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Virginia basketball: 2019-20 season review and 2020-2021 first-look preview

By Mike Phillips

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA - MARCH 07: Mamadi Diakite #25 and Braxton Key #2 of the Virginia Cavaliers walk off the court together after a game against the Louisville Cardinals at John Paul Jones Arena on March 7, 2020 in Charlottesville, Virginia. (Photo by Ryan M. Kelly/Getty Images)
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA - MARCH 07: Mamadi Diakite #25 and Braxton Key #2 of the Virginia Cavaliers walk off the court together after a game against the Louisville Cardinals at John Paul Jones Arena on March 7, 2020 in Charlottesville, Virginia. (Photo by Ryan M. Kelly/Getty Images) /
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CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA – MARCH 07: Tomas Woldetensae #53 of the Virginia Cavaliers shoots in the second half during a game against the Louisville Cardinals at John Paul Jones Arena on March 7, 2020 in Charlottesville, Virginia. (Photo by Ryan M. Kelly/Getty Images)
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA – MARCH 07: Tomas Woldetensae #53 of the Virginia Cavaliers shoots in the second half during a game against the Louisville Cardinals at John Paul Jones Arena on March 7, 2020 in Charlottesville, Virginia. (Photo by Ryan M. Kelly/Getty Images) /

Memorable Moments

Sending North Carolina into a tailspin

People may have forgotten this, but North Carolina was actually projected to be a pretty good team this season. The two ACC rivals met in Charlottesville in early December for a critical game with Virginia emerging victorious, topping the Tar Heels 56-47 in a game where North Carolina went 1-14 from beyond the arc. That game, combined with an injury to Cole Anthony, sent North Carolina into a downward spiral that they never recovered from.

Hitting Rock Bottom against NC State

The Cavaliers went into a tailspin of their own in mid-January, dropping four of five to fall to 4-4 in the ACC. The last game in that stretch came against NC State, with the Wolfpack scoring a 53-51 win despite shooting just 39.2 percent for the game. Virginia was even worse offensively, and that game was the true low point of the Cavaliers’ season.

Handing Duke a second straight loss

The Blue Devils were up and down this year, but their lone meeting with Virginia was a game they desperately needed after losing at Wake Forest earlier in the week. The Cavaliers made sure they went 0-2 with a vintage Pack Line effort, throttling Duke’s high-flying offense in a 52-50 win. Only five players scored points for Virginia but that didn’t matter when Duke only hit 30.5 percent of their shots from the field.

Finishing strong against Louisville

There was no question that Virginia was peaking at the end of the season, and they had one of their best performances in what turned out to be their final game. With a top-two seed in the ACC Tournament on the line, Virginia hung on to beat Louisville 57-54 when Kihei Clark’s clutch three-pointer with 28 seconds to go sealed the Cavaliers’ eighth straight win. That performance also locked up the two seed in the ACC Tournament for Virginia, which was scheduled to face Notre Dame before the season was stopped.