NCAA basketball rankings: Gonzaga, Villanova, Virginia headline Top 25

3. Virginia

Virginia gets to spend the next season defending their title since there was no champion in 2020. They get to ride that wave, despite the fact they didn’t have a chance to naturally defend their title despite being on pace for another high seed. Still, they are bringing back a majority of this year’s team, and they will be one of the favorites to win their second National Championship.

Virginia had a rough start to last season and started ACC play going 4-4, but they won 11 of their last 12 going into the conference tournament that never happened. The Cavaliers hated the season-ending as much as anyone, now they will have to look forward.

Luckily for them, they are returning Kihei Clark and Tomas Woldetensae to start in the backcourt. Woldetensae quickly became a sharpshooter after a rough start. He finished the season shooting 38 percent from 3-point land in ACC play. He’s someone who can throw the team back into the fray just with his shot.

Then, Clark comes back for his junior season. He has a championship pedigree, one of the holdovers from their championship team. Bringing back their point guard in a season in such flux gives the Cavaliers a huge advantage.

The key to the Cavaliers’ success comes in the form of a transfer. Sam Hauser brings his talents to Virginia after spending his college career at Marquette. He spent last season on the bench due to transfer rules, and now he’s ready to spend his last year of eligibility competing for a title. His teammates have said he could be an All-American this year, or even as high as ACC Player of the Year. Those are insane highs from a player that will spend more than a year without a competitive basketball game.