It’s a good time to be a Virginia basketball fan, with both the men’s and women’s teams winning every single game they’ve played so far this season as the schedule approaches conference play.
UVA is the only school in Division I college hoops with two undefeated programs.
The Cavalier men’s team (8-0, 1-0 ACC) is currently ranked third in the country, but with losses by top-ranked Houston and No. 2 Texas this week, Virginia could climb to the top when the AP poll is released around lunchtime on Monday.
The Cougars blew a 15-point advantage in the second half, falling 71-65 to No. 8 Alabama Saturday afternoon, while the Longhorns lost to 17th-ranked Illinois in overtime, 85-78, on Tuesday in the Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden.
Some observers have also made arguments for Purdue and UConn — which are also both unbeaten — to claim the No. 1 spot, but the fourth-ranked Boilermakers (10-0) barely beat Nebraska (6-5) in overtime, while the fifth-ranked Huskies (11-0) cruised to an easy win over a 1-8 Long Island squad for their only win of the week on Saturday.
Virginia, Purdue and UConn are three of the seven remaining undefeated teams in men’s college basketball (No. 23 Mississippi State is 8-0; UNLV is 10-0; New Mexico is 9-0; Utah State is 8-0). Last week, Purdue received 8 first-place votes, while Virginia only got 3 (UConn didn’t receive any).
The Wahoos haven’t played since Tuesday, hanging on to defeat visiting James Madison without star junior guard Reece Beekman, 55-50.
“For us to gut that out against a team like JMU without Reece, and then giving all those other guys opportunities, was a challenge,” said UVA head coach Tony Bennett.
After concluding the exam break, UVA will face its biggest test to date when Houston (9-1) comes into John Paul Jones Arena on Saturday (2 p.m., ESPN2).
While the rankings don’t necessarily mean everything, being ranked No. 1 is obviously an impressive achievement that many schools only dream about. Should the Hoos elevate to the top spot, it would be their first week at No. 1 in over four years.
Virginia jumped to the top of the rankings in February of the 2017-18 season for the first time since the days of Ralph Sampson in 1982, and spent the next five weeks at No. 1, and then 20 more weeks in the top 10 over the next season en route to capturing the 2018-19 national championship.
Following Saturday’s battle with the Cougars, Virginia hits the road to face Miami on Dec. 20 before returning to JPJ for the nonconference finale against Albany on Dec. 28. After that, there’s only one currently ranked team left on the schedule — vs. Duke at home on Feb. 11.
The Cavalier women’s team, meanwhile, is off to an 11-0 start, their best since the early 90s, after an 83-54 win at William & Mary on Wednesday. Amaka Agugua-Hamilton has completely rejuvenated the program in just over a month’s time, already doubling last season’s win total of 5. Coach Mox says she’s happy to be a perfect 11-0, but that she’s “not surprised” by the success of her team or the UVA men.
“It’s a blessing to be undefeated,” said Agugua-Hamilton, “and Tony [Bennett] does a great job, doesn’t surprise me that they’re doing what they’re doing. He’s a great coach, great person, great mentor for those guys.
“And for us, I think that a lot of people didn’t expect this turnaround as quickly as it happened, but I’ve said it a million times — I feel like when we walked in here, there was talent here, we brought in some talent, and we just have really, really high-character players that bought into the system and bought into each other.”
Coach Mox took over for former WNBA star Tina Thompson, who struggled to a 30-63 record across her four seasons at the helm in Charlottesville.
Both Virginia’s last winning season and its last trip to the NCAA Tournament came in 2017-18, just before then-coach Joanne Boyle stepped down.
This year’s early success has translated into national attention, as UVA, which was predicted to finish 11th in the ACC preseason poll, received 2 votes in the AP poll two weeks ago, and that total jumped to 8 votes last week. There were a handful of losses among Top-25 teams this week, so there’s a chance that the Hoos could slide their way into — or at least closer to — the national rankings. The last time Virginia was ranked was Nov. 21, 2011, when the Cavaliers were No. 22 in the AP poll.
The Hoos are one of 12 remaining unbeaten women’s teams as of Sunday evening (No. 1 South Carolina 9-0; No. 3 Ohio State 10-0; No. 4 Indiana 10-0; No. 7 Virginia Tech 10-0; No. 11 LSU 9-0; No. 15 Utah 8-0; No. 21 Arkansas 12-0; Southern Cal 9-0; St. John’s 10-0; Kansas 9-0; Rice 8-0).
UVA has gotten production from up and down the roster, with all 11 players scoring in double figures in at least one game this season. The Hoos will have another week to rest and prepare before they wrap up their nonconference schedule next Sunday against 7-3 Morgan State (2 p.m., ACCNX) and then jump into a grueling ACC slate, which will provide several challenges along the way against some of the nation’s top teams.
For now, Coach Mox believes the break comes at the perfect time in terms of overall recovery, but she’s hoping to keep the wins coming into conference competition and beyond.
“We played 11 games pretty quickly,” she pointed out. “Some people are like seven games in at this point, or eight or whatever, so I think [the players] need a little bit of a break physically for sure, taking a lot of minutes and banging on the court, but then also just mentally. I like to keep them mentally fresh, so I think it’s a good time.”
The next step for the Cavaliers is seeing a number next to their name, and when that time comes — whether it’s tomorrow or some point down the road — Coach Mox certainly has things going in the right direction, no matter what.
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