The first one that came to mind was the Game 2 win in 2018-2019: Virginia 76, George Washington 57.
That Virginia team would go on to win the national title. George Washington finished 9-24, and coach Maurice Joseph would be fired at the end of the season.
The other, probably a more apt comparison point, was the opener in 2017-2018: Virginia 60, UNC-Greensboro 48.
That Virginia team finished with a 31-3 record (and the loss to UMBC).
That Greensboro team finished 27-8, and lost by four to Gonzaga in the NCAA Tournament.
This North Carolina Central team was the preseason #2 pick in the MEAC and is a veteran team.
The Eagles rank 16th in the KenPom.com metric for experience, averaging 2.55 years of experience for the players on its roster.
Virginia ranks 40th in that metric, with 2.38 years of experience per player.
“North Carolina Central [and us], those are two older teams playing, they’re very old, and their athleticism was real,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said. “Their pressure on the ball and being in passing lanes, they got us a little bit standing around. Again, they’re a veteran team with some good, physical athleticism, and they played hard and made some shots.
“Credit to NC Central for making us work. They played hard, and they didn’t back down on both ends. They were aggressive,” Bennett said.
Virginia got out to a 31-15 lead in the first half, mirroring more the GW game in 2018-2019, which Virginia led by 25 at the half.
Last night, NCCU fought back to down eight at halftime, and actually took the lead on a driving layup by Eric Boone, who finished with 18 points on 7-of-9 shooting, with 14:21 left.
At that stage, Virginia’s defense, which will need to be better than last season’s group that ranked 59th in the KenPom.com efficiency rating, at least got better than it had been in-game.
At the moment of the Boone layup, the Eagles were shooting 42.9 percent (15-of-35) and scoring 1.16 points per possession.
In the final 14:08, Central still shot a respectable 41.1 percent (7-of-17), but the scoring was down marginally, to 1.00 points per possession.
Meanwhile, the offense, which ranked a lowly 86th nationally last season, poured it on late. Virginia connected on 10 of its 19 shots from the field in the final 14:08, and scored 1.50 points per possession, and the ‘Hoos finished the night averaging 1.26 points per possession.
The GW game in 2018-2019 became a slog more because that UVA team had a big lead and sort of coasted. The UNCG game a year earlier involved a similar Virginia team to the 2022-2023 team – a mix of older guys and younger guys that Bennett was trying to mesh – and UNCG, like NCCU, was a veteran team that was ready for the big stage.
“I heard some nervous energy in the stands from the crowd, and I thought we put a lot of pressure on them by going up by a point or two,” Central coach LeVelle Moton said. “But they came down and made some huge shots, and then went on for a 9-0 run in the second half. I thought that was the difference in the game, but they are a great team. They showed us why they are No. 18 in the country.”
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Chris Graham
