CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – No. 4 seed Virginia (25-7) plays No. 13 seed Furman (27-7) in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday, March 16 in Orlando, Fla. Tipoff at Amway Center is set for 12:40 p.m. ET on truTV.
For Openers
• UVA earned an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament, while Furman earned the Southern Conference’s automatic bid.
• Virginia earned its school-record 11th straight postseason bid and fourth No. 4 seed in school history.
• UVA has won 25 or more games for the sixth time under four-time ACC Coach of the Year Tony Bennett.
• Virginia is 10-6 away from John Paul Jones Arena, including a 4-1 record on neutral courts.
Broadcast Information
• The Virginia-Furman contest will be televised on truTV and streamed online via NCAA March Madness Live.
• The game will be broadcast on the Virginia Sports Radio Network and Westwood One/NCAA Radio Network on Sirius (134), XM (202) and WestwoodOneSports.com/Orlando.
The Head Coach
• Dean and Markel Families Head Men’s Basketball Coach Tony Bennett has a 341-124 (.733) mark in 14 seasons at UVA and 410-157 (.723) career mark in 17 seasons as a head coach.
• Bennett passed Terry Holland (326-173, 16 seasons) as UVA’s all-time winningest coach with the win over Syracuse (1/7/23).
• Bennett recorded his 400th career win at Wake Forest (1/21/23).
• Bennett has guided the Cavaliers to six ACC regular-season titles (2014, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2023), two ACC Tournament titles (2014 and 2018) and one NCAA national championship (2019).
• The three-time National (2007, 2015 and 2018) and four-time ACC Coach of the Year (2014, 2015, 2018 and 2019) will guide UVA to its 11th consecutive postseason berth in 2022-23.
Hoo Are These Cavaliers?
• UVA returned all five starters from last season’s team, which finished 21-14, 12-8 ACC (sixth) and advanced to the NIT.
• We play defense, take quality shots, pass the basketball, limit turnovers and transition points, rebound and play more defense.
• The Cavaliers return 91.4 percent of its scoring from last season, most among all NCAA Division I teams.
• UVA has started Kihei Clark (10.9 ppg, 5.4 apg), Reece Beekman (9.4 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 5.3 apg), Jayden Gardner (12.1 ppg, 5.8 rpg), Armaan Franklin (12.5 ppg, 4.2 rpg) and Francisco Caffaro (2.0 ppg, 1.8 rpg) the past two games in place of injured Ben Vander Plas (7.4 ppg, 4.6 rpg).
Isaac McKneely (6.6 ppg, 41.9% 3FG), Ryan Dunn (2.6 ppg, 2.9 rpg, 1.0 bpg) and Kadin Shedrick (5.9…