The University of Virginia, the Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season champion, is the No. 4 seed in the NCAA West Region for the NCAA Tournament.
The Cavaliers (18-6) – the defending national champions, having won the last contested NCAA Tournament in 2019 – will make their school-record seventh straight and 24th overall NCAA Tournament appearance. The 2020 NCAA Tournament was canceled due to the pandemic.
The Cavaliers will face No. 13 seed Ohio University (16-7) in a first-round game at 7:15 p.m. on Saturday at Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Indiana. TruTV will televise.
The winner of the Virginia-Ohio first-round game will meet No. 5 seed Creighton University (20-8) or the No. 12 seed University of California, Santa Barbara (22-4) in the second round on March 22.
Looking further ahead, also looming in the West Region bracket is undefeated No. 1 overall seed Gonzaga University. The Zags handed UVA a 98-75 defeat on Dec. 26.
This is Virginia’s eighth NCAA Tournament appearance under three-time national and four-time ACC Coach of the Year Tony Bennett. The 2019 NCAA champion Cavaliers have compiled an all-time record of 35-22 in 23 NCAA tournaments. Virginia went 35-3 en route to the 2019 NCAA championship. UVA also advanced to the NCAA Final Four in 1981 and 1984.
UVA’s selection capped a stressful weekend for the Cavaliers. Playing in an ACC Tournament quarterfinal game Thursday evening, they got a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from freshman Reece Beekman to defeat Syracuse University, 72-69.
But by Friday morning, they were out of the ACC Tournament, due to a positive COVID-19 test among the players and staff – and their NCAA Tournament eligibility was in doubt.
However, the NCAA Tournament selection committee said that it would consider the Cavaliers for inclusion in the field, and a Saturday-night deadline for withdrawing for medical reasons passed without UVA announcing it could not participate, setting the stage for the Cavaliers’ selection Sunday evening. The team will continue to observe quarantine and testing protocols this week.
