Virginia Cavaliers
2025–26 Virginia Cavaliers men's basketball team
University	University of Virginia
First season	1905–06
All-time record	1719–1204–1 (.588)
Athletic director	Carla Williams
Head coach	Ryan Odom (1st season)
Conference	Atlantic Coast Conference
Location	Charlottesville, Virginia
Arena	John Paul Jones Arena (capacity: 14,623)
Nickname	Cavaliers (official) Wahoos (unofficial)
Student section	Hoo Crew
Colors	Orange and blue[1]
Uniforms
Home Away Alternate Alternate
NCAA tournament champions
2019
Other NCAA tournament results Final Four 1981, 1984, 2019 Elite Eight 1981, 1983, 1984, 1989, 1995, 2016, 2019 Sweet Sixteen 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1989, 1993, 1995, 2014, 2016, 2019 Appearances 1976, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 2001, 2007, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2023, 2024
Conference tournament champions
1976, 2014, 2018
Conference regular-season champions
1922, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1995, 2007, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2023
NIT tournament champions
1980, 1992

TheVirginia Cavaliers men's basketball team is theintercollegiate men's basketball program representing theUniversity of Virginia. The school competes in theAtlantic Coast Conference (ACC) inDivision I of theNational Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Virginiawon theNCAA Tournament Championship in 2019 and won the last ever NCAA Tournamentthird-place game in 1981. The Cavaliers have been ranked in the Top 5 of theAP Poll more than 100 times since 1980^[2] and have earned seven No. 1seeds in the NCAA tournament.^[3] The team plays home games at the on-campusJohn Paul Jones Arena (14,623) which opened in 2006. They have been theCavalierssince 1923, predating theCleveland Cavaliers of theNBA by half a century.

Virginia was a top program in the early decades of college basketball under the tutelage ofPop Lannigan from 1905 to 1929 and a consistent winner under multi-sport coachGus Tebell from 1930 to 1951, but the Cavaliers struggled through the 1950s and 1960s beforeTerry Holland arrived in 1974 to wintheir first ACC Championship and earn their firstNCAA tournament appearance in just his second year. The program has since won11 ACC season titles, third-most in conference history. UnderTony Bennett, Virginia had four out of five ACC teams to win 16 or more conference games in the 2010s and won its first NCAA Championship.^[4]

Many Virginia players have been recognized for their NCAA and NBA successes, withRalph Sampson andMalcolm Brogdon being namedNBA Rookie of the Year. Brogdon is the NBA's eighth50–40–90 club member and was theNBA Sixth Man of the Year for theCeltics in 2023. Sampson was a multi-time NBA All–Star, theNBA All-Star Game MVP of 1985, and is now in theNaismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. At UVA he was the second^[a] (and ACC's only) three-timeNaismith College Player of the Year.Trey Murphy III is the NCAA's eleventh and the ACC's only50–40–90 club member.^[b] Brogdon andDe'Andre Hunter were namedNABC Defensive Player of the Year,Darion Atkins was awarded theLefty Driesell Award, andKyle Guy was namedNCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player.

Since 2014, Virginia has won one NCAA Tournament,^[c] two ACC Tournaments,^[d] and finished first (or tied for first) in conference standings six times—more than any other ACC men's program.^[e]

TheWahoos, as they are unofficially known, began their history under the tutelage of aWelshman andAmerican immigrant known best as "Pop",Henry Lannigan. Lannigan began the program in 1905 after trainingOlympic Games hopefuls in track and field and quickly brought the basketball program into near-dominant form.^[5] He led the Cavaliers to a perfect record of 17–0 in 1914–15 and aSouthern Conference title in its inaugural season of 1921–22. After reaching prominence the team was invited to help the nationally known Kentucky Wildcats showcase their newAlumni Gymnasium. Virginia dominated Kentucky, 29–16.^[5] Inviting Kentucky back toMemorial Gymnasium in 1928, Virginia again won, 31–28.^[5] Lannigan held the Virginia record for best careerwinning percentage by a head coach (254–95 (.728)) until he was surpassed byTony Bennett, who was hired 104 years after the start of the program.

After Lannigan's sudden death in 1930 and with limited administration interest at the onset of theGreat Depression, Virginia basketball did not maintain its momentum into the next several decades.Buzzy Wilkinson scored 32.1 points per game in 1954–55 and is still the all-time ACC leader in scoring per game for both the single-season and career (28.1) categories.^[6] He was selected by theBoston Celtics in the1955 NBA draft. Unfortunately, Virginia teams of the era were not as great at defense and high scoring did not lead to many wins. Likewise,Barry Parkhill was namedACC Men's Basketball Player of the Year in 1971–72 and was drafted in the first round by thePortland Trail Blazers but the program had not regained its early standing.

Terry Holland was hired fromDavidson in 1975, and with starWally Walker surprised the ACC in just his second year as head coach when his sixth-seeded Virginia defeated AP No. 17 NC State, No. 9 Maryland and No. 4 North Carolina en route to winning the school's first ACC Championship. Played inLandover, Maryland, it was also and fittingly the first ACC Tournament held outside of North Carolina. Athletic, quick, and seven-foot-four,Ralph Sampson was perhaps the most desired high school recruit in college basketball history when he chose to play withJeff Lamp at Virginia over Kentucky in 1979.^[7] He lived up to that hype would become one of the most dominant college players the game has ever known, winning three consecutiveNaismith College Player of the Year awards to tie him withBill Walton as the most awarded individual player in NCAA history. Virginia would attain its first AP Top 5 rankings and go toits first Final Four in Sampson's era, but would be stonewalled byDean Smith and North Carolina both in that Final Four and in ACC tournaments. Carolina notoriously held the ball in afour corners offense for most of the last seven minutes of the game, despite having UNC's most celebrated NBA superstarsMichael Jordan andJames Worthy on the floor, to defeat Virginia in the1982 ACC tournament 47–45.^[8] Both theshot clock andthree-point line were implemented into college basketball during the same decade in part to combat such shenanigans.^[8] In 1984, after Sampson was drafted first in the1983 NBA draft, Virginia made aCinderella run back to the Final Four. There they lost 49–47, in overtime,^[f] to a Houston team led by the first pick of the1984 NBA draft,Hakeem Olajuwon, who then joined Sampson to formthe original Twin Towers of the NBA on theHouston Rockets.

John Crotty andBryant Stith took the darkhorse 1988–89 team to the Elite Eight after defeating AP No. 2 (and No. 1 seed)Oklahoma which returned most of its lineup (includingStacey King andMookie Blaylock) from the team that reached the1988 NCAA Tournament Championship Game. After Holland retired the next year, the Cavaliers were coached byJeff Jones for eight years,Pete Gillen for seven, andDave Leitao for four. Highlights of those teams include a Jones team headlined byCory Alexander andJunior Burrough that also reached the Elite Eight after a first-place finish in the ACC standings of 1995. There were no championship teams under Gillen, but his recruitsSean Singletary andJ. R. Reynolds led the 2007 team to Virginia's next conference-topping finish in Leitao's second season.

Tony Bennett arrived in March 2009 and eventually restored UVA to (and beyond) its former prominence. His teams won UVA's second and thirdACC Tournament championships, finished atop the ACC standings six times, and returned to theFinal Four towin the 2019 NCAA Tournament championship. During his era, the 2014–15 squad, led byJustin Anderson andMalcolm Brogdon, was the most dominant: starting 19–0, doubling up the scores of Georgia Tech and Wake Forest and nearly tripling the score (76–27) of NCAA Tournament-bound Harvard. In doing so, the 2015 UVA team doubled the score of more ACC opponents than the entire rest of the ACC had in all their combined histories and was the first to do so (even once) in 60 years.^[9] However, Anderson broke his finger in the last game of the regular season against Louisville and did not return until the NCAA Tournament where he was much diminished and the team bowed out in the second round. After an Elite Eight appearance, Virginia then suffereda historic loss to a former UVAballboy,Ryan Odom, and his 16-seed UMBC in the first round of the 2018 NCAA Tournament only to come back and win the 2019 NCAA Tournament for the program's first NCAA Championship the very next year.^[10]ESPN called Virginia's 2018–19 campaign "the most redemptive season in the history of college basketball."^[11]CBS This Morning called it "basketball's ultimate redemption story" the morning afterthe national championship game.^[12]Kyle Guy was named the NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player.De'Andre Hunter became alottery pick after a convincing title game showdown withJarrett Culver and was drafted fourth in the2019 NBA draft. Virginia had four of the five ACC teams to win 16 or more games in the 2010s decade.^[4]

In March 2025, Ryan Odom, who guided UMBC to that victory over UVA seven years earlier, was handed the reins to the UVA program in March 2025 after Bennett's surprise retirement.

Virginia is 3–2 at Final Four events and won the2019 NCAA tournament championship.

Led by CoachTerry Holland, National Player of the YearRalph Sampson and his first team All-ACC teammateJeff Lamp, the Cavaliers rolled to their best season in school history. After beginning the season with a 23–0 record, the Cavaliers would claim the ACC Regular Season title before falling in the ACC Tournament Semi-finals. Despite the loss, UVA still entered the NCAA tournament as the 1 seed in the East Regional of the1981 NCAA tournament.

UVA received a first-round bye and squeaked byVillanova 54–50 in the 2nd round. They then handled bothTennessee andBrigham Young by 14 points each in the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 respectively to clinch a berth in the program's first everFinal Four inPhiladelphia. Although UVA swept North Carolina in the ACC regular season, the Tar Heels defeated the Cavaliers when it mattered most, in the national semi-finals. Virginia closed the season on a high note, however, defeatingLouisiana State in the national third-place game to cap the program's most successful season to that point.

Following the loss of their vaunted All-American inSampson, the Virginia basketball team took a step back in 1983–84, at least in the regular season. The Cavaliers limped into the ACC tournament with a 17–10 (6–8) record, promptly falling to Wake Forest in the first round. Their record was good enough to ensure them anNCAA tournament invite and they were awarded the 7-seed in the East Regional.

After escaping 10th-seededIona 58–57 in the first round, Virginia drew 2nd-seededArkansas in the 2nd round. The Cavaliers dispatched the Razorbacks 53–51 in an overtime affair before cruising past 3rd-seededSyracuse 63–55 in the Sweet Sixteen. In a low-scoring, defensive affair, the Cavaliers defeatedBobby Knight's 4th-seededIndiana Hoosiers 50–48 in the Elite Eight to clinch the school's second Final Four appearance in 4 seasons.

In the National Semi-finals, Virginia drew theHakeem Olajuwon-ledHouston Cougars at theKingdome inSeattle. The Cavaliers gave the vauntedPhi Slama Jama lineup all they could handle, but eventually fell 49–47 in overtime, ending a surprisingly-successful postseason run.

Coming off aloss to 16-seed UMBC a year prior, the Virginia team returned with a vaunted Bennett defense along with the three-pronged offensive attack ofDe'Andre Hunter,Kyle Guy, andTy Jerome.^[13] The Cavaliers began and ended the season ranked in the AP Top 5, with a 28–2 regular season record and both losses toZion Williamson's AP No. 1 ranked Duke squad under CoachKrzyzewski.^[14][15] Those two Virginia–Duke matchups during the ACC regular season were the most watched college basketball games of the regular season with 3.8 million and 3.3 million viewers for their games in Durham and Charlottesville respectively.^[16] In the ACC Tournament, Virginia defeatedbubble team NC State 76–56 before being defeated by Florida State, 69–59.^[17][18] Entering the NCAA Tournament, Virginia was a No. 1 seed in the South region, Duke was the No. 1 overall seed and placed in the East region, while North Carolina also received a No. 1 seed but in the Midwest region. The only No. 1 seed from another conference was Gonzaga in the West, later to be defeated by Texas Tech in the Elite Eight.

Virginia was the sole No. 1 seed of the tournament toadvance to the Final Four afterdefeating Purdue. After first defeating Gardner-Webb, Oklahoma, and Oregon, they met theBoilermakers in the Elite Eight. Purdue'sCarsen Edwards scored 42 points against Virginia, setting an individual scoring record against a Bennett-coached team.^[19][20] With Virginia down by three points with 5.9 seconds to play,Ty Jerome stepped to the line for twofree throws,^[20] converting the first but missing the second.Mamadi Diakite back tapped the ball into thebackcourt where Kihei Clark recovered it and passed back to Diakite with one second remaining in the game.^[20] Diakite immediately scored, and the game went intoovertime.^[20] Virginia then outscored Purdue 10–5 in the extra period to advance. Jerome, Diakite, andKyle Guy each made the South Regional All-Tournament team.

In the Final Four, Virginia metthe Auburn Tigers who had already dispatched Kansas, North Carolina, and Kentucky to get there.^[21] This game was a back-and-forth battle as Virginia trailed the Tigers at halftime, 31–28. Virginia led by as many as 10 points in the second half before Auburn retook the lead late in the game.^[21] Down 61–57 with 7.7 seconds remaining, Guy scored a three-point shot from the right corner.^[21] Harper then converted one of two free throws to lead 62–60.^[21] Two controversial^[22] non-calls (one against Auburn, one against Virginia) by officials preceded Auburn being called for a foul with 1.5 seconds remaining.^[21] On the in-bounds play Jerome found Guy, again for the corner three, but Guy missed as an Auburn player fouled him by undercutting his lower body. Guy converted all three free throws to put Virginia into the2019 NCAA Tournament Championship Game.^[23]

The National Championship match was headlined by two of the top defenses in college basketball, Virginia and theTexas Tech Red Raiders.^[24] Texas Tech did not score a field goal for the first 7 minutes and 11 seconds of the game, but eventually tied the game at 19 with 7 minutes and 33 seconds remaining in the first half. The teams traded leads until halftime, with Virginia holding a 32–29 advantage at intermission.^[24] Eventual top-10 picks in the subsequent NBA draftDe'Andre Hunter andJarrett Culver shot 1-for-8 and 0-for-6 from the field respectively in the first half, but Hunter shot 7-for-8 in the second half to end with a career-high 27 points while theNABC Defensive Player of the Year sophomore limited Culver to 5-for-22 shooting and a 15-point total.^[25] Texas Tech rallied from a deficit to take a late lead before Virginia scored in the closing seconds to take the game into overtime.^[24] Virginia outscored Texas Tech 17–9 in overtime to win their first national title 85–77.^[24]

Virginia ended the season with a 35–3 record, breaking the school record for wins in a single-season.^[24] The team was 29–0 after leading at halftime.^[24] The Cavaliers were the first first-time champions of the NCAA Tournament since the University of Florida thirteen years earlier.^[24] In light of the previous year's loss to UMBC,ESPN called Virginia's championship run "the most redemptive season in the history of college basketball," andNBC Sports described it as "the greatest redemption story in the history of sports."^[26][11]

Virginia has won theACC tournament three times, defeating Duke or North Carolina in each title game.

The 1975–76 Cavalier season was largely disappointing as they finished 13–11 overall (4–8, ACC) and limped into theACC tournament as the 6th seed. Played at theCapital Centre inLandover, Maryland, the tournament was the first in ACC history to be played outside the state ofNorth Carolina.

Despite falling to NC State twice during the regular season, the Cavaliers upset the 3rd-seeded Wolfpack 75–63. The Cavaliers then drew 2-seed Maryland, longtime border rivals that had just defeated UVA five days earlier atCole Fieldhouse. Virginia defeated the AP No. 9 Terrapins, before dispatching top-seeded and AP No. 4 North Carolina 67–62 in the championship game. It marked the first conference tournament title and NCAA appearance for Virginia, as well as only the 3rd time a non-North Carolina-based team won the conference title (following Maryland in 1958 and South Carolina in 1971).Wally Walker scored 21 points and grabbed 7 rebounds in the title game, being named tournament MVP in the process.

Virginia was awarded the East Region's 7 seed in theNCAA tournament, where they fell to 2nd-seeded DePaul in the first round.

After a few years of steady improvement, Tony Bennett finally had a team he had fully recruited and coached. The Cavaliers got off to a forgettable 9–4 start, punctuated by a 35-point road loss at Tennessee. Following a pivotal conversation between star G/FJoe Harris and Bennett, UVA got on track and rolled through the ACC. On March 1, the 12th ranked Cavaliers would defeat No. 4 Syracuse at John Paul Jones Arena to clinch the ACC regular season title outright for the first time since 1981, allowing them to enter the2014 ACC men's basketball tournament as the 1-seed.

After cruising against 8th seeded Florida State, Virginia held off 4th-seeded Pittsburgh in the final seconds of the semi-final, setting up a championship game against 3rd seeded Duke atGreensboro Coliseum. The Cavaliers would exact revenge for a regular season loss to the Blue Devils, defeating them 72–63 and claiming their first ACC tournament title in 38 years. Joe Harris was named tournament MVP whileMalcolm Brogdon joined him as a 1st team selection. In the process, UVA defeated every ACC opponent at least once in a season for the first time since 1982.

After losing all-conference point guardLondon Perrantes to graduation and theCleveland Cavaliers, many expected 2017–18 to be a rebuilding year for Virginia basketball. The team would start the season unranked before getting off to an 11–1 non-conference start and climbing up to No. 13 in the country at the start of conference play. Virginia would then become the first team to go 17–1 in conference play, notably snapping a long losing streak atCameron Indoor Stadium against Duke, scoring 5 points in 0.9 seconds to stun Louisville at theKFC Yum! Center, and only losing one conference game by a single point in overtime.

They would open the ACC tournament by routing 9th-seeded Louisville 75–58 in the quarterfinals before dispatching 4th-seeded Clemson 64–58 in the semis. They would then rematch with a North Carolina team they had defeated earlier in Charlottesville and claim the ACC championship with a 71–63 win. Kyle Guy was named tournament MVP and was joined on the First team byDevon Hall as the Cavaliers gave Tony Bennett his second ACC tournament title in 5 seasons.

The Cavaliers have appeared in theNCAA tournament 26 times. Their combined record is 35–25. They were national champions in 2019.

Virginia is one of sixNCAA programs to earn a No. 1 seed in theNCAA Division I men's basketball tournament seven or more times.^[3]

The NCAA began seeding the NCAA Tournament with the1979 edition.^[27] The 64-team field started in1985, which guaranteed that a championship team had to win six games.^[28]

indicatesNCAA championship

The Cavaliers have appeared in theNational Invitation Tournament (NIT) 14 times. Their combined record is 19–12. They were NIT champions in 1980 and 1992.

The Cavaliers appeared in the inauguralCollege Basketball Invitational (CBI), in2008. Their record is 2–1.

Followingconference realignment, theCardinals moved from the Big East to the ACC and were designated UVA's home-and-away rivals. The two programs had previously had two consecutive home-and-away series in 1982, 1983, 1984, and 1985, with the Cavaliers winning all four games.Justin Anderson's injury during the March 2015 matchup derailed No. 2 Virginia's national championship aspirations, while an improbable March 2018 Virginia victory—scoring five points in the final 0.9 seconds at Louisville'sKFC Yum! Center—ended the Cardinals' NCAA tournament hopes. Both rivals have won recent NCAA Championships—Louisville in 2013(vacated) and Virginia in 2019. UVA leads the all-time series 23–7 as of 2025.

As the Commonwealth's twopower conference teams, the Cavaliers andHokies havea long-standing rivalry. When the teams were in separate conferences this rivalry often played out onneutral courts across the Commonwealth, such as inRichmond,Roanoke, andHampton. The all-time series record is well in favor of UVA, with the Cavaliers leading the series 99–61 as of 2025, but the rivalry is extremely competitive and Techdominated the decade of the 1960s.

As the two oldest universities of the ACC, theUVA–UNC rivalry spans many sports and has persisted to varying degrees since the late 1800s. The early 1980s were a particular highlight for the basketball series as all-time greatsRalph Sampson andMichael Jordan led two Top 5 programs of the era. The two teams defeated each other for ACC Tournament Championships in 2016 and 2018, and the winner of those conference title matches went on to win NCAA Championships the following year (North Carolina in 2017, Virginia in 2019).

Thanks to the proximity of these two long-time ACC members, and their status asTobacco Road outsiders,Maryland and Virginia have a long-standing rivalry that spans many decades. Traditionally, these two schools would meet in the last game of the season, and acted as spoilers to each other as they sought ACC season championships and NCAA Tournament appearances. This rivalry has been diminished since Maryland's move to theBig Ten Conference in 2014. They did match up twice in theACC-Big Ten Challenge, both played at Maryland'sXfinity Center, with both games won by Virginia.

Virginia has had 11 permanent (and 2 interim) head coaches lead the Cavaliers.^[29] The longest tenure wasPop Lannigan, who coached the team for 24 years starting in 1905.

† Interim head coaches until permanent head coaches were hired

^* Consensus First-Team All-American.

^** AP Honorable-Mention All-American.

The Cavaliers have retired eight numbers to date:^[31]

Ftl: Jeff Lamp, Malcolm Brogdon, Barry Parkhill, and Wally Walker, whose numbers were retired by Virginia

The University of Virginia's athletic department has issued the following statement distinguishing "retired jerseys" from "retired numbers": "Jersey retirement honors Virginia players who have significantly impacted the program. Individuals recognized in this way will have their jerseys retired, but their number will remain active."^[32]

• Official website

• Virginia Cavaliers men's basketball
• Basketball teams established in 1905
• 1905 establishments in Virginia

• Webarchive template wayback links
• CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from October 2025
• Articles with hCards
• Pages using multiple image with auto scaled images