Virginia men’s basketball matchups announced by ACC for 2018-19, highlighted by two games with Duke

After a leak gave us an early sneak peek, the Atlantic Coast Conference made it official as they released the 2018-19 men’s basketball schedule matrix Tuesday morning. As expected, Virginia will face a challenging schedule that features two matchups with each Virginia Tech, Louisville, Duke, and Notre Dame.

Last season, the Hoos finished atop the ACC regular season standings with a 17-1 record and a perfect 9-0 road record. Florida State, Georgia Tech, Miami, Pitt, and Wake Forest will travel to the (usually) friendly confines of John Paul Jones Arena, and Virginia will road trip to Clemson, Boston College, North Carolina, NC State, and Syracuse.

Virginia hasn’t played Duke twice in regular season conference play since the 2010-11 season, when the Hoos lost both (by a combined 31 points). The Blue Devils will lose several players to graduation (Grayson Allen) and the NBA Draft (Marvin Bagley III, Trevon Duval, Gary Trent Jr., and Wendell Carter), but bring in the top three rated recruits in RJ Barrett, Cam Reddish, and Zion Williamson. Last year, Virginia triumphed 65-63 at Cameron Indoor, thanks in part to one of the best shots of the season:

Louisville will be under the direction of Chris Mack, previously at Xavier, as he took over for interim head coach David Padgett, and Coach Bennett and the Hoos will face off another new face in Jeff Capel at Pittsburgh after the Kevin Stallings disaster ended with Pitt’s 0-18 conference run. Notre Dame’s Mike Brey just signed a contract extension that will take him through the 2024-25 season, and the Irish should be a formidable foe once again.

Virginia won’t have to travel to the state of Florida, a place that generally has given them fits over the years, but the road slate is a bit of a haul with difficult trips to North Carolina and the third straight season playing at the Carrier Dome.

Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, and Pitt all finished at the bottom of last season’s ACC standings and Virginia gets all of them at home.

The Hoos will also play in the Bad Boy Mowers Battle 4 Atlantis over Thanksgiving in the Bahamas before the meat of their ACC season.

The full ACC matchup matrix can be found below: