Good evening! We're about 30 minutes from tip-off of UVa/Colorado State in Dayton, about 30 minutes after Wagner/Howard wraps up. Tonight's game is on TruTV, or the March Madness App. The winner will advance to play #7 seed Texas on Thursday evening in Charlotte. We'll have all the in-game updates here, as always have at it!

I didn't realize Beekman was so close to breaking the record and missed it by just two assists. He should be given the record by the mere fact that he even got close to it with this team that had such awful shooting from all of the players at various points of the season (and some like Rohde and Harris all season).

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Most would agree that our last successful recruiting year was the class with Guy, Jerome, Hunter and Huff (I think Diakite was the year before and redshirted, but could be wrong and he could be part of that class). In the years since then I tried to come up with a list of the players that Bennett has brought in either via transfer or from high school (foreign players included in this group) to see how many hits and misses there were (and "hits" is pretty generous in that they weren't disappointments). I came up with 10 hits and 28 misses (list is at the end). Players from this year's class (Gertrude, Buchanon, Bliss and Robinson) were not categorized as they still have time to develop of course. I could be off on some of the years that players joined (tried to keep them with the class they came in with even if they redshirted). What was really shocking to me when looking at that list was that for HS recruiting is that we really only have had four (out of 17 brought in as first year players) true hits during that time (starting with the 17/18 season) with Clark, Beekman, McKneely and Dunn. Obviously not every recruit will be a hit, but to hit on less than 25% of the ones that accept the scholarship offer is really bad especially for a program at our level. To get us back to the level we have been Bennett needs to get better results in his HS/Foreign recruiting.

Of course it's just as important to hit at a high rate with the transfer recruiting, especially on those that have multiple years here. It's one thing to have a miss on a player like Minor that is only here for a year, but when you have Harris and Rohde be such misses (at this point) that have three years of eligibility left it's a bit issue (especially when transfers tend to get playing time priority).

We all know the issues with recruiting (style of play, Bennett's tendency not to play first years much, redshirting, NIL, etc.), but no matter what Bennett decides to change with his systems/tactics it won't make a difference unless he can fix things with recruiting.

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Class of 2026 QB Gavin Sidwar is building a solid recruitment thus far and already knows what he’s looking for in a future home. @Dylan Callaghan-Croley talked to the three-star signal caller about his recruitment and why he’s so excited to get down to UVa soon.

Virginia scored first in the 2nd inning without a hit. Didawick walked, and after an out, he advanced to second when Ferrence was hit by a pitch. Anderson reached base on a fielder's choice when his grounder forced Ferrence at second. Virginia then attempted a double steal, and Didwick scored before Anderson was tagged out in a run down. Georgetown scored 3 runs in the third on 2 hits, 3 walks, and 1 hit batter. The Cavs scored 3 when Becker reached base on an error; O'Ferrall followed with a single, and both scored on a triple by Whalen who scored when Ford hit into a double play. The Hoyas went ahead 5-4 in the 4th inning on 3 walks and a single. Once again Virginia answered with 2 runs when Ferremce hit a solo home run; Anderson doubled and came home on a double by Becker. Georgetown scored their final run of the game in the 5th inning. The Cavs scored 5 runs in the bottom of the 5th on consecutive doubles by Saucke, Ford, and Didawick followed by singles by Godbout, Anderson, and Becker. Virginia added three insurance runs in the 6th. Saucke and Ford led off with singles, and both came home on a double by Godbout. Saucke led of the 8th with a home run to end the scoring.
Barker was Virginia's sixth pitcher of the game and and got the final out in the 5th and shut Georgetown down in the 6th to get the win. Buchanan pitched the 7th and 8th, and Menk pitched the 9th without giving up any runs.

In other news, the softball team defeated Rutgers 2-0. Bigham pitched the final 5 innings without allowing a hit to get the win.
Virginia MLAX defeated Albany 16-10. Albany scored the first 3 goals and the last 4 goals, but Virginia outscored Albany 16 to 3 in between Cormier and Millon each scored 5 goals, and Shellenberger had 5 assists.

The teams boycotting the NIT are demonstrating all that is wrong in today's society.

Some teams argue they deserve to be in NCAA and they complain that they were screwed. That is bs. Only the top 20 teams and the teams the won conference championships deserve an invite. After that the committee had to fill the remaining spots using a somewhat subjective and somewhat arbitrary criteria. Are Uva and Clemson more deserving than Pittsburgh and Wake. No. All 4 teams had the opportunity to safely secure their place and they came up short. Did the NCAAT use the correct criteria. Probably not, but that is life. Life is not fair and many important hiring/selection decisions between two or more roughly qualified teams or individuals come down to somewhat subjective and somewhat arbitrary criteria to determine merit

Second, one of joys of being young is playing competitive sports. The NIT is competitive and with a few exceptions all the teams are just as good as any NCAA team seeded 6th or lower. There is no outside glory in playing in the NIT, but playing is much better than not playing.

Sorry for my rant, but it pisses me off to see so many teams skipping the NIT.

The 2026 class ranking has been expanded from 100 players to a full Rivals250: https://n.rivals.com/prospect_rankings/rivals250/2026

Ten highest debuts: https://n.rivals.com/news/rivals-rankings-week-ten-highest-ranked-debuts-in-the-rivals250

Adam Gorney goes position-by-position: https://n.rivals.com/news/tuesdays-with-gorney-new-2026-rivals250-released

Preview: If you don’t know much about Colorado State, @justin ferber has you covered. He breaks down UVa’s matchup against the Rams in tomorrow night’s First Four game in Dayton (9:10 p.m., truTV).

On Episode 554 of the CavsCorner Podcast (“Logos Matter Too”), we discuss UVa’s ACCT ending, its Big Dance surprise, the intriguing matchup with Colorado State, and much more.

Site: https://virginia.rivals.com/news/cavscorner-podcast-episode-554

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Virginia overcame mental fielding and base running mistakes and a 10-5 lead by Wake with some clutch hitting and effective relief pitching. Woolfolk started on the mound for Virginia and went 3.1 innings; he allowed 5 hits and 4 runs. Barker got the last two outs in the 4th and set down all three batters in the 5th. Teel pitched the 6th and was ineffective after "I've got it; you take it play in the infield". He gave up 5 runs on 3 hits and left the mound with 1 out in the 7th. Coady, Augustine, O'Connor, and Kampschror combined to shut down Wake in the last three innings.
Virginia scored a run in the 7th on Ference's second home run of the game. The Cavs added three more in the 8th on a 3-run home run by Didawick to cut Wake's lead to 10-9. With two outs in the 9th, Saucke sent a pitch into the bull pen to even the score. Didawick drew a walk to start the 10th. He was sacrificed to second on a bunt by Godbout. Ference reached first when his fly ball was dropped by the right fielder, and Didawick went to third. Anderson then hit a hard shot up the middle which the Wake pitcher was not able to field cleanly, and Didawick slid home with the winning run.
Ford was 3 for 6 at bat, and O'Ferrall, Godbout, Ference, and Hanson each had 2 hits. The win evened the team's record to 3-3 in the ACC.

After the performance on Friday- let's see where UVA stands in terms of free throw percentage:
there are 362 D1 teams; UVA ranks #355 with 63.7% team statistic.

Annnnd we're back for another late tip in DC. Updates about to start flowing.

As always, have at it folks...

I do not watch much basketball other than ACC games, so I will be interested in seeing if it continues in the NCAA tournament. I think that officials have been warned about calling charging fouls. First, I have seen defenders camped outside the restricted area long enough to consume a sandwich and be bowled over by the ball handler and be called for a blocking foul. Secondly, I have watched players, especially low post players, put their shoulder and/or forearm into the midsection of the defender with enough force to knock the defender down with nothing charged against the offense.
The second thing is that there was a time when there were a number of teams who never seemed to beat themselves. This year there were numerous teams playing in conference tournaments as big favorites only to be blown out by teams with less talent because the "better" team just played bad to horrendous on both ends of the court. There have always been big upsets, but they usually occurred because the underdog played particularly well. This year it seemed to me that the upset was more likely caused by the favorite playing very bad basketball.

Good Morning and welcome to Selection Sunday. I figured I'd throw my thoughts on UVa into our Selection Sunday thread and keep it all in once place ahead of the bracket release at 6pm on CBS.


BIG PICTURE: I think UVa has about a 10%-20% chance to see themselves show up in the bracket tonight. Going into the ACC Tournament, I would've put their odds at about 75%. But the bubble this year has been historically good, and also included a few bid stealers that shrank the bubble, and a few teams that came into the week in a similar position to UVa but did enough to solidify their place. If UVa was above the last four in heading into yesterday, after the NC State loss, there's a chance they get in. There were two bids stolen outright last night (ACC, PAC12), while New Mexico, who was in a similar spot to UVa, won their auto-bid and were removed from the bubble altogether. FAU's loss is a little odd but basically they were in brackets as an at-large heading into the day with 1st place USF as the auto-bid. USF has basically no chance to make it as an at-large and they lost yesterday, but because FAU lost, USF's spot is basically just taken by the Temple/UAB winner, so no change.

So let's say, sake of argument, the last four in looked like this (in order), with the AAC already considered a two-bid league, as it will be:

UVa
St. John's
Seton Hall
New Mexico

In that scenario, New Mexico played their way in, so everyone drops one spot. Seton Hall is last team in. NC State wins, everyone drops again. St. John's is the last team in, Seton Hall is out. Then Oregon wins. UVa drops to last team in. Something like this is how UVa gets in at this point. The bubble got a lot smaller, and all these teams are pretty close so someone(s) will be out. The problem is UVa very easily could have been behind, say, St. John's going into the day, and were probably more likely to be one of the last 2-3 teams in than above that.

Nothing that happens today should change anything. No more bid stealers out there. So the committee has almost surely decided whether UVa is in or out or not.

ANSWERING COMMON QUESTIONS

How can a 3rd place ACC team get left out?: It's more common than you think. In fact, it happened last year. Clemson was 3rd in the ACC, lost to #2 seed UVa in the ACC Semis and went to the NIT. They were #68 in Kenpom, the exact same as UVa is today. They had some terrible losses but better wins than UVa got this year. Also, remember all those Seth Greenberg VT teams that kept missing by a spot or two? Some of them were in the top-4 of the ACC standings. Basically, whether its right or not, conference affiliation doesn't mean much and isn't part of the selection process. The league is certainly down from where it was a few years ago, the question is how far down is it? Maybe the league is better than people are saying now, but the fact remains that UVa only played two truly elite teams in league play, once each, and lost both.

How is Clemson in over UVa? : Same explanation, really. Also seeding is overrated. UVa and Clemson were two games apart, but all those teams were neck and neck heading down the stretch. But Clemson is safely in the field in large part because of their complete body of work, including some great non-conference wins. Clemson beat Alabama (#9 NET) and UNC (#8 NET) on the road. They also beat Pitt twice, and got two more quality non-conference wins over teams in the field, Boise State (#27 NET) and TCU (#42 NET). 5 Quad-1 wins puts the Tigers safely in the field, even though most of their best work was a long time ago now, and they're probably not any better than UVa today.

How is UVa's resume better/worse than their bubble peers?: UVa doesn't have bad losses, some other teams do. UVa's strength of record, based on the job they've done, is solid and better than some teams. But UVa is also way behind most bubble teams in NET and predictive metrics like Kenpom. Also, UVa doesn't have any really, really good wins, like a lot of these other teams do. Their best are Clemson and Florida, and I guess you could throw in Texas A&M at home. But don't look too close at those, because both Florida (Zyon Pullin) and A&M (Tyrese Radford) were missing their second-leading scorer in both of those wins for UVa.

If UVa gets in, who's out at their expense?: At least a few of these fellow bubble teams would have to miss for UVa to get in, including a few that were considered safe going into yesterday:
-Providence
-Pittsburgh
-St. John's
-Seton Hall
-Oklahoma
-Texas A&M
-FAU
-Colorado
-Michigan State
-TCU
-Mississippi State

All of the teams below Texas A&M are probably 90% to make it, though they may end up in Dayton when they didn't think they would end up there. Providence and Pitt are likely behind UVa in the pecking order and out.

My Official Guess: UVa is the first or second team out of the field and head to the NIT for the second time in three years. I hope I'm wrong and there's certainly some debate, but my fear is that the committee probably "locked in" a few of the teams I listed above as at-larges with a couple spots left, and NC State and Oregon took them, at UVa and let's say St John's expense. If UVa misses it by one spot, it's unfortunate and a lot went against them, but they sort of did it to themselves. They had a chance to not only solidify their position with a win over NC State, but also would have eliminated a bid thief, which would have increased the size of the bubble by one, and also UVa would have had the opportunity to play for the auto-bid vs UNC.

Ahead of an important stretch later this spring for UVa in the class of 2025, @Dylan Callaghan-Croley breaks down a list of confirmed official visitors headed for Charlottesville.

Laying an egg in the Big XII Championship. Down 64-34 with under three minutes to play. I will wait for the hue and cry about their inability to score in such a big game. Iowa State has avoided turning it over and Houston is apparently averaging over twenty points a game off turnovers. Their offense looks worse than ours.

The game tonight demonstrated that Beekman not only leads the Cavs statistically but also emotionally. He was determined that Virginia would not lose, and the team bought what he was selling. Once again he led the team in scoring with 22 points on 8 of 10 shooting from the field and with 3 of 4 made from behind the arc. His 9 assists were half of the team's 18., and he only had 1 turnover. His 3 steals led the team, and his 6 rebounds tied Groves for the most on the team. He committed no fouls and drew 2 of the 4 fouls charged to Wake.
I have watched Virginia basketball since 1957, and I have seen Hoos who were better ball handlers, better pure shooters, better rebounders, but there have been very few who have come close to matching his complete game. He leaves behind some very large shoes.

I gotta believe that our fate, unfortunately is in the hands of several teams. If the favorites win their tournaments and there are no upsets to steal spots, we just may sneak in. Otherwise, a win by a team like NC State tonight steals our bid. Your thoughts??

After last night's collapse, I thought I would try to inject some humor this morning to get through this loss.

Last night we all saw numerous mistakes made down the stretch that were easily remedied, and yet were not deployed in the heat of the battle. That's because it has to be second nature before the issues arise and not reactive thinking when it arrives.

I know I used the how to Dummies book reference but it's clear these things are not walked through and drilled down in practice what to do under all circumstances so EVERYONE KNOWS it first hand and not left for the player to figure out when the crisis pops up.

Two GIANT examples we all said last night on the board. You had 3 fouls to give, so why did McKneely allow Oconnor to run down the sideline (right past Bennett and staff) and not foul at or before the half court line to take away any hail Mary shot at the 3pt line with the way McKneely is stiff and slow to get up on the guy? This should be automatic, especially you just got burned on a Hail Mary the night before for the same reasons with Beekman falling down trying to steal the ball away and the guy hits the shot. You had 3 fouls to give and you blew it.

Next fatal mistake is when McKneely got the ball with 6.7 seconds left and just stood with the ball to get fouled when he had Groves and Murray wide open out on the wings to throw to and force NC STATE players to have to run out and foul and kill off a couple of more seconds off the clock. We just have guys that really don't think those things through at the moment and need this type of instructional training during practice so it becomes natural on what to do. I would have rather had 4.7 seconds left and missed the free throw shot than McKneely miss with 6.7 to get down and get a better shot off. Of all Teams, this team can't rely on the top two free throw shooters to make free throws as witnessed. Especially the way Beekman didn't bent his knees, didn't slow it down, especially on the first one that barely made it to the front of the rim and he was not focused, with his technique that bricked both shots. McKneely had the same problem of barely getting it to the front of the rim on the one and one that was the dagger that did us in. You make just one free throw between them, we win.

We had that same mistakes the night before and managed to survive when Minor had rebounds and instead of getting rid of the ball he held it to give the guy the opportunity to foul him and he was what 1-6 at the line? You just can't be that careless if you want to win close games.

Also what the blue blazes was DUNN thinking last night going 0-2, going out and throwing up bricks from 3pt line when he is one of the worse 3pt shooters on the team and the game is neck and neck is not a smart strategy also. Didn't recall Burns trying to test out his 3pt shot during the game.

Lastly, I remember just a few years ago we had players like Clark that would have a fast break for a layup and would pull it back with seconds left in the game to get fouled and go to the line. Now how many players currently know if you have an uncontested layup with say 20 seconds left with a two point lead what to do? Do they take the layup or do they hold the ball and run around waiting to be fouled? Seriously, do Bennett drill down on the small stuff in practice and not rely on players to make the choice at the time it happens? SO the answer is you take the layup for the points and not rely on the Free Throw line you hope get you the points. Especially this team.

Will be interesting to see how much FL beating 16th ranked Alabama tonight by 18 points helps our net. And if GT score holds up against Wake, especially by a double digit margin at home their net better drop like a rock. Would be a Q3 blowout loss at home in March.

Details after the basketball game.

Groves led the scoring for the Cavs with 15 points. Murray came off the bench and tied Beekman with 11, and Rohde had 8. Our bench scored 26 points and held Boston College subs to 2. Groves also led the team with 11 rebounds; Beekman and Dunn had 7 each. Beekman had 11 of the team's 18 assists.
Virginia had the lead only 6.25 minutes while BC led for 33.43. This was due to BC being hot from behind the arc early in the game to establish a sizable lead while Virginia started very slow but ended the game hitting 8 of 25. A second factor was our poor free throw shooting (8 of 18 fo the game).
I thought that we were also hampered because Luckie and Valentine were two of the three officials. The team will have to shoot better tomorrow in order to secure what should be a lock on a NCSS bid.