The Virginia basketball team opened its season at Syracuse with a 48-34 win back in early November. This past Saturday, the Orange got revenge in Charlottesville with a 63-55 overtime victory. Over the course of those two months, a UVA team putting together new roles and new face battled to an 11-4 record overall and a 3-2 mark in the ACC.

The bulk of those setbacks occurred in the last week with back-to-back losses for the first time since 2017. The Hoos lost at Boston College before falling against Syracuse back at home. UVA had a shot to take the lead in the final minute – or the final seconds in Saturday’s case – but couldn’t get the shot to go down.

It all sets up an interesting stretch run over the next seven to eight weeks. The Cavaliers currently have a 36% chance of making the NCAA Tournament field per TeamRankings.com thanks to no signature wins from Quadrant 1 in the NET system used by the selection committee and now a pair of mediocre losses on the sheet. In other words, Virginia fans are officially on bubble watch for the first time since 2013, the last time a Tony Bennett team missed the dance.

With Florida State up next, it’s time to bring back the Double Bonus feature this week and look a little closer at this year’s Cavaliers.

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