The Virginia Cavaliers are in the NCAA Tournament and have been selected as the No. 3 seed in the Midwest region. The ‘Hoos will tip off against the No. 14 seed Wright State in Philadelphia on Friday.
Should the ‘Hoos win their first NCAA Tournament game since 2019, they’ll take on either No. 6 Tennessee or the winner of the No. 11 seed play-in game between SMU and Miami (OH). UVA beat ACC-foe SMU by four on the road back in January. Elsewhere in the Midwest Region, Michigan is the No. 1 seed, Iowa State is the No. 2, Alabama is the No. 4, and Texas Tech is the No. 5.
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Virginia seemingly strengthened its resume by hanging with Duke in a brutally-close ACC Championship loss on Saturday night. Despite a few late hiccups that cost the Cavaliers, they hung with the best team in college basketball for 40 minutes. Duke was missing a pair of starters. Nevertheless, it was a far-improved performance from Ryan Odom’s squad relative to the 26-point blowout in Cameron Indoor on Feb. 28.
UVA is back in the NCAA Tournament after missing it in 2025. The last time the program competed in March Madness turned out to be Tony Bennett’s final game, coming against Colorado State in a play-in contest.
March has been tough sledding for Virginia since 2019. Ohio upset UVA in the first round in 2021. Furman staged another upset in 2023, winning on a buzzer-beating play that Wahoo fans don’t need to be reminded of. And the loss to Colorado State in 2024 was … not pretty.
Odom and this new UVA squad now have the opportunity to flip the script and immortalize themselves with a deep run. Getting a No. 3 seed is a big win after Virginia seemed destined to be a No. 4. It sets them up to make a run to the second weekend.
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The ACC got eight teams in the tournament including No. 1 overall seed Duke, No. 3 seed Virginia, No. 6 seed Louisville, No. 6 seed North Carolina, No. 7 seed Miami, No. 8 seed Clemson, No. 11 seed NC State, and No. 11 seed SMU. The SEC and Big10 each got nine bids while the Big12 also received eight.
