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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – No. 11 Virginia opens the 2019-20 season at Syracuse in ACC action on Wednesday, Nov. 6. Tipoff at Carrier Dome is scheduled for 9 p.m. on the ACC Network.
 
For Openers
• UVA begins its 115th season of men’s basketball, sporting a 1,632-1,168 (.583) all-time record.
• The Cavaliers are the first defending NCAA champion to open the next season with a true road game since UCLA opened the 1967-68 season at Purdue.
• UVA is 20-1 in its last 21 season-opening games, including a 73-42 win against Towson last season.
• Virginia has a six-game winning streak on opening night and is 9-1 in season openers under head coach Tony Bennett.
• The lone opening-night loss under Bennett came at George Mason (63-59) to begin the 2012-13 campaign.
• The Cavaliers are 92-22 all-time in 114 season-opening games.
 
Broadcast Information
• The Virginia-Syracuse game will be televised on ACC Network and streamed live on WatchESPN.com and ESPN app to viewers who subscribe to a cable system that carries the ACC Network.
• The game will also be broadcast on the Virginia Sports Radio Network, VirginiaSports.com and Virginia Sports app.
• Live statistics will be located on VirginiaSports.com and the Virginia Sports app.
 
The Head Coach
• Three-time National and four-time ACC Coach of the Year Tony Bennett has a 254-89 (.741) mark in 10 seasons at Virginia and 323-122 (.726) career mark in 13 seasons.
• In 2018-19, Bennett led the Cavaliers to their first NCAA national championship, a share of their ninth ACC regular-season title and school-record 35 wins.
• Bennett became the 80th active Division I head coach to win his 300th career game against Marshall on Dec. 31, 2018.
 
UVA Ranked No. 11/9 in Preseason Polls
• Virginia is ranked No. 11 in the Associated Press preseason poll and No. 9 in the USA Today Coaches’ preseason poll, respectively.
• UVA has been ranked in the top 25 in the preseason rankings in seven of the past eight seasons.
• Dating back to 2017-18, UVA has been ranked in the AP poll for 36 straight weeks and had been ranked in the top 10 in each of the past 31 polls.
 
ACC Openers
• The Cavaliers have an 11-game winning streak in ACC openers and are 10-0 in ACC openers under head coach Tony Bennett.
• Virginia is 31-35 all-time in ACC openers.
• The Cavaliers posted a 65-52 win against Florida State in last year’s ACC season opener at John Paul Jones Arena.
 
All-Time vs. Syracuse
• UVA is 7-5 all-time against Syracuse, including a 6-1 mark in ACC action, in the series that dates back to 1983-84.
• Virginia owns a three-game winning streak in the series, including a 79-53 win at Syracuse last season.
• The Cavaliers are 3-2 against the Orange at the Carrier Dome.
• UVA has held the Orange to 68 or fewer points in each of the last eight meetings between the teams.
• Head coach Tony Bennett is 6-2 all-time against Syracuse.
 
Last Time vs. the Orange
• Then-No. 2 Virginia matched a school record with 18 3-pointers in its 79-53 win at Syracuse on Monday, March 4, 2019.
• Kyle Guy drilled a career-high 8 of 10 3-pointers en route to a game-high 25 points.
• Ty Jerome had 16 points and UVA record-tying 14 assists for his third career double-double.
• De’Andre Hunter (21 points) had career-bests with five 3-pointers and three blocked shots.
• Guy, Jerome and Hunter became the first trio of teammates in ACC history to make five or more 3-pointers in the same game.
• UVA trailed 34-32 at halftime before going on a 24-3 run in the second half to pull away from the Orange.
 
Hoo Are These Cavaliers?
• Mamadi Diakite, Kihei Clark, Braxton Key and Jay Huff headline Virginia’s top returnees from last season’s NCAA championship and ACC regular-season title team.
• Diakite started 22 games and is UVA’s top returning scorer at 7.4 points per game. Diakite averaged 10.5 points, 8.2 rebounds & 2.7 blocked shots in the 2019 NCAA Tournament.
• Clark started 22 games and averaged 4.5 points and 2.6 assists during his freshman campaign.
• Key is UVA’s top returning rebounder (5.3 per game), while Huff (4.4 ppg, 2.1 rpg) showed promise during limited action in 2018-19.
• Kody Stattmann and newcomers Casey Morsell and Tomas Woldetensae will take the minutes left by Ty Jerome, Kyle Guy and De’Andre Hunter  on the perimeter.
• Stattman averaged 4.1 minutes in 18 games as a freshman, while Morsell tallied 17 points per game as a high school senior and Woldetensae averaged 17.3 points at Indian Hills Community College.
• Freshman Justin McKoy provides frontcourt depth, while
freshman walk-on Chase Coleman could earn minutes in the backcourt.
• Redshirt freshman Francisco Caffaro is out with a leg injury.
• Recruited walk-ons Austin Katstra and Jayden Nixon provide depth.
• Forward Kadin Shedrick is expected to redshirt this season, while Sam Hauser will sit out the season after transferring from Marquette.
 
About The 2019-20 Schedule
• Four of Virginia’s opponents are ranked in the AP Top-25 preseason poll (Duke, Louisville, North Carolina and Purdue), while four (Florida State, Notre Dame, Syracuse and NC State) received votes.
• The Cavaliers will play 13 games against 2019 NCAA Tournament teams: home games against Duke, Florida State, Louisville, North Carolina, Syracuse, Vermont and Virginia Tech; road contests at Florida State, Louisville, North Carolina, Purdue, Syracuse and Virginia Tech.
• UVA will meet First Four NCAA Tournament teams Arizona State or St. John’s in the Air Force Reserve Tip-Off Tournament on Nov. 24.
• Two opponents (Clemson and NC State) participated in the 2019 National Invitation Tournament.
 
Virginia Picked Fourth in the ACC
• Virginia was picked to finish fourth in the ACC preseason poll.
• The Cavaliers, who were picked second and finished first last season, have finished at or higher than their predicted finish in 10 of the last 11 seasons.
• Duke is the preseason favorite, followed by North Carolina, Louisville, Virginia, Florida State, NC State, Notre Dame, Syracuse, Miami, Pitt, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Boston College, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest.
 
On The Horizon
• No. 11 Virginia hosts JMU in non-conference action on Sunday, Nov. 10. The Cavaliers home-opener tips off at 6 p.m. on ESPNU.