Know Your Opponent: Virginia

By Matt Bowers

Virginia Cavaliers (VirginiaSports.com)
Location: Charlottesville, Va.
Rankings: No. 51 KenPom, unranked AP
Record: 16-7, 8-5 ACC
NET/SOS: No. 55 NET, No. 53 SOS
Carolina Series History (Last Meeting): UNC leads, 131-58 (UVA 56, UNC 47 on Dec. 8, 2019, in Charlottesville)

Virginia enters Saturday night's game in the Smith Center looking to sweep the season series with North Carolina for the first time since 2001-02.  UNC is 66-8 all-time in Chapel Hill against the Cavaliers, but UVA has won two of the last three in the Smith Center.

Overall, Virginia has won the last five and eight of the last 12 meetings in the series.  The UVA defense has frustrated Carolina with some regularity of late — normally high-scoring UNC has scored more than 75 points just once in the last 17 meetings vs. Virginia.

That frustration was evident earlier this season when Virginia held UNC to 47 points in a 56-47 win on Dec. 8. The Cavs are 11-0 in 2019-20 and 98-2 under head coach Tony Bennett when holding opponents under 50 points.

The Cavaliers have won four of their last five coming into this weekend, losing only to ACC leader Louisville on the road while impressively beating No. 5 Florida State and teams below them in the standings like Wake Forest, Clemson and Notre Dame in the last couple of weeks. Whether or not that hot streak continues against Carolina may depend on how well the Cavs play against Carolina's offense.

Virginia's defense continues to be as solid as ever, boasting an adjusted defensive efficiency rating of 85.4 this season to rank No. 3 in the nation in the KenPom.com rankings. Opponents are scoring just 51.6 points per game against the Cavaliers, and the UVA defense holds foes to an effective field goal percentage of 42.6 (ranking third by KenPom).

At the same time, things haven't gone as well at the offensive end of the court this season as they did during the NCAA championship run a season ago.  This year, UVA's effective field goal percentage of 46.0 ranks 321^st nationally by KenPom and the Cavs are shooting just 39.7 percent from the floor as a team in ACC play.

Nevertheless, by holding opponents to an even lower shooting percentage (36.6 by ACC foes), UVA has won six of eight games since losing three in a row in early January to Boston College, Syracuse and Florida State.

Sophomore point guard Kihei Clark initiates the Virginia offense, averaging 10.3 points while ranking first in the ACC in minutes (37.5), second in free throw percentage (85.5), fourth in assists (6.0) and eighth in assist/turnover ratio (1.7).

Fifth-year senior Mamadi Diakite leads the team in scoring at 13.6 ppg and is second in rebounding at 6.7 rpg. He scored 20 in a 50-49 overtime win over Notre Dame on Tuesday night. He's among the ACC's top 20 in blocked shots, defensive rebounds, scoring and rebounding.

Another veteran, senior Braxton Key, a Charlotte native, leads the Cavs and is ninth in the ACC in rebounding with 7.5 rpg. Another North Carolina product, Jay Huff of Durham, leads the team with 40 blocks to rank fifth in the ACC.

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