No. 12 UVA Opens ACC Action at No. 6 Louisville

Dec. 27, 2016

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – No. 12 Virginia (10-1) opens ACC action at No. 6 Louisville (11-1) on Wednesday, Dec. 28. Tipoff at KFC Yum! Center is set for 7 p.m. ET.

For Openers
– Virginia opens its 64th season of ACC action.
– UVA was picked to finish third in the ACC preseason poll, while Louisville was picked to finish fourth.
– The Cavaliers are 0-1 vs. ranked opponents this season, suffering a 66-57 loss to then-No. 25 West Virginia on Dec. 3.
– UVA is 22-24 against ranked foes in the Tony Bennett era.
– UVA ranks first in the nation in scoring defense at 47.2 points per game and has held nine of its 11 opponents to 52 or fewer points.

Broadcast Information
– The Virginia-Louisville game will be televised on ESPN2, streamed online on ACC Network Extra and broadcast on the Virginia Sports Radio Network, VirginiaSports.com and Virginia Athletics mobile app on iTunes or Android.
– Live statistics will be located on VirginiaSports.com and the Virginia Sports app.

The Head Coaches
Virginia: Tony Bennett (Green Bay, 1992), 175-73 in eight seasons at UVA and 244-106 in 11 seasons overall.
Louisville: Rick Pitino (Massachusetts, 1974), 402-135 in 16 seasons at Louisville and 756-263 in 32 seasons overall.

UVA Ranked No. 12/11 in Latest Polls
– UVA is ranked No. 12 in the latest Associated Press and No. 11 in the USA Today Coaches’ poll.
– UVA has been ranked in the top 15 in each of the first eight polls this season and was ranked in the top 10 in the first four polls.
– The Cavaliers were ranked in top 10 in the preseason rankings (No. 8/7) for the third straight season, matching a school-best from 1981-83.
– UVA has been ranked in 53 consecutive AP polls since Feb. 3, 2014.
– UVA has finished in the top 10 (No. 3 in 2014 & No. 6 in 2015 and No. 4 in 2016) in the final AP rankings in three consecutive seasons for the first time since 1981-83.

All-Time vs. Louisville
– The Cavaliers are 8-4 all-time vs. Louisville in the series that dates back to 1923-24.
– UVA has a two-game winning streak against Louisville and is 3-1 vs. the Cardinals in ACC action.
– The Cavaliers are 4-3 against the Cardinals in Louisville, including a 63-47 win at KFC Yum! Center last season.
– The 16-point UVA win last season marked Louisville’s worst loss at KFC Yum! Center, surpassing the 15-point win (78-63) by Kentucky over the Cardinals on Dec. 31, 2010.
– The Cavaliers added 68-46 win over the Cardinals at John Paul Jones Arena to complete the two-game season sweep.
– Tony Bennett is 3-1 vs. Louisville as head coach at Virginia.
– London Perrantes is Virginia’s current career leading scorer against Louisville, averaging 7.0 points, 5.0 assists and 3.5 rebounds in four career games against the Cardinals.

ACC Openers
– The Cavaliers have an eight-game winning streak in ACC openers and are 7-0 in ACC openers under head coach Tony Bennett.
– Virginia is 28-35 all-time in ACC openers.
– The Cavaliers posted a 77-66 win over Notre Dame in last year’s ACC season opener and used a career-high 26 points from London Perrantes in an 89-80 overtime win at Miami in their 2014-15 ACC season opener.

Last Time Out
– Kyle Guy tallied 17 points and London Perrantes added 14 as No. 12 Virginia posted a 56-52 at California on Dec. 21.
– Perrantes scored UVA’s first nine points and Guy tallied seven points during the Cavaliers’ 17-2 run in the second half as UVA ended Cal’s school-record, 27-game home winning streak.
– UVA limited Cal to 35.3 percent shooting and committed just seven turnovers in the road win.
– Jabari Bird led the Bears with 15 points, Sam Singer added 10 and Ivan Raab had a game-high 12 rebounds.

Hoo Are These Wahoos?
– Virginia is led by senior point guard London Perrantes, who is a Wooden and Naismith Player of the Year and ACC Player of the Year candidate.
– Perrantes is averaging team highs in points (10 ppg) and assists (4.4 apg).
– Isaiah Wilkins (6.2 ppg & 5.0 rpg) leads the team in rebounds (55) and steals (17) and is second in blocked shots (14).
– Newcomer Kyle Guy is averaging 9.4 points on 60 percent 3-point shooting and Marial Shayok is averaging 8.3 points.
– Darius Thompson has added 7.8 points in 11 starts, while Jarred Reuter leads the team in field goal percentage (65.9%) and is second in rebounding at 4.1 per game.
– Jack Salt, who is UVA’s most improved player, is averaging 5.6 points and 3.5 rebounds in 19.5 minutes per game. Salt averaged 1.6 points and 1.1 rebounds in 6.6 minutes per game last season.
– Mamadi Diakite is averaging 6.0 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.9 blocked shots in 15.1 minutes per game off the bench.

On The Horizon
– No. 12 Virginia hosts No. 20 Florida State in ACC action on Saturday, Dec. 31. Tipoff at John Paul Jones Arena is set for 2 p.m. ET. The game will be televised by ESPNU.