Category: Virginia Cavaliers

Virginia hurts NCAA Tournament odds with rare loss to Notre Dame

The Virginia Cavaliers took a rare loss against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to move to 1-1 in ACC play.

Notre Dame coach Micah Shrewsberry picked up his first conference win on Saturday in a 76-54 thrashing over Tony Bennett and Virginia.

The Fighting Irish move to 6-7 on the year and 1-1 in ACC play, while Virginia drops to 10-3 overall and 1-1 in conference.

It’s a rare win for Notre Dame, who came into the game trailing the all-time series 17-3 and who had only beat Virginia twice since Bennett took over.

Notre Dame’s 76 points is the second most surrendered by the Cavs and their notoriously excellent defense this season, behind only the 77 scored by Memphis.

Virginia didn’t just struggle on defense, they shot 38% from the field and only attempted 11 three pointers – making just two – despite being behind most of the game.

For Virginia a Quad 4 loss like this one seriously hurts their NCAA Tournament at-large hopes, as the Fighting Irish came into the day a whopping 239th in the NET.

For Notre Dame it’s a reminder that – while this season has had plenty of low points already – the future with coach Shrewsberry is bright.

Merrimack forward Jordan Minor commits to Virginia

Jordan Minor commits to ACC program.

The Virginia Cavaliers added a major piece to their team for the 2023-2024 season on Thursday as Merrimack forward Jordan Minor announced his decision. 

Minor picked the Cavaliers over the likes of Iowa, Florida Gulf Coast, and Seton Hall.

This past season, the 6-foot-8, 220-pound forward out of Kingston, Massachusetts averaged 17.4 points and 9.4 rebounds over 28 games and 33.4 minutes per night.

He was the Northeast Conference’s co-Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year for his efforts this past season while also being a selection on the All-NEC and All-NEC Tournament teams.

Over his four-year career at Merrimack, Minor played in 107 games including making 76 starts. He averaged 12.6 points and 7.4 rebounds a game while shooting 51.2% from the floor. On top of his strong offensive efforts, he was also fantastic on the defensive side of the ball where he averaged 2.8 blocks and 1.5 steals per 40 minutes and has a career defensive rating of 92.4.

Minor will look to help Tony Bennett’s UVA squad follow up a quality 2022-23 season that saw them go 25-8 and 15-5 in conference play, earning a No.4 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Cavaliers would be upset in the first round by Furman, however. It was the third time in their last four visits to the NCAA Tournament that the Cavaliers have been eliminated in the first round.

Virginia among biggest losers on day one of the NCAA Tournament

UVA is among the biggest losers from Thursday’s round one action.

Only three things seem to be certain when it comes to this time of year. Death, taxes, and the [autotag]Virginia Cavaliers[/autotag] choking in the first round.

For the third time in the last four appearances, UVA dropped a first-round matchup. This time they fell to No. 13 Furman after an ill-advised heave downcourt right into the waiting arms of Paladin’s player Garret Hien. Once the ball was passed to JP Pegues, it was all she wrote for Virginia.

The Cavaliers lost to UMBC in the 2018 tournament. The following year they made a run to the title but in their last two appearances both as a No. 4 seed, they were bounced in the first round. In 2021, it was to No. 13 Ohio, and again this year to Furman.

According to Lindsay Schnell of USA TODAY Sports, Virginia is among the biggest losers from Thursday’s action.

What Schnell Says…

Trivia time: What happened to Virginia basketball on March 16? If you said, “they made history,” you’d be right. It wasn’t the good kind of history — and this year, history repeated itself. This is becoming a jinxed date for UVA.

On March 16, 2018, Virginia became the first No. 1 seed to lose to a 16-seed in the men’s NCAA Tournament. Five years later to the day, UVA again blew a game in which it was a clear favorite. What’s worse is how it happened. Tony Bennett’s teams are typically disciplined and smart, so to lose because of an extremely dumb pass is rough.

Virginia hasn’t won an NCAA Tournament game since the 2019 title run, having lost twice in the first round since then.

Virginia wasn’t the only team to fall to a lower-seeded opponent as the Arizona Wildcats had a similar fate against No. 15 Princeton on Thursday. Those two Cinderella teams were amongst the big winners on the first day of the tournament.

First, in the Virginia-Furman game, the Paladins’ suffocating, trapping defense made Virginia senior Kihei Clark panic, and he heaved a dangerous, cross-court pass as the game’s final seconds wound down. That pass was intercepted by Furman’s Garrett Hien, who kicked it to JP Pegues, who’d missed his three previous attempts from long distance. Pegues calmly buried the 3 to go up 68-67. After a timeout, Virginia’s game-winning attempt was off.

Then, in Arizona-Princeton, the Wildcats went ice cold from the field in the final 4:43 (0-for-7) as Princeton pulled off an improbable 59-55 upset. Arizona missed numerous shots in the final couple of minutes that could have won it, and Princeton iced the win with free throws. It’s the third consecutive year a 15 has beaten a 2.

What does day two have in store for us?

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