The 2018–19 Virginia Cavaliers men's basketball team represented the University of Virginia during the 2018–19 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The team was led by head coach Tony Bennett in his tenth year, and played their home games at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, Virginia as members of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
UVA opened the season with consecutive wins over ranked Big Ten teams, No. 25 Wisconsin (Battle 4 Atlantis) and No. 24 Maryland (ACC–Big Ten Challenge), the latter of which improved Bennett's record in the Challenge to 8–2. An unheralded two-star recruit, 5'9" Kihei Clark from Los Angeles, California, started both games as a true freshman. The team then started the season 16–0 before falling to No. 1 Duke, 72–70.RJ Barrett leads No. 1 Duke past No. 4 Virginia 72–70, accessed January 19, 2019 The game was just the fourth in college basketball history between two teams both ranked No. 1, as the No. 4 Cavaliers were voted atop the Coaches Poll before the loss. After a 16–2 ACC record, Virginia won a share of their fourth ACC regular season title in the past six years.
In the ACC tournament, the Cavaliers defeated NC State 76–56, before falling to Florida State in the conference semifinals. Virginia was then awarded the No. 1 seed in the South region and dispatched Gardner-Webb and Oklahoma by healthy margins in the first two rounds in Columbia, South Carolina. They advanced to a Sweet 16 matchup with Oregon and beat Oregon 53–49 to advance to their 2nd Elite 8 under Bennett. In the Elite Eight, they beat Purdue 80–75 in overtime to secure a trip to their first Final Four since 1984. On April 6, 2019, they defeated Auburn in their Final Four matchup by a score of 63–62 on 3 last-second free throws by Kyle Guy, cementing the program's first ever trip to the national championship game. On April 8, 2019, Virginia beat Texas Tech 85–77 in overtime, winning its first national championship.
Previous season Unranked by the AP in the preseason poll, the Cavaliers surprisingly finished the 2017–18 season 31–3, and 17–1 in ACC play to win both ACC Regular Season and tournament titles. The Cavaliers received an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament as the No. 1 seed in the South region, where they were upset by No. 16 UMBC in the first round. This was the first time in Men's NCAA tournament history that a No. 1 seed was upset by a No. 16 seed.
Offseason Virginia's offseason started on the night of March 16, 2018, and ended on the evening of November 6, 2018.
The Cavaliers lost five players and gained four.
Departures Virginia DeparturesNameNumberPos.HeightWeightYearHometownReason for Departure Devon Hall 0 G 6'5" 211 Virginia Beach, VA Graduated/2018 NBA draft Justice Bartley 2 G 6'5" 212 Lilburn, GA Transferred to Maryland Eastern Shore Trevon Gross Jr. 10 G 6'3" 200 Jackson, NJ Transferred to Monmouth Isaiah Wilkins 21 F 6'7" 227 Atlanta, GA Graduated Nigel Johnson 23 G 6'1" 182 Ashburn, VA Graduated
Incoming transfers Virginia incoming transfersNameNumberPos.HeightWeightYearHometownPrevious SchoolYears RemainingDate Eligible Braxton Key 2 F 6'8" 225 Decatur, GA Alabama 2 October 1, 2018
2018 recruiting class
Roster
Players
Coaching staff Virginia Coaching StaffNamePositionYear with PositionYear on Coaching StaffAlma Mater Tony Bennett Head coach 10 10 UW-Green Bay Jason Williford Associate head coach 1 10 Virginia Brad Soderberg Assistant Coach 4 4 UW-Stevens Point Orlando Vandross Assistant Coach 1 4 American International Kyle Getter Director of Recruiting/Player Development 1 1 Hanover College Larry Mangino Director of Scouting/recruiting 3 3 Montclair State Johnny Carpenter Director of player personnel 1 4 Virginia Mike Curtis Strength and Conditioning Coach 10 10 Virginia Ethan Saliba Head Athletic Trainer 21 36 Kansas Ronnie Wideman Associate AD for Basketball Administration/Operations 9 10 Washington State
Depth chart
Schedule and results
Source:
!colspan=12 style=""| Non-conference regular season
!colspan=12 style=""| ACC regular season
!colspan=12 style=""| ACC tournament
!colspan=12 style=""| NCAA tournament
Gallery
Game summaries
Towson Tigers vs Virginia Cavaliers
Rankings
*AP does not release post-NCAA Tournament rankings^Coaches did not release a Week 2 poll.
References
Notes