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With a couple of Big East teams joining the ACC and North Carolina and Duke set to be national title contenders in college basketball–like always–the chances of the Virginia Cavaliers finishing in the top three of the conference standings may not seem possible.
However, with so many players returning this is very likely to happen.
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Sure, Virginia will have to improve as a team, but it always helps when basically the same team returns. Both Joe Harris and Akil Mitchell will be back, among others.
This is a team that is coming off of a 23-win season, despite not making the 2013 NCAA Tournament.
Sure, the Tar Heels and Blue Devils will have plenty of talent, but Duke is losing a lot and will look much different, and North Carolina–only made it to round of 32 in dance last season–will basically be the same team other than some talented incoming freshmen joining.
Syracuse will definitely have the team to win the conference and Notre Dame cannot be counted out, but Virginia very well could be the surprise team of the ACC in the upcoming season.
The experience and talent are there, now it is time for the Cavaliers to show the rest of the conference how good they are. On that note, Virginia did finish 11-7 in the conference last year. It will definitely have to improve that record if it plans on finishing in the top three of the standings.
Whether the case, the Cavaliers are a tournament team and no one should want to face them in the 2013-14 season.
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