Road Trip to Louisville Next For No. 7 Virginia

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – No. 7 Virginia (19-4, 11-3 ACC) travels to Louisville (3-22, 1-13 ACC) for an ACC contest Wednesday (Feb. 15). Tipoff at KFC Yum! Center is set for 7 p.m. on ESPNU.

For Openers
• No. 7 Virginia (19-4) is tied for first in the ACC at 11-3, while Louisville (3-22) is 15th at 1-13.
• The Cavaliers have won 11 or more ACC games for the 11 consecutive season.
• UVA is 7-3 away from home, including a 5-3 true road record.
• Virginia has a five-game win streak vs. Louisville.
• Kihei Clark needs one win to become the ACC’s all-time winningest player (ACC regular season and tournament games).
• UVA ranks first nationally in assist/turnover ratio (1.79), fourth in turnovers per game (9.1), 10th in scoring defense (60.4 ppg), 18th in assists per game (16.3), 22nd in fouls per game (14.2), 24th in turnover margin (3.7), 25th in 3-point percentage (37.7%) and 36th in scoring margin (9.5).

Broadcast Information
• The Virginia-Louisville game will be televised on ESPNU and streamed online at WatchESPN.com.
• The game will also be broadcast on 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
• Dean and Markel Families Head Men’s Basketball Coach Tony Bennett has a 335-121 (.735) mark in 14 seasons at UVA and 404-153 (.725) career mark in 17 seasons as a head coach.
• Bennett passed Terry Holland (326-173, 16 seasons) as the all-time winningest coach at UVA with the win over Syracuse (1/7/23).
• Bennett recorded his 400th career win at Wake Forest (1/21/23).
• Bennett has guided the Cavaliers to five ACC regular-season titles (2014, 2015, 2018, 2019 and 2021), two ACC Tournament titles (2014 and 2018) and one NCAA national championship (2019).
• The three-time National (2007, 2015 and 2018) and four-time ACC Coach of the Year (2014, 2015, 2018 and 2019) guided UVA to its 10th consecutive postseason berth in 2021-22.

UVA Ranked No. 7 in Latest AP Poll
• UVA is ranked No. 7 in the latest AP national poll and has been ranked in the top-20 in all 15 polls.
• UVA’s No. 2 ranking on Dec. 12 as UVA’s highest since spending the last four weeks at No. 2 in 2018-19.
• UVA returned to the top-5 for the first time on Nov. 21 since a No. 4-preseason ranking in 2020-21.
• The Cavaliers were ranked No. 18 in the AP Preseason poll.
• UVA was ranked in the preseason AP top-25 for the fifth straight year and ninth in the last 10 seasons.

About The Cavaliers
• UVA returned all five starters from last season’s team, which finished 21-14, 12-8 ACC (sixth) and advanced to the NIT.
• We play defense, take quality shots, pass the basketball, limit turnovers and transition points, rebound and play more defense.
• The Cavaliers return 91.4 percent of its scoring from last season, most among all NCAA Division I teams.
• Kihei Clark (11.6 ppg, 5.9 apg), Reece Beekman (10 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 5.1 apg), Jayden Gardner (11.3 ppg, 5 rpg), Armaan Franklin (12.7 ppg, 40.3% 3FG) and Ben Vander Plas (7.4 ppg, 4.5 rpg) have started the past eight games.
• Isaac McKneely (6.6 ppg, 42.2% 3FG), Ryan Dunn (2.7 ppg, 2.7 rpg, 1.1 bpg), Kadin Shedrick (6.8 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 1.4 bpg), Francisco Caffaro (1.6 ppg, 1.7 rpg) and Taine Murray (1.5 ppg) provide depth off the bench.
• UVA used the starting lineup of Clark, Beekman, Franklin, Gardner and Shedrick in 14 games.
• Isaac Traudt and Leon Bond III are redshirting this season.

All-Time vs. Louisville
• Virginia is 20-5 all-time vs. Louisville in a series that dates to 1923-24.
UVA has a five-game win streak vs. Louisville, including a three-game sweep last season.
UVA has won 14 of the last 15 meetings.
The Cavaliers are 9-4 vs. the Cardinals in Louisville.
UVA is 15-2 vs. Louisville since the Cardinals joined the ACC.
Tony Bennett is 15-2 vs. Louisville as head coach at Virginia.

Last Time vs. The Cardinals
• Jayden Gardner scored 17 points and Kihei Clark added 15 as No. 6 seed Virginia topped No. 11 seed Louisville 51-50 in the second round of the ACC Tournament on Wednesday, March 9.
• UVA started the game 2 of 18 from the field, but finished 21 of 50 (42%) in the win.
Reece Beekman recorded eight points and nine assists and Francisco Caffaro had a team-high eight rebounds.
• UVA won despite a 0 for 6 effort from 3-point range.
• Malik Williams led Louisville with 11 points and 13 rebounds.

Player Notes
• Shooting guard Armaan Franklin (26, 25, 23, 21, 20, 20) leads Virginia with six 20-point games, while Jayden Gardner (26, 20), Kihei Clark (20) and Ben Vander Plas (20) have also registered 20-point efforts.
• Franklin has led UVA in scoring in nine contests this season and reached 1,000 career points vs. Boston College.
• Franklin registered his first career double-double with 25 points and career-best 10 rebounds at Wake Forest.
• Gardner has a pair of double-doubles (12 points, 11 rebounds at Michigan and 20 points and 10 rebounds at Virginia Tech).
• Gardner scored his 2,000th point vs. NC Central and snared his 1,000th career rebound vs. Syracuse on Jan. 3.
• Gardner has registered double figures in scoring in five of the last seven games.
• Isaac McKneely matched a career high with four 3-pointers vs. Syracuse and has made at least one 3-pointer in 18 games.
• McKneely’s 11-game 3-pointer streak ended vs. Duke.
• Vander Plas ended a five-game double figure scoring drought with 13 points and career-high tying four steals vs. Duke.
• Beekman is shooting career bests from 3-point range (42.3%) and charity stripe (82.3%).
• Ryan Dunn has registered four games with three blocks.

Last Time Out
• Then No. 8 Virginia (19-4, 11-3 ACC) made a clutch defensive stop at the end of regulation, and outscored Duke 11-4 in overtime to complete a 69-62 comeback win over the Blue Devils (17-8, 8-6 ACC) on Feb. 11 at John Paul Jones Arena.
• The contest marked the first overtime game between the two teams since 2007, when UVA’s Sean Singletary hit a game-winning last-second shot to knock off the Blue Devils, 68-66.
• The Cavaliers pulled off the win despite shooting 9 for 22 at the charity stripe.
Armaan Franklin scored a game-high 23 points on 9 of 13 shooting, including 3 of 5 from 3-point range.
• Kihei Clark (16 points, 7-10 FG) and Ben Vander Plas (13 points, 4-7 FG) also scored in double figures for the Hoos.
• UVA forced 22 turnovers and scored 42 points in the paint.
• The Hoos held Duke’s leading scorer Kyle Filipowski scoreless.
• Jeremy Roach led Duke with 16 points.

On The Horizon
• No. 7 Virginia hosts Notre Dame Saturday, Feb. 18. Tipoff at John Paul Jones Arena is set for Noon.