UVA Plays Louisville in ACC Quarterfinals

March 6, 2018

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – No. 1 seed Virginia (28-2) plays No. 9 seed Louisville (20-12) in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals on Thursday, March 8. Tipoff at Barclays Center (17,732) is set for Noon ET.

For Openers
– Virginia went 2-0 vs. Louisville in 2017-18.
– No. 1 seed Virginia captured its fourth outright ACC championship (third in five years) and eighth overall in ACC history.
– Tony Bennett (Coach of the Year), Isaiah Wilkins (Defensive Player of the Year & All-ACC Defensive Team), De’Andre Hunter (Sixth Man of the Year & All-ACC Rookie Team), Kyle Guy (All-ACC First Team), Devon Hall (All-ACC Second Team & All-ACC Defensive Team) and Ty Jerome (All-ACC Third Team) earned ACC postseason honors on March 4.

Broadcast Information
– The Virginia-Louisville contest will be televised on ESPN and ACC Network and streamed online on ACC Network Extra (ESPN3.com) and ESPN App. The game will be broadcast on the Virginia Sports Radio Network, VirginiaSports.com and Virginia Athletics mobile app on iTunes or Android.

The Head Coaches
Virginia: Tony Bennett (Green Bay, 1992), 216-85 in nine seasons at UVA and 285-118 in 12 seasons overall.
Louisville: David Padgett (Louisville, 2008), 20-12 in one season at Louisville.

A Win vs. Louisville Would:
– Send UVA to the ACC semifinals for the fourth time in five years.
– Give UVA 29 or more wins for the eighth time in history.
– Give UVA a 26-3 all-time record as the No. 1 team in the nation.
– Give UVA a seven-game winning streak vs. Louisville.
– Give UVA a six-game winning streak.
– Give UVA at least one win in each of the last five ACC tournaments, tying a program best set from 1970-74.
– Give UVA its 24th win in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals.
– Give UVA its 39th win in the ACC Tournament.

UVA in the National Statistical Rankings
– UVA ranks first nationally in scoring defense (52.8 ppg), turnovers per game (8.8) and winning percentage (93.3%), second in fouls per game (13.9), third in field goal percentage defense (37.6%), fifth in 3-point field goal percentage defense (29.9%), seventh in scoring margin (14.5), ninth in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.52) and 11th in turnover margin (4.2).

All-Time in the ACC Tournament
– Virginia will be the No. 1 seed for the ACC Tournament for the fourth time in school history and third in the last five years under head coach Tony Bennett.
– The Cavaliers are 38-62 all-time in the ACC Tournament.
– UVA has posted a 5-2 mark as the No. 1 seed in the ACC Tournament (1-1 in 1981, 3-0 in 2014 and 1-1 in 2015).
– UVA captured ACC Tournament titles as the No. 6 seed in 1976 and No. 1 seed in 2014.
– UVA has advanced to the ACC Tournament semifinals in three of the last four seasons.
– UVA went 1-1 in last year’s ACC Tournament, defeating Pitt (75-63) before losing to Notre Dame (71-58) in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals.
– Bennett is 8-7 all-time in the ACC Tournament.

UVA Ranked No. 1 For Fourth Consecutive Week
– Virginia is ranked No. 1 in the AP poll for the fourth straight week.
– On Feb. 12, UVA earned its first No. 1 ranking since Dec. 21, 1982 (650 weeks between No. 1 rankings).
– The Cavaliers are the first team to ascend to No. 1 following a loss (a 61-60 setback to in-state rival Virginia Tech).
– UVA is 25-3 all-time in the 13 weeks as the top-ranked team.
– The Cavaliers are the fourth team in the Top 25 era (1990-present) to earn a No. 1 ranking after being unranked in the preseason (Kansas, 1990; Syracuse, 2010; Baylor, 2017).
– UVA has been ranked in the AP poll for 15 straight weeks and has been ranked in the top 10 in each of the past 11 polls.
– Virginia is the fifth team in ACC history to move from unranked in preseason to the top 3, joining Miami (2012-13), Georgia Tech (2003-04), Wake Forest (1980-81) and North Carolina (1972-73).
– UVA is the lone ACC team to be ranked in the top 3 in four of the past five seasons.

All-Time at the Barclays Center
– UVA is 5-1 all-time at the Barclays Center, including wins over Vanderbilt and Rhode Island in the NIT Season Tip-Off on Nov. 23-24.
– The Cavaliers went 1-1 at the 2017 ACC Tournament at Barclays Center, posting a win over Pitt (75-63) and loss to Notre Dame (71-58).
– UVA defeated La Salle (64-56) and Rutgers (45-26) en route to the 2014 Barclays Center Classic championship.
– Rutgers’ 26 points marked the fewest allowed by UVA and tied for second among ACC teams in the shot clock era (since 1986).

UVA No. 1 in Ken Pom Efficiency Ratings
– UVA ranks No. 1 in the KenPom.com overall and adjusted defense efficiency ratings and No. 39 in the adjusted offense ratings.
– UVA is shooting 46 percent, 38.9 percent from 3-point range and 75.6 percent from the free throw line.
– UVA has shot 50 percent or better in 10 games and limited its opponents to less than 50 percent shooting in 29 of 30 games.

All-Time vs. Louisville
– UVA is 12-4 all-time vs. Louisville in a series that began in 1923-24.
– UVA has a six-game winning streak against Louisville and is 7-1 vs. the Cardinals in ACC action.
– UVA beat Louisville 74-64 and 67-66 this season.
– UVA has held Louisville to 59 or fewer points in six of eight contests since the Cardinals joined the ACC in 2014-15.
– Tony Bennett is 7-1 vs. Louisville as head coach at Virginia.

Last vs. the Cardinals
– De’Andre Hunter‘s 3-pointer as time expired gave No. 1 Virginia a 67-66 victory over Louisville on March 1 in a wild finish that made the Cavaliers the first ACC team to go 9-0 on the road in league play.
– The Cavaliers tied the game at 58 with 2 minutes left and overcame another five-point deficit in the final minute.
– Louisville led 66-64 and tried to inbounds with .9 seconds left, but Virginia got the ball after Deng Adel (18 points) was called for traveling on the baseline.
– Hunter sank a long 3 that banked in at the horn, sparking a wild dog pile of Cavaliers celebrating in front of Louisville bench.
– Ty Jerome scored 21 points while Devon Hall and Kyle Guy each had 10 and Hunter seven.

Getting Defensive
– UVA is allowing 52.8 points per game (2nd best in school history).
– The Cavs allowed 53.1 points per ACC game, marking the third-lowest figure in ACC history.
– UVA has held 22 opponents to 60 or fewer points.
– UVA has held 12 opponents to fewer than 50 points (UNCG, Austin Peay, Vanderbilt, Wisconsin, Savannah State, Hampton, North Carolina, Georgia Tech, Wake Forest, Clemson, Syracuse and Pitt).
– UVA has held three opponents to fewer than 40 points (Wisconsin, Clemson and Pitt).
– Six opponents (UNCG, Austin Peay, Savannah State, North Carolina, Georgia Tech & Clemson) have committed more turnovers than made field goals.
– UVA has held 23 foes to less than 43 percent shooting.
– The Cavaliers have held 17 opponents to 30 percent or less shooting from 3-point range.
– Bennett-coached teams have led the nation in scoring defense four times and finished in the top-five nationally in eight of 11 seasons.

About the Cavaliers
– UVA is led by tri-captains Devon Hall, Isaiah Wilkins and Jack Salt.
– The announcement of Hall, Wilkins and Salt marked the first time in Bennett’s 12-year head coaching career where he officially named team captains.
– UVA has averaged 67.3 points per game on offense, while yielding a nation-leading 52.8 ppg on defense.
– UVA has started the lineup of Ty Jerome, Kyle Guy, Hall, Wilkins and Salt in 29 games.
– Guy leads the team in scoring at 13.9 points per game and has reached double figures in 24 games, including a career-high 29 points at VCU (11/17/17).
– Hall has averaged 11.9 points and Wilkins is averaging team-highs in rebounds (6.4) and blocked shots (1.5).
– Jerome is averaging 10.6 points and team highs in assists (3.7 apg) and steals (1.5 spg).
– Salt has chipped in 4.1 rebounds per game and 22 blocked shots.
– Redshirt freshman De’Andre Hunter (9.1 ppg) has reached double figures in 11 ACC games.
– Graduate transfer Nigel Johnson is averaging 4.9 points and Mamadi Diakite has added 5.2 ppg & 2.9 rpg.
– Jay Huff and Marco Anthony provide depth and fellow rookie Francesco Badocchi is redshirting the 2017-18 season.

On the Horizon
– The winner of No. 1 seed Virginia vs. No. 9 seed Louisville advances to the ACC Tournament semifinals on Friday, March 9. Tipoff at Barclays Center in Brooklyn is set for 7 p.m.