Game Notes: #2 UVA basketball finishes regular season at Louisville

No. 2 UVA (28-1, 15-1 ACC) closes out the regular season with an ACC contest at No. 16/14 Louisville (23-7, 11-6 ACC) on Saturday (March 7). Tipoff at KFC Yum! Center is set for 6:30 p.m.

 

For Openers

• Virginia junior guard Justin Anderson will miss the game after having an appendectomy on March 5. He has missed the past seven games with a fractured a finger and his status for the ACC Tournament is to be determined.
• UVa ranks first nationally in scoring defense at 49.9 points per game, which is the third lowest average in the shot clock era (since 1986).
• UVa is first in the ACC at 16-1, while Louisville is fourth at 11-6.
• Virginia’s 28-1 record marks its best start in school history.
• Virginia has clinched its second consecutive ACC regular-season title and No. 1 seed in the ACC Tournament.
• Virginia is the first ACC school besides Duke or North Carolina to earn back-to-back outright ACC regular-season titles since NC State in 1973-74.
• Virginia is the first ACC school to record 16 or more league wins in back-to-back seasons.
• UVa has held its opponents to fewer than 50 points in six of the last eight games.
• Virginia has beaten ACC opponents by 10 or more points in five straight games.

 

Broadcast Information

• The Virginia-Louisville game will be televised on ESPN and streamed online at WatchESPN.com.
• The game will be broadcast on the Virginia Sports Radio Network, VirginiaSports.com and Virginia Athletics mobile app on iTunes or Android.
• Live statistics will be located on VirginiaSports.com and Virginia Sports app.

 

The Head Coaches

• Virginia: Tony Bennett (Green Bay, 1992), 134-61 in six seasons at UVa and 203-94 in nine seasons overall.
• Louisville: Rick Pitino (Massachusetts, 1974), 364-124 in 14 seasons at Louisville and 718-252 in 30 seasons overall.

 

UVa Ranked No. 2 in Latest National Polls

• UVa is ranked No. 2 in the AP and USA Today coaches’ polls.
• The Cavaliers have been ranked in the top 10 for the first 18 weeks of the season for the first time since 1982-83.
• Prior to this year, the Cavaliers achieved their last No. 2 ranking on March 8, 1983.
• Virginia has delivered three of the 21 home losses by teams currently ranked in the top 20 of this week’s AP poll (Notre Dame, North Carolina, Maryland).
• The No. 9 AP preseason ranking was UVa’s best since a No. 1 ranking to start the 1982-83 season.
• UVa is one of three teams (Duke and Arizona) that have been ranked in the top 10 for 20 straight weeks dating back to last season.

 

Virginia All-Time vs. Louisville

• The Cavaliers are 6-3 all-time vs. Louisville in the series that dates back to 1923-24.
• Virginia and Louisville meet for the second time this season.
• Then-No. 3 Virginia defeated then-No. 9 Louisville 52-47 on Feb. 7 in Charlottesville.
• The Cavaliers are 3-2 against the Cardinals in Louisville and the teams are meeting for the first time at KFC Yum! Center.
• Tony Bennett is 1-0 all-time vs. Louisville.

 

Last Time vs. the Cardinals

• Malcolm Brogdon scored 15 points and Virginia’s defense held Louisville to 13 first-half points in the Cavaliers’ 52-47 win over the Cardinals on Feb. 7.
• Anthony Gill added 10 points and eight rebounds off the bench, and Darion Atkins and Mike Tobey added nine points each.
• Terry Rozier led Louisville with 16 points, and Montrezl Harrell had 12 and Chris Jones added 11.
• London Perrantes had a game-high six assists.
• Virginia had just two turnovers in the contest, but was outrebounded 36-33.
• The Cavaliers shot 33.3 percent from the floor and limited Louisville to 37 percent.

Last Time Out

• No. 2 Virginia overcame a sluggish start to defeat Syracuse 59-47 on March 2 at the Carrier Dome.
• The Cavaliers scored their first points at 11:46 and rallied to take a 23-20 halftime lead.
• Anthony Gill had game highs in points (17) and rebounds (9) and London Perrantes had his first career double-double with 10 points and a career-high 10 assists.
• Malcolm Brogdon added 10 points and Mike Tobey contributed 10 points and eight rebounds off the bench.
• Virginia dominated Syracuse with a 42-20 rebounding advantage.
• The Cavaliers shot 46.2 percent from the floor and limited the Orange to 38.3 percent, including 4-19 from 3-point range.

 

On The Horizon

• No. 1-seed Virginia plays the No. 8 seed or No. 9 seed in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals on Thursday, March 12. Tipoff is set for 12 p.m. at Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, N.C.