It speaks to how far Virginia has fallen that Duke can win inside John Paul Jones Arena by 18 points on a Monday night and barely improve its resume. But unfortunately for the Cavaliers, not to mention the ACC, that’s where we’re at and why the school’s next hire is crucial — because it would be a shame to watch the program that won the 2019 NCAA Tournament slip further into irrelevancy than it already has; Virginia currently sits in 12th place of an ACC that might only get three teams into the 2025 NCAA Tournament.
That was impossible to imagine recently. Now, it’s Virginia’s reality.
Final score: Duke 80, Virginia 62.
I’ll get to Duke in a second, but it’s wild to think that the program that went 31-3 in 2018 and won the NCAA Tournament in 2019 is now 13-13 overall, 6-9 in the ACC and down to 100th at BartTorvik.com. That school deserves better, and the ACC needs it to be. Hopefully everything gets fixed soon.
As for Duke, the Blue Devils are now 23-3 overall, 15-1 in the ACC, ranked fourth in Tuesday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings and headed toward the first conference championship of Jon Scheyer’s coaching career. Despite starting three freshmen in an era when many believe that’s not ideal, Duke has a two-game lead in the win column of the league standings and figures to be a favorite in every remaining game before Selection Sunday. In other words, barring too many upsets, the Blue Devils should be a No. 1 seed in the 2025 NCAA Tournament — and thus set up to advance to the Final Four for the first time since 2019.
Top 25 And 1 rankings
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