NET Report: NCAA Tournament View Becoming Clearer

Though they lost their second ACC conference game of the season and third Quad 1 game, the Virginia Cavaliers remain in a good position heading into next month’s NCAA Tournament.

The NCAA Selection Committee revealed their Top 16 seeds over the weekend and saw the Hoos come in as the top 3 seed, at No. 9 overall. The Cavaliers may have dropped a bit after losing to Florida State in Tallahassee on Monday night, but remain No. 9 in the NET Rankings entering Wednesday night’s games.

A 15-4 record overall, No. 9 in the NET, and a 8-4 Quad 1 and 2 record are all good marks for UVA and would easily be good enough to get them in the NCAA Tournament if the committee was picking today.

Here is how their NET Report would look to the committee:

Yes, another Quad 1 loss is not going to help matters; and yes, all three Quad 1 losses have come by 14+ points. The bigger problem, that has been mentioned before, is the lack of high power teams outside of UVA and FSU in the ACC this year. UVA’s home games against Louisville and VT getting “postponed” have not helped matters either. If either of those teams had come to Charlottesville, played well, and even lost to UVA, their NET ranking could have improved and helped get UVA another Quad 1 opportunity.

This weekend UVA will travel to Durham to play Jalen Johnson-less Duke. The Blue Devils are not great this season, but they are 6-4 at Cameron Indoor this season, remain one of the more talented rosters in the country. Though another Quad 1 opportunity, a win is not going to help the Cavaliers much, but a loss would likely bump them to a 4 seed.

This weekend’s Duke game and the upcoming Louisville games are clearly the most important for UVA in terms of the NCAA Tournament and the ACC Tournament if they want to hold on to their 3 seed and win another ACC regular season title.