If the Cavaliers thought ACC competition was tougher than an overcooked piece of steak in past seasons, then what lies ahead starting in January will probably scour their tastebuds even more.
The ACC is consistently one of the most competitive and highly ranked conferences in the nation. It boasted two of the final four teams in the NCAA tournament last season -- Duke and Georgia Tech -- and this year, six teams are ranked in the Associated Press preseason top 25, with three in the top four. Wake Forest is the favorite to win the conference title this year, and the Demon Deacons also flaunt preseason ACC Player of the Year pick, sophomore point guard Chris Paul.
Despite his team's preseason accolades, Wake Forest coach Skip Prosser realizes that roadblocks exist in such a highly competitive conference, even for the top teams.
"In our ACC schedule, we're going to run into a tree a bunch of times," Prosser said. "That doesn't mean we're not a good basketball team."
It is this highly touted Wake Forest squad that Virginia will host in its conference opener.
After facing the Demon Deacons and completing a final non-conference home bout with Western Kentucky, the Cavaliers dive into the thick of their ACC schedule, which, at the start, includes away games at the heated arenas of Duke and Maryland within three days of each other.
The Cavaliers' game plan is to enter every game, conference or otherwise, with a cool hand. Senior tri-captain Devin Smith acknowledged the dominance of the ACC, but said numbers on paper are inconsequential when two teams enter the court.
"Last year, a lot of teams that were in the bottom beat a lot of the teams at the top," Smith said. "You've just got to play hard every night and give everything you've got, and you can't look over anybody in the conference."
The Cavaliers displayed that no fear attitude at the end of last season, when they rallied to win four of their final six regular season conference matchups, three versus ranked teams and all in the waning seconds of play. In an 11-day span in February, Todd Billet, a senior last season, hit game-winning three pointers against then-No. 15 Georgia Tech, then-No. 12 North Carolina and Clemson. Then against then-No. 11 Wake Forest, Smith turned clutch with the deciding bucket, a three-pointer with just more than five seconds remaining.
Virginia's end-of-season momentum carried the team into the ACC tournament, where the Cavaliers defeated Clemson in the play-in game before bowing out to Duke in the quarterfinals. The win over Clemson snapped the Cavaliers' eight-game losing streak in conference tournament play and gave Virginia coach Pete Gillen his first tournament win in Charlottesville.
But a weak start to conference play plagued the Cavaliers, and even with the late-season heroics of Billet and Smith, Virginia was unable to make a big enough push to get into the NCAA tournament.
Virginia will look for last year's late success to propel it in an even more viable ACC this year. In spite of the hype given to the Carolina crop, the Cavaliers are optimistic in their chances.
"It's a rough conference," Smith said. "But any team could beat any team on a given night."
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