While Ryan Odom and his staff continue to build their first roster, the schedule for the Virginia men’s basketball team started to take a little shape this week.
The biggest news of the week came out of ACC headquarters. The conference announced on Wednesday that it would move to an 18-game league schedule, effective immediately for the upcoming season. This reverts the ACC back to the 18-game schedules used from 2012-13 through 2018-19. That eliminates two conference games from the schedule that will need to be replaced with non-conference opponents.
Of course, the ACC has added teams since the last time it played 18 games. For the 18 games moving forward, each team will have a primary partner (same every season) and a variable partner (changes each season) for home and away matchups. David Teel of The Virginian-Pilot reports that the variable component will give the league flexibility to create most advantageous matchups based on preseason expectations. The remaining 14 games on the schedule will come as seven home games and seven away games. That means that each school will not play one other conference member annually.
Primary partners have been announced and, as expected, Virginia is paired with Virginia Tech. The other pairings: Boston College-Notre Dame, Clemson-Georgia Tech, California-Stanford, Duke-North Carolina, Florida State-Miami, Louisville-SMU, NC State-Wake Forest, and Pitt-Syracuse. The full ACC schedule with matchups, dates, and times will be released at a later date.
In addition to this conference schedule news, some of UVA’s non-conference games started to come into focus this week as well. Intersport and The Greenbrier Resort announced the four teams for the second annual Greenbrier Tip-Off on Nov. 21 and Nov. 23. The Cavaliers are joined by Butler, Northwestern, and South Carolina. The teams will play two games each that will air live on CBS Sports Network. Currently, game tickets can only be guaranteed through travel packages for the event.
Speaking of CBS Sports, Jon Rothstein reported that Virginia will host American and Queens this season as well. The Daily Progress’ Greg Madia reported the same as part of this article, which says the Hoos will also play Rider, North Carolina Central, and Hampton. Queens University in Charlotte features former Wahoo JR Reynolds as part of its coaching staff.
Two other games are known as well. Virginia and Maryland announced last September a four-game series for 2025-2029 that will begin in 2025 in Charlottesville. The Cavaliers will play in the annual ACC/SEC Challenge against a yet to be announced opponent as well and should be at home after making the trip to eventual National Champion Florida last season.
To sum up the non-con news, these are the 9 games currently reported: Rider, North Carolina Central, Hampton, Queens, American, and Maryland plus the ACC/SEC Challenge opponent and two of three between Butler, Northwestern, and South Carolina.
Fan(s) Of The Week
On the way to support the Hoos.
Student Fan(s) Of The Week
Smiles from the hill at Scott Stadium.
Feature Photo Of The Week
Kate Galica earned recognition as the ACC Midfielder of the Year and as a USA Lacrosse second team All-American. Galica and the Hoos open NCAA Tournament play on Friday at home.
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