Virginia Releases Tentative ACC Basketball Schedule

It may be only June, but the countdown to the 2012-2013 UVA basketball season is well underway. Yesterday, the team kicked off its summer practices, as the team is allowed to work together two hours per week while summer school is in session. And today, in an unforeseen release, UVA announced its approximate conference basketball schedule.

This season's ACC slate will be the league's first-ever 18-game schedule. And while the exact dates and times of this year's matchups are not yet decided, we now have a look at what the Hoos will face. We'll play one team each weekend and one during the week, except for a quick breather in mid-January (obviously, the two-game windows below would refer to a weekend matchup). Home games are in bold.

Jan 5/6...................North Carolina
Jan. 8/9/10............at Wake Forest
Jan. 12/13.............at Clemson

Jan. 19/20.............Florida State
Jan. 22/23/24........at Virginia Tech
Jan. 26/27.............Boston College
Jan. 29/30/31........NC State
Feb. 2/3.................at Georgia Tech
Feb. 5/6/7...............Clemson
Feb. 9/10...............at Maryland
Feb. 12/13/14........Virginia Tech
Feb. 16/17.............at North Carolina
Feb. 19/20/21........at Miami
Feb. 23/24.............Georgia Tech
Feb. 26/27/28........Duke
Mar. 2/3..................at Boston College
Mar. 5/6/7...............at Florida State
Mar. 9/10................Maryland

Home-and-homes: VT, UMD, UNC, FSU, BC, GT, CU

Away only: UM, WF

Home only: Duke, NCSU

A couple quick thoughts and a review of our out-of-conference schedule (with some dates included!) are below the fold:

• It's tough to tell how our ACC schedule will stack up with other teams in the conference, as assumptions about the strengths of each team are mostly guess-work. Without trips to Duke and NC State, who are predicted to finish atop the conference, our schedule is unlikely to be as relatively difficult as last season's. However, with the expansion to 18 games, the degree of variation amongst ACC schedules should be significantly lower anyways.
• We'll have some pretty good tests to start the year, with 3 out of our first 5 games on the road and our home dates against UNC and FSU (both should be weaker than last season, but still solid). Not really much of a breather after either, but then again, who knows how these teams will turn out?
• Bummer for students: Though only one home ACC game will take place over winter break, it's a big one against UNC. (So it's a good thing there will be that home Duke game to look forward to!) Senior Day against Maryland will be the first weekend of Spring Break. Keep that in mind before booking those beach trips...
• For whatever reason, the season will extend about a week longer than last year's. The ACC Championship game won't be until 3/17, which means March Madness will start 6 days after last year's tournament.
• Here's a look back at what we are dealing with before the conference schedule kicks off. Jeff Goodman announced the dates of some of our OOC slate, so here is what we could figure out so far:

Nov. 9 at George Mason
Nov 12-16: Two home games against mid-majors at JPJ (Preseason NIT)
Nov 21 ,23: Two games at MSG against Michigan/Pitt/KSU (tentative Preseason NIT)
Nov. 28 at Wisconsin (ACC/Big 10)
?? Dec. 1 at Wisconsin-GB ??
Dec. 5 Tennessee
Dec. 22 Old Dominion (in Richmond)