The Virginia Cavaliers men's basketball team is the intercollegiate men's basketball program representing the University of Virginia. The school competes in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Virginia won the NCAA Tournament Championship in 2019 and won the last ever NCAA Tournament third-place game in 1981. The Cavaliers have been ranked in the Top 5 of the AP Poll more than 100 times since 1980Men's Basketball Appearances in the AP Top 5: 1980–81 to Present, accessed March 15, 2025. and have earned seven No. 1 seeds in the NCAA tournament.Daniel Wilco and Wayne Staats. "The teams with the most men's NCAA tournament No. 1 seeds". NCAA, March 16, 2025. Accessed April 1, 2025. The team plays home games at the on-campus John Paul Jones Arena (14,623) which opened in 2006. They have been the Cavaliers since 1923, predating the Cleveland Cavaliers of the NBA by half a century.
Virginia was a top program in the early decades of college basketball under the tutelage of Pop Lannigan from 1905 to 1929 and a consistent winner under multi-sport coach Gus Tebell from 1930 to 1951, but the Cavaliers struggled through the 1950s and 1960s before Terry Holland arrived in 1974 to win their first ACC Championship and earn their first NCAA tournament appearance in just his second year. The program has since won 11 ACC season titles, third-most in conference history. Under Tony Bennett, Virginia had four out of five ACC teams to win 16 or more conference games in the 2010s and won its first NCAA Championship.David Teel. "Cavs' in league of their own in ACC ". Virginia-Pilot, March 9, 2019. Accessed March 10, 2019.
Many Virginia players have been recognized for their NCAA and NBA successes, with Ralph Sampson and Malcolm Brogdon being named NBA Rookie of the Year. Brogdon is the NBA's eighth 50–40–90 club member and was the NBA Sixth Man of the Year for the Celtics in 2023. Sampson was a multi-time NBA All–Star, the NBA All-Star Game MVP of 1985, and is in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. At UVA he was the second (and ACC's only) three-time Naismith College Player of the Year. Trey Murphy III is the eleventh (and ACC's only) 50–40–90 club member. Brogdon and De'Andre Hunter were named NABC Defensive Player of the Year, Darion Atkins was awarded the Lefty Driesell Award, and Kyle Guy was named NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player.
Since 2014, Virginia has won one NCAA Tournament, two ACC Tournaments, and finished first (or tied for first) in conference standings six times—more than any other ACC men's program.
History The Wahoos, as they are unofficially known, began their history under the tutelage of a Welshman and American immigrant known best as "Pop", Henry Lannigan. Lannigan began the program in 1905 after training Olympic Games hopefuls in track and field and quickly brought the basketball program into near-dominant form.The News Leader, Henry Lannigan obituary, Staunton, Virginia. Published December 26, 1930. He led the Cavaliers to a perfect record of 17–0 in 1914–15 and a Southern Conference title in its inaugural season of 1921–22. After reaching prominence the team was invited to help the nationally known Kentucky Wildcats showcase their new Alumni Gymnasium. Virginia dominated Kentucky, 29–16. Inviting Kentucky back to Memorial Gymnasium in 1928, Virginia again won, 31–28. Lannigan held the Virginia record for best career winning percentage by a head coach (254–95 (.728)) until he was surpassed by Tony Bennett, who was hired 104 years after the start of the program.
After Lannigan's sudden death in 1930 and with limited administration interest at the onset of the Great Depression, Virginia basketball did not maintain its momentum into the next several decades. Buzzy Wilkinson scored 32.1 points per game in 1954–55 and is still the all-time ACC leader in scoring per game for both the single-season and career (28.1) categories.2013–14 Atlantic Coast Conference Men's Basketball Media Guide, p.145-156. He was selected by the Boston Celtics in the 1955 NBA draft. Unfortunately, Virginia teams of the era were not as great at defense and high scoring did not lead to many wins. Likewise, Barry Parkhill was named ACC Men's Basketball Player of the Year in 1971–72 and was drafted in the first round by the Portland Trail Blazers but the program had not regained its early standing.
Terry Holland was hired from Davidson in 1975, and with star Wally Walker surprised the ACC in just his second year as head coach when his sixth-seeded Virginia defeated AP No. 17 NC State, No. 9 Maryland and No. 4 North Carolina en route to winning the school's first ACC Championship. Played in Landover, Maryland, it was also and fittingly the first ACC Tournament held outside of North Carolina. Athletic, quick, and seven-foot-four, Ralph Sampson was perhaps the most desired high school recruit in college basketball history when he chose to play with Jeff Lamp at Virginia over Kentucky in 1979.Ralph Sampson's Decision, accessed April 10, 2019 He lived up to that hype would become one of the most dominant college players the game has ever known, winning three consecutive Naismith College Player of the Year awards to tie him with Bill Walton as the most awarded individual player in NCAA history. Virginia would attain its first AP Top 5 rankings and go to its first Final Four in Sampson's era, but would be stonewalled by Dean Smith and North Carolina both in that Final Four and in ACC tournaments. Carolina notoriously held the ball in a four corners offense for most of the last seven minutes of the game, despite having UNC's most celebrated NBA superstars Michael Jordan and James Worthy on the floor, to defeat Virginia in the 1982 ACC tournament 47–45.With Four Corners offense, Dean Smith changed basketball, accessed April 15, 2019 Both the shot clock and three-point line were implemented into college basketball during the same decade in part to combat such shenanigans. In 1984, after Sampson was drafted first in the 1983 NBA draft, Virginia made a Cinderella run back to the Final Four. There they lost 49–47, in overtime, to a Houston team led by the first pick of the 1984 NBA draft, Hakeem Olajuwon, who then joined Sampson to form the original Twin Towers of the NBA on the Houston Rockets.
John Crotty and Bryant Stith took the darkhorse 1988–89 team to the Elite Eight after defeating AP No. 2 (and No. 1 seed) Oklahoma which returned most of its lineup (including Stacey King and Mookie Blaylock) from the team that reached the 1988 NCAA Tournament Championship Game. After Holland retired the next year, the Cavaliers were coached by Jeff Jones for eight years, Pete Gillen for seven, and Dave Leitao for four. Highlights of those teams include a Jones team headlined by Cory Alexander and Junior Burrough that also reached the Elite Eight after a first-place finish in the ACC standings of 1995. There were no championship teams under Gillen, but his recruits Sean Singletary and J. R. Reynolds led the 2007 team to Virginia's next conference-topping finish in Leitao's second season.
Tony Bennett arrived in March 2009 and eventually restored UVA to (and beyond) its former prominence. His teams won UVA's second and third ACC Tournament championships, finished atop the ACC standings six times, and returned to the Final Four to win the 2019 NCAA Tournament championship. During his era, the 2014–15 squad, led by Justin Anderson and Malcolm Brogdon, was the most dominant: starting 19–0, doubling up the scores of Georgia Tech and Wake Forest and nearly tripling the score (76–27) of NCAA Tournament-bound Harvard. In doing so, the 2015 UVA team doubled the score of more ACC opponents than the entire rest of the ACC had in all their combined histories and was the first to do so (even once) in 60 years. However, Anderson broke his finger in the last game of the regular season against Louisville and did not return until the NCAA Tournament where he was much diminished and the team bowed out in the second round. After an Elite Eight appearance, Virginia then suffered a historic loss to a former UVA ballboy, Ryan Odom, and his 16-seed UMBC in the first round of the 2018 NCAA Tournament only to come back and win the 2019 NCAA Tournament for the program's first NCAA Championship the very next year.2019 NCAA Tournament championship: Virginia completes epic journey from last year's ugly exit to win its first title, accessed April 10, 2019 ESPN called Virginia's 2018–19 campaign "the most redemptive season in the history of college basketball."Virginia's redemption was one year, 23 days in the making, accessed March 10, 2019 CBS This Morning called it "basketball's ultimate redemption story" the morning after the national championship game.Virginia wins first NCAA basketball championship in epic comeback, accessed April 11, 2019 Kyle Guy was named the NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player. De'Andre Hunter became a lottery pick after a convincing title game showdown with Jarrett Culver and was drafted fourth in the 2019 NBA draft. Virginia had four of the five ACC teams to win 16 or more games in the 2010s decade.
In March 2025, Ryan Odom, who guided UMBC to that victory over UVA seven years earlier, was handed the reins to the UVA program after Bennett's surprise retirement.
NCAA Final Four teams Virginia is 3–2 at Final Four events and won the 2019 NCAA tournament championship.
1981: Sampson and Goliath Led by Coach Terry Holland, National Player of the Year Ralph Sampson and his first team All-ACC teammate Jeff Lamp, the Cavaliers rolled to their best season in school history. After beginning the season with a 23–0 record, the Cavaliers would claim the ACC Regular Season title before falling in the ACC Tournament Semi-finals. Despite the loss, UVA still entered the NCAA tournament as the 1 seed in the East Regional of the 1981 NCAA tournament.
UVA received a first-round bye and squeaked by Villanova 54–50 in the 2nd round. They then handled both Tennessee and Brigham Young by 14 points each in the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 respectively to clinch a berth in the program's first ever Final Four in Philadelphia. Although UVA swept North Carolina in the ACC regular season, the Tar Heels defeated the Cavaliers when it mattered most, in the national semi-finals. Virginia closed the season on a high note, however, defeating Louisiana State in the national third-place game to cap the program's most successful season to that point.
1984: Virginia plays Cinderella Following the loss of their vaunted All-American in Sampson, the Virginia basketball team took a step back in 1983–84, at least in the regular season. The Cavaliers limped into the ACC tournament with a 17–10 (6–8) record, promptly falling to Wake Forest in the first round. Their record was good enough to ensure them an NCAA tournament invite and they were awarded the 7-seed in the East Regional.
After escaping 10th-seeded Iona 58–57 in the first round, Virginia drew 2nd-seeded Arkansas in the 2nd round. The Cavaliers dispatched the Razorbacks 53–51 in an overtime affair before cruising past 3rd-seeded Syracuse 63–55 in the Sweet Sixteen. In a low-scoring, defensive affair, the Cavaliers defeated Bobby Knight's 4th-seeded Indiana Hoosiers 50–48 in the Elite Eight to clinch the school's second Final Four appearance in 4 seasons.
In the National Semi-finals, Virginia drew the Hakeem Olajuwon-led Houston Cougars at the Kingdome in Seattle. The Cavaliers gave the vaunted Phi Slama Jama lineup all they could handle, but eventually fell 49–47 in overtime, ending a surprisingly-successful postseason run.
2019: Redemption National Championship