There is a valid reason why Tony Bennett has challenged his basketball team to be more aggressive offensively and to attack the basket.

If there has been one consistency throughout Virginia’s roller coaster basketball season, it has been Sam Hauser.

While teasing this column on Twitter, I wrote that this piece would be about the player I thought could turn things back in the right direction for Virginia as the Cavaliers head into the final week of the regular season.

Former Virginia guard Ty Jerome has missed nearly half a season in his second year in the NBA, but the wait was worth the result.

After dropping a third straight game for the first time in more than a year, and watching a 15-game home winning streak vanish against N.C. State on Wednesday night, Tony Bennett again questioned his team’s toughness.

Virginia hopes to break out of its only two-game losing streak of the season tonight when the Cavaliers host NC State (6:30, ACC Network).

The start time for No. 15 Virginia’s Atlantic Coast Conference home game against Miami on Monday, March 1 has been moved from 9 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Mike Krzyzewski called it epic, and maybe it was from Duke’s corner, a place from where the Blue Devils may have made their biggest leap of the year.

Having already landed one of the nation’s top prospects for the Class of 2022 in four-star combo guard Isaac McKneely, Virginia is in hot pursuit of at least four other big-time recruits.

While NBA fans are raving about the Brooklyn Nets’ “big three,” in Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden, they’ve overlooked one key element of the ever-improving team.

Duke is hoping to spring an upset over No. 7 Virginia tonight and use the momentum toward a run at next month’s NCAA Tournament.

Seems to be a commonality in Virginia’s three losses to ranked teams this season, Gonzaga, Virginia Tech and Florida State.

Coming off wins on Saturday, both Virginia and Florida State didn’t have much prep time for tonight’s clash between the top two teams in the ACC.

There’s just something about Carolina blue that gets Jay Huff’s blood boiling. The Virginia seven-footer’s disdain for that hue has roots extending to his childhood, growing up on Tobacco Road where another shade of blue was much more palatable.

When I arrived in Charlottesville in 1982, I already had plenty of experience covering the ACC, but I was about to learn that Virginia’s rivalry with North Carolina was much more intense than I had thought.

After one of his most frustrating weeks off the court during his career, North Carolina coach Roy Williams said the Tar Heels are bracing for “the biggest challenge we’ll have all year long, no question,” at No. 9 Virginia.

There’s an old saying around the conference that the ACC road is filled with land mines. This season is a prime example.

Terry Gates, who played for Virginia from 1978-79 to 1980-81, will be the featured guest on the “Jerry Ratcliffe Show” on Saturday morning.

Kihei Clark haters are eating a big ol’ bowl of crow this morning after the diminutive point guard saved Virginia’s bacon Wednesday night in Atlanta.

Josh Pastner’s Georgia Tech team is on the verge of a challenge that Tony Bennett wanted no part of for his Virginia basketball team.