Virginia Cavaliers: 29-3, 16-2 in the Atlantic Coast Conference
Head coach: Tony Bennett (10th season)
Players to watch: De'Andre Hunter (15.1 PPG, 5.0 RPG, 45.7 3PT%); Kyle Guy (15.6 PPG, 4.4 RPG, 46.3 3PT%); Ty Jerome (13.0 PPG, 5.4 APG)
Season recap: Virginia spent most of the regular season dominating all of its competition except Duke, spurred by the motivation of last season's historic, humiliating blowout loss to No. 16 seed UMBC in the NCAA tournament. Head coach Tony Bennett's squad trounced top-10 opponents Virginia Tech and Florida State and also topped the Hokies, North Carolina and Louisville on the road. The Blue Devils were the Cavaliers' only kryptonite before March, as they didn't have much of an answer for freshman phenom Zion Williamson in either matchup.
The staunch defense and slow pace had the look of a prototypical Virginia team, but the Cavaliers appear to have more talented offensive weapons than in previous years. Sophomore De'Andre Hunter is expected to be a top-10 pick in the NBA Draft and can score both at the rim and at the 3-point line. He was also named the ACC Defensive Player of the Year. Juniors Kyle Guy and Ty Jerome are both elite 3-point threats as well, and Virginia's 41.4 percent clip from deep ranks third in the nation.
The Cavaliers earned the No. 1 seed in the ACC tournament for the fourth time in six years with its stellar regular season but faltered on the same floor in Charlotte where they were stunned by the Retrievers in March Madness a year ago. Point guard Jerome had an uncharacteristically sloppy tournament, and Virginia's pack-line defense couldn't keep the Seminoles out of the paint. Florida State shot 56.5 percent from the field on its way to a semifinal win.
How they make a run: The Cavaliers bombard opponents with 3-pointers like they did in an outstanding 18-of-25 performance at Syracuse and keep playing stifling defense to advance to an elusive Final Four under Bennett and potentially go a step further to win the national championship.
How they falter: We all saw it last year. Their shots don't fall, they fall behind, they don't know how to speed up the tempo to come back and they panic, resulting in another early exit.
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