No. 4 Virginia Opens Season Against Towson
UNCASVILLE, Conn. – No. 4 Virginia opens its 2020-21 season against Towson in Bubbleville on Wednesday, Nov. 25. Tipoff for the nonconference game at Mohegan Sun Arena is slated for 1:30 p.m. on FloHoops.com.
For Openers
• UVA begins its 116th season of men’s basketball, sporting a 1,655-1,175 (.585) all-time record.
• UVA is 21-1 in its last 22 season-opening games, including a 48-34 win at Syracuse last season.
• Virginia has a seven-game winning streak on opening night and is 10-1 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 93-22 all-time in 115 season-opening games.
• UVA is 141-38 (.788) in non-conference action under Bennett.
Broadcast Information
• The Virginia-Towson game will be streamed on FloHoops.com ($).
• 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 277-96 (.743) mark in 11 seasons at Virginia and 346-129 (.728) career mark in 14 seasons.
• Bennett led the Cavaliers to their eighth straight season with 23 or more wins in 2019-20.
• Bennett also led UVA to a 15-5 mark and second-place ACC finish.
• 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.
Hoo Are These Cavaliers?
• Kihei Clark, Sam Hauser and Jay Huff headline Virginia’s top returnees from last season’s 23-7 team, which finished second in the ACC (15-5) and ended the season on an eight-game winning streak before the season was canceled due to COVID-19.
• Clark started all 30 games and averaged 10.8 points and team-high 5.9 assists en route to All-ACC third-team honors.
• Hauser makes his UVA debut after sitting out last season after transferring from Marquette.
• The 6-8 sharpshooter averaged 14.9 points and 7.2 rebounds en route to All-BIG EAST second-team honors as a junior in 2018-19.
• Hauser shot 45.9 percent from the field, 40.2 percent from 3-point range and led the BIG EAST in free throw percentage at 92.4 percent.
• Huff tallied 8.5 points and 6.2 rebounds and a team-high 61 blocks. Huff recorded a career-high 17 points at Georgia Tech and Miami, and had 16 multi-block games.
• Tomas Woldetensae, Kody Stattmann, Casey Morsell, Francisco Caffaro, Justin McKoy and redshirt freshman Kadin Shedrick also return.
• Woldetensae started the last 14 games and made a team-high 52 3-pointers, including seven at Wake Forest and Louisville, and six at North Carolina.
• Morsell scored a career-high 19 points against Arizona State to earn Air Force Reserve Tip-Off All-Tournament honors, while Stattmann had career highs in points (11) at Boston College and rebounds (8) against Virginia Tech.
• Caffaro played 20 games, contributing 10 points and seven rebounds against North Carolina.
• McKoy chipped in six points on 3 of 3 shooting off the bench at Purdue and four points and five rebounds vs. North Carolina.
• Shedrick makes his UVA debut after redshirting the 2019-20 season.
• Newcomers Reece Beekman, Jabri Abdur-Rahim and Carson McCorkle will compete for playing time.
All-Time vs. Towson
• UVA is 6-0 all-time against Towson in the series that dates back to 1985-86.
• The Cavaliers have won all six of the meetings in Charlottesville, including a 73-42 win at John Paul Jones Arena to start the 2018-19 season.
• Virginia head coach Tony Bennett is 2-0 all-time vs. Towson.
Last Time vs. the Tigers
• Ty Jerome drilled six 3-pointers en route to a game-high 20 points in then-No. 5 Virginia’s 73-42 win over Towson on Nov. 6, 2018.
• De’Andre Hunter added 13 points and 10 rebounds for his second career double-double and Braxton Key had seven points and nine rebounds in his UVA debut.
• Tobias Howard led the Tigers with 10 points.
• Kihei Clark had a game-high six assists in his collegiate debut.
• Virginia shot 48.1 percent from the floor and canned 10 3-pointers.
UVA Ranked No. 4 in Preseason Polls
• Virginia is ranked No. 4 in the Associated Press and USA Today Coaches’ preseason polls.
• UVA is ranked in the AP preseason top-5 for the third time in school history (No. 1 in 1982-83 and No. 5 in 2018-19).
• The Cavaliers have been ranked in the AP preseason top-10 for the eighth time in school history (No. 8 in 1980-81, No. 7 in 1981-82, No. 1 in 1982-83, No. 9 in 2014-15, No. 6 in 2015-16, No. 8 in 2016-17, No. 5 in 2018-19 and No. 4 in 2020-21.)
• UVA has been ranked in the top 25 in the preseason rankings in nine of the past 10 seasons.
On The Horizon
• No. 4 Virginia returns to action against San Francisco on Friday, Nov. 27. Tipoff at Mohegan Sun Arena is set for 11:30 a.m. on ESPN.