast Conference basketball.

It’s Duke and Mike Krzyzewski. It’s North Carolina and Tobacco Road. In the past two years, it’s added Jim Boeheim and Syracuse, then Rick Pitino and Louisville. Historical programs with continued success.

Quietly, there’s an under-the-radar power brewing in Charlottesville, Virginia. The Cavaliers went 30-7 last season, winning the ACC tournament and reaching the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16.

Yet despite winning 16 of 18 games last season in one of the country’s elite basketball conferences, the Cavaliers enter this season ranked ninth in the country and No. 4 in the preseason ACC poll.

“We realize that Duke and Carolina and Syracuse and Louisville are always going to be talked about at a different level,” Virginia associate head coach Ritchie McKay said. “But for us, we like the way our program’s growing. We feel like we can attract a terrific student-athlete.

“I don’t know if we feel left out, disrespected. I think we just feel a privilege to be mentioned in the same breath as some of those great programs.”

Virginia does have a fruitful history. Ralph Sampson was a three-time conference Player of the Year and led the Cavaliers, along with star guard Rick Carlisle, to Final Fours in 1981 and 1984. They’ve reached five Elite Eights and have had an ACC Coach of the Year winner in the 1970s, ‘80s, ‘00s and 2010s.

“I think people, for whatever reason, maybe they think last year was a fluke or something,” said Zack Bartee, the president of the Hoo Crew, the school’s student-body fan section. “We don’t have all the McDonald’s All-Americans and don’t necessarily play flashy. But we play efficient, play good defense and slow the tempo down. It’s not what generates highlight reels these days in college basketball.”

Last season, Virginia head coach Tony Bennett divided the team’s season into thirds: the preseason, nonconference play and conference play. In nonconference play, the Cavaliers lost to Wisconsin-Green Bay and then to Tennessee by 35.

The Cavaliers then looked at conference play as a whole new season, guard Justin Anderson said.

He had a bitter taste in his mouth after a four-point loss to Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Jan. 13. But the team won its next 13 games, including a 15-point victory at Notre Dame and a 19-point victory at home against Syracuse.

When Duke beat North Carolina State in the ACC tournament semifinals, Anderson turned to roommate and UVA guard Devon Hall and said, “It’s time for round two.”

The Cavaliers handed Duke its first loss in the conference championship game since 2004 and earned the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament East Region, falling to Michigan State in the Sweet 16 at Madison Square Garden to end the season.

“This year I think there’s going to be a little more extra pressure, but that’s expected,” Anderson said.

Confidence stirs on the campus of UVA, where the nearest professional team resides over two hours away. On Oct. 22, this year’s 9,966 season tickets sold out almost a month before the season started, surpassing the previous school record of 9,105 from the 2007–08 season.

Bartee said student involvement and ticket requests have gone “way up.” Last season, Hoo Crew rented a bus to drive to Madison Square Garden for the Sweet 16.

“I think some of the other students that were on the fence about whether or not to go to games, I think they saw we had a very good team,” Bartee said. “… People started showing up earlier. It was much louder than it was earlier in the season.”
Last year, Anderson said, the Cavaliers put targets on the backs of other teams.

This year he thinks it’ll be the other way around, even though expectations from the outside are still moderate for UVA.
“There was a time last year when Syracuse was 25-0,” McKay said. “When you go 25-0 and then lose two out of three and people are wondering what happened, those are awfully big expectations.

“We don’t get that and I’m not sure we would want it. Although, I know we’d welcome the challenge.”

Published on November 13, 2014 at 1:11 am

Contact Josh: jmhyber@syr.edu