I’m about to get myself in trouble here, but in terms of the best UVA Basketball seasons that ended too soon, those who have been fans long enough know, there are a lot of them, and we’ve all got feelings about them.
It’s hard to say any of these are a favorite, because they hurt more than anything.
I mean, how did we have Ralph Sampson, on the very short list of the best to ever play college basketball, for four years, and only get to one Final Four, and never win a national championship with him?
Only at UVA.
Coulda won it all
1980-1981: 29-4, Final Four
This was the best of the Ralph Sampson teams, because of the experience around Ralph, with Jeff Lamp, in his senior year, named a second-team All-American, and two other seniors, Lee Raker and Terry Gates, in the rotation.
This team is part of a historical footnote: winning the last consolation game at a Final Four, 78-74, over LSU, hours after the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan.
2015-2016: 29-8, Elite Eight
This was the best of the Malcolm Brogdon teams, with Brogdon and Anthony Gill as fifth-year seniors, and London Perrantes in his third year as the starting point guard as a junior.
Jim Boeheim went to a full-court press down 15 in the final 10 minutes, acknowledging later that it was a gamble, but if he didn’t try it, he had no chance.
This team had wins over both of the teams that played for a national championship eight days later.
I struggled over whether to put this team #1 on this list because of that.
It was fear of the pitchfork brigade – you didn’t have a Ralph team #1? – that won out at the end of the day.
Shoulda been in the Final Four
1982-1983: 29-5, Elite Eight
This group lost to NC State in the Elite Eight, and that State team would go on to win the national title as the “Cardiac Pack,” but in all honesty, that State team was a lot better than its record.
The Pack was well on its way to an upset of a second-ranked UVA team in a January game in Raleigh before Dereck Whittenburg broke his right foot, forcing him out for 17 games, during which State had a 10-7 record.
NC State won its way into the NCAA Tournament by beating Virginia, with Whittenburg back in the lineup, to win the ACC Tournament championship, ahead of its run through March Madness.
That said, this was Ralph’s last team.
Somehow, the next one, without Ralph, and with, not much, got back to the Final Four, which tells you, this one had a chance to win it all.
2014-2015: 30-4, Second round
Supremely talented, but also, snake-bitten.
This group started 19-0, lost at home to Duke, got to 28-1, then lost three of its last four.
Justin Anderson missed eight games late in the season with a broken finger, then appendicitis.
Bennett tried to work him back into the lineup at tournament time, because why wouldn’t you, Anderson was on his way to being a first-round pick that summer – but all that did was disrupt the continuity.
No broken pinky, no appendectomy, and this was a Final Four, maybe national championship, team.
2013-2014: 30-7, Sweet 16
This team was as deep with top-level talent as any UVA Basketball team of any era – with Joe Harris in his senior year, Brogdon and Gill as redshirt sophomores, and Justin Anderson as a freshman.
All would go on to be multi-year NBA guys.
This group started 9-4, with losses to VCU and Green Bay, and an 87-52 beatdown at Tennessee, which prompted Harris to get into his truck to drive over to TB’s house, after which, it went 16-2 in the ACC, beat Duke to bring home the program’s first ACC Tournament trophy in 38 years, and was a Tevin Jones got fouled away from reaching the Elite Eight.
30 wins, but maxed out
1981-1982: 30-4, Sweet 16
The least of the three really good Ralph Sampson teams. There wasn’t much around Ralph to take the focus off him.
That said, 30-4 ain’t bad for a transition year.
2025-2026: 30-6, Second round
This team played over its head to get to 30 wins.
Ryan Odom built the roster in a few weeks in the spring, from a cast of guys from mid-majors (Toledo, San Francisco, North Dakota State) and castoffs from Power 5s (BYU, Kansas State), with two Euro imports with no U.S. experience and a 5’10” freshman from across the street at St. Anne’s-Belfield.
Nobody had this team winning 15 in the ACC and getting to the ACC Tournament final, then getting a #3 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Asterisk
2017-2018: 31-3, First round
The 1-loses-to-16 team was maybe the best UVA team ever through the end of the ACC Tournament – 31-2, early-season loss at West Virginia, OT loss to Virginia Tech, 17-1 in the ACC regular season, 20-1 with the ACC Tournament title.
From a roster-construction standpoint, though, it was painfully thin – which was why when De’Andre Hunter was ruled out for the NCAA Tournament with a broken left wrist sustained in the ACC Tournament semifinal win over Clemson, sorry, but it wasn’t going to do much in the NCAA Tournament, even as the #1 overall national seed.
Still shouldn’t have lost to UMBC by 20, but that goes without saying.
This team only makes the list because it has to.
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Chris Graham
