UVA Basketball: ‘Hoos slotted for Thursday noon game at ACC Tournament

Virginia, the #2 seed in the 2026 ACC Tournament, is slotted in the first game of the quarterfinal round on Thursday, with a noon ET tip time.

This is a departure from the scheduling in past years, which is to say, forever – wherein the opening game of the quarterfinal round featured the #1 seed, with the #4 seed slotted into the second game of the afternoon portion of the schedule.

Then #2 and #3 seeds, then, played the night games.

The ACC had indicated ahead of this year’s schedule release that it would modify the schedule to accommodate TV, and with Duke as the #1 seed, and North Carolina at #4, obviously, ESPN would want those games not in the afternoon, but in prime time.

Ergo.

Miami, the #3 seed, will play in the second afternoon game on Thursday.

Virginia, in its game, gets whoever is left from among the #7, #10 and #15 seeds.

The winners of those two on Thursday then meet at 7 p.m. ET on Friday.

The contenders for the #7 spot

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Louisville (21-9, 10-7 ACC) and NC State (19-11, 10-7 ACC) are currently in a tie for sixth place in the conference standings. Louisville faces Miami (23-6, 13-4 ACC) on Saturday; NC State gets Stanford (19-11, 8-9 ACC).

Louisville has the tiebreaker with State due to its 118-77 win in their only head-to-head matchup this season.

State also has the head-to-head tiebreaker with Florida State (16-14, 9-8 ACC).

Not sure how it would go if Cal (21-9, 9-8 ACC) got into a tie with State; those two didn’t play this season.

It could come down to Cal’s 86-85 upset of Miami on Jan. 31.

If that makes sense to you, you have more tolerance for nonsense than I do.

Contenders for the #10 spot

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FSU and Cal, at 9-8 in ACC play, are tied for eighth; Stanford, SMU (19-11, 8-9 ACC) and Virginia Tech (19-11, 8-9 ACC) are tied for 10th.

FSU and SMU go head-to-head on Saturday, so, that one should be fun.

Tech is at UVA (26-4, 14-3 ACC); Cal is at Wake Forest (15-15, 6-11 ACC).

Stanford, referenced above, is at NC State.

Contenders for the #15 spot

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I joked last night while watching the Wednesday slate that we should have done an ACC Tournament bracketology, since three teams are going to be left out.

Georgia Tech (11-19, 2-15 ACC) is already out.

Pitt (11-19, 4-13 ACC), Notre Dame (13-17, 4-13 ACC) and Boston College (10-20, 3-14 ACC) are the ones still on the bubble.

Dear lord.

Pitt and BC are head-to-head on Saturday; Notre Dame gets Syracuse (15-15, 6-11 ACC).

My breakdown:

• Notre Dame beat BC and lost to Pitt head-to-head.
• BC beat Pitt and lost to Notre Dame head-to-head.
• Pitt beat Notre Dame and lost to BC head-to-head.

Your guess is as good as mine.