Virginia Basketball NET Report: 1/21 Update

After extending their current winning streak to five games and stretching their ACC-leading conference record to 5-0, the Virginia Cavaliers made a big jump in the NET Rankings.

Thanks to an 85-50 onslaught of the Clemson Tigers over the weekend, the Cavaliers jumped all the way to No. 8 in the NET Rankings, head and shoulders above the Florida State Seminoles at No. 24, the next ACC team in the rankings.

Entering last week, Clemson was the highest ranked team in the NET at No. 17, so UVA’s win in Littlejohn last Saturday was a Quad 1 victory. Since then, the Tigers have also been shellacked by Georgia Tech, so they’ve taken a bit of a stumble down to No. 40 in the rankings, but still the game remains a Quad 1 victory.

Here’s how UVA’s team sheet would look if the season ended today:

So far UVA is still looking good. An unblemished Quad 3 and 4 record is good, but the Quad 1 and 2 records obviously need to be improved. As it is, all but one of UVA’s remaining games are Quad 1 and 2 games.

Losing the game against North Carolina State in Charlottesville this week due to COVID is unfortunate because it would have been another opportunity at a Quad 2 victory. Granted, if UVA had won, it might have pushed NC State beyond No. 75 and made it a Quad 3 game.

The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and Syracuse Orange both come to Charlottesville over the next week and both are currently Quad 2 games. GT recently came off a COVID pause and beat Clemson handedly while Syracuse ended a two game losing streak with 26 point win over Miami at home.

Another thing to note when looking at the NET Report is the overall mediocrity of the ACC. Because UVA and FSU are presently the only ACC teams in the Top 30 of the NET, UVA does not have a home Quad 1 game on the schedule. Virginia Tech or Louisville could sneak into the top 30 making those home games qualify, but they haven’t yet. Last season, UVA had three home Quad 1 games (Duke, Louisville, and FSU), and in 2018-19 (the year of our Lord) the Hoos had four home Quad 1 games (Duke, VT, FSU, and Louisville).