Virginia Cavaliers men's basketball

The Virginia Cavaliers men's basketball team is the intercollegiate men's basketball program representing the University of Virginia. The school competes in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Virginia has won the NCAA Championship, two National Invitation Tournaments, and three ACC tournament titles. The team is coached by Tony Bennett and plays home games at the on-campus John Paul Jones Arena (14,623) which opened in 2006. They have been called the Cavaliers since 1923, predating the Cleveland Cavaliers of the NBA by half a century. Virginia won its first NCAA Championship in 2019, and won the last third-place game ever played at the Final Four in 1981. The Cavaliers have been ranked in the Top 5 of the AP Poll more than 100 times since 1980, and have received seven No. 1 seeds in the NCAA tournament. Virginia is the only ACC program, and one of two NCAA programs, to have earned No. 1 seeds in all four regions of the NCAA Tournament. Virginia was a top program in the early years of college basketball under the tutelage of Pop Lannigan from 1905 to 1929 and a consistent winner under multi-sport coach Gus Tebell from 1930 to 1951, but the Cavaliers struggled through the 1950s and 1960s before Terry Holland arrived in 1974 to win their first ACC Championship and earn their first NCAA tournament appearance in just his second year. The program has since won ten ACC season titles, third-most in conference history. In the recent 18-game ACC era (2012–2019), Virginia had four out of the five ACC teams that finished 16–2 or better in conference play. As of 2022, Virginia has had 11 consecutive winning ACC seasons, the longest active streak among ACC programs. History The Wahoos, as they are unofficially known, began their history under the tutelage of a Welshman and American immigrant known best as "Pop", Henry Lannigan. Lannigan began the program in 1905 after training Olympic Games hopefuls in track and field and quickly brought the basketball program into near-dominant form. He led the Cavaliers to a perfect record of 17–0 in 1914-15 and a Southern Conference title in its inaugural season of 1921–22. After reaching prominence the team was invited to help the nationally known Kentucky Wildcats showcase their new Alumni Gymnasium. Virginia dominated Kentucky, 29–16. Inviting Kentucky back to Memorial Gymnasium in 1928, Virginia again won, 31–28.