By Jerry Ratcliffe
The majority of Virginia’s basketball players had never really heard of the program’s bitter rivalry with Virginia Tech, let alone understood it.
After suffering a triple-overtime loss to the Hokies in Blacksburg on New Year’s Eve, they gained a crash course in disdainment for their state rival. No. 13 UVA (26-4, 14-3) gets a second crack at the Hokies (19-11, 8-9) at high noon Saturday at John Paul Jones Arena (televised by The CW) in the regular season finale for both teams.
If Virginia coach Ryan Mulligan could get a mulligan on any loss this season, it would likely be the loss in Blacksburg. It was the ACC opener for his team, a squad that was just gaining familiarity with one another after being assembled from not just all over the country, but from across the Atlantic.
One of the benefits from the loss, if there was anything to be gained in defeat, was a better understanding of what this game meant to the Virginia fan base.
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