The Virginia women's basketball team (13-15, 6-10 ACC) will begin ACC tournament play this Saturday as the No. 7 seed, playing No. 2 North Carolina (22-5, 12-4). The Cavaliers are hoping to make up for a season that did not live up to most expectations with an above average performance in the upcoming tournament.
"This gives us new life," Virginia coach Debbie Ryan said. "That's the way we're going to approach it."
With the help of a late season win over Wake Forest, Virginia was able to avoid the play-in game of the tournament, to be played on Friday between No. 8 seed Georgia Tech and the No. 9 seed Demon Deacons. On Saturday, in addition to the Cavaliers' contest, three other games will be played in the quarterfinal round. Top seed Duke will face the winner of the play-in game, No. 3 N.C. State will face No. 6 Clemson and No. 4 Maryland will play No. 5 Florida State. If Virginia can get past the Tar Heels this weekend, they will play the winner of the N.C. State/Clemson game on Sunday in the semifinals.
Yet beating North Carolina may prove to be a difficult task. The Cavaliers are 0-2 against the Tar Heels this season. In fact, Virginia's most recent game action was in Chapel Hill against North Carolina Feb. 29. The Cavaliers lost their last regular season game by a score of 70-64 to the Tar Heels, who were then ranked No. 11 in the nation.
Although the team lost, Virginia showed that it could play with North Carolina, going on a 13-2 run in the first half, and leading 34-31 at the break. Yet coming out of the locker room, the Tar Heels went on a 9-0 run and never looked back. Junior forwards Brandi Teamer and LaTonya Blue scored 17 and 14 points for the Cavaliers, respectively. Virginia was out-rebounded by North Carolina, 45-34.
Despite the recent loss, the Cavaliers realize the importance of Saturday's game, and will attempt to compose themselves as a team in time to take down their formidable quarterfinal-round opponent. They will have to defend well against the Tar Heels' two main threats, freshmen Camille Little and Ivory Latta.
"We just want to go in there and play our game," Blue said. "I think we're a team that plays well when going through adversity. We have to make adjustments; we have to adapt."
It is probable that Virginia will have to win the conference tournament this weekend to get a bid to the NCAA tournament. A 6-10 ACC record will likely prove not to be enough to be selected from a conference so full of high RPIs that it may only send one or two teams to the field of 65.
"We didn't finish like we should have," Ryan said. "We had three games at home that we should've won all three of them and we only won one. We've had a game against the bottom team in the conference [Georgia Tech] and didn't win."
Winning the ACC tournament, however, means getting past Duke. The Blue Devils have dominated the conference throughout the season with a 15-1 record. Last time Virginia and Duke met was on Feb. 19, and the Cavaliers were crushed, 87-54.
"Duke's on top of everything right now," Ryan said. "They're the best team in the league, so it is an upset if anyone else wins."
Yet some Virginia players remain optimistic about the post-season. This weekend, the Cavaliers will enter the tournament looking for upsets to prevent their season from ending.
Duke is "a good team, don't get me wrong, but on any given day, Carolina, Virginia, Florida State could come in and win the tournament," Teamer said. "Different things happen in the tournament. I don't think it's anybody's tournament guaranteed."
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