By Jerry Ratcliffe

No. 21 Virginia will be coming out of its second extended break during December on Wednesday afternoon when the Cavaliers take on arch rival Virginia Tech in Blacksburg (2 p.m., ACC Network).

The Cavaliers (11-1) haven’t played a game since a 95-51 whipping of American on Dec. 22. They previously had an 11-day break without a game during exams and showed some rust before disposing Maryland Eastern Shore 84-60. This time, the opponent hasn’t played either. The Hokies, 11-2, haven’t played since an 82-81 overtime win against Elon on Dec. 20.

UVA is a 4.5-point favorite according to Vegas oddsmakers.

Virginia coach Ryan Odom had his team report back on Dec. 26 and practiced late “just to get the guys sweating again and back in the gym together.” From that point forward, the Cavaliers would begin their prep for road games at Tech and at NC State on Saturday.

“[The players] are really excited about the ACC and we know it’s going to be really challenging,” Odom said. “You can look at all the records and just go up and down and every conference member, you take notice of their records out there right now. We’ve got a big challenge ahead of us at Virginia Tech.”

One of those challenges will be the Hokies’ 6-foot-9 freshman point guard Neoklis Ardalas from Greece, who averages 14.6 points, 5 assists and shoots 44 percent from the field and 37 percent from the arc. While Ardalas hasn’t played since the 14th, he’s expected to be healthy for Saturday, along with Tobi Lawal (12.8 ppg, 10.3 reb), who was out with a foot injury since Nov. 26. Lawal, according to Tech coach Mike Young, is a game-day decision.

Odom, who has several international players on Virginia’s roster, looked at Ardalas during the recruiting process.

“He’s a dynamite player,” Odom said. “He’s got tremendous size, he can really pass the ball. He kind of reminds you of Luka (Doncic, LA Lakers, the first European to lead the NBA in scoring 2023-24 while with Dallas) in some ways with his ability to see the floor, shoot the basketball and get assists. He’s one of the better players in our league.”

Ardalas is also a matchup problem. Will Odom put 6-9 freshman wing Thijs De Ridder (Belgium) on the big Greek? If so, fans could be in for a treat in such a mano-a-mano battle.

While Ardalas starts, his backup, 5-11 sophomore Ben Hammond (10.1 ppg, 3.5 assists) actually gets more playing time.

Tech’s leading scorer is 6-8 junior Amani Hansberry (16.3 ppg, 8.4 reb).

The Hokies are 8-0 at home and have won their last five contests this season. They have split the last 10 games in their series with Virginia over the past five years, each stealing a win at the other’s home last season.

Virginia is coming off a high-scoring contest against American, a contest in which De Ridder was unstoppable, scoring 27 points (21 in the first half). The Cavaliers shot a season-high 62.3 percent in that game and were so impressive that American coach Duane Simpkins heaped praise on Odom’s squad.

“We [have] played Carolina and Villanova [early season the last two years], but this is the best team, top to bottom, that we have competed against,” Simpkins said in comparison. “We played against teams with size and length, but [Virginia] is together. They’re connected and they can really shoot. That’s a potential national championship team.”

Simpkins said that sometimes at this level, a team might face an opponent that has one or two guys, possibly even three that can cause damage, but Virginia goes deeper than that.

“One [Virginia] guy gets cut off and he kicks it, he makes an extra pass and you close out. We had a number of rotations defensively that I thought were pretty good and normally it will either be a turnover or somebody shoots a bad shot. But [Virginia] would drive it again and get another kickout. That’s when you know you’ve got a really good offensive team. They are really tough to guard.”

Maryland coach Buzz Williams, whose Terps lost to UVA 80-72 on Dec. 20, said, “I really enjoyed studying them. They’re really a unique team.”

Williams raved about the Cavaliers freshmen, three of them, although he didn’t realize that guard Chance Mallory was also a freshman.

“Analytically, those two freshmen, 28 (De Ridder) and 17 (7-footer Johann Grünloh), they are off the charts,” Williams said. “And number 2 (Mallory) is sneaky good too in my opinion. Analytically, 30 (starting point guard Dallin Hall) is deserving of whatever you typically write about him. But number 2, number 28 and number 17, they will stick it in you ear if you don’t have a plan. And number 6 (Jacari White, currently recovering from wrist surgery) is a bucket wherever he is on the floor.”

Williams basically confirmed everything that American’s Simpkins said about the Cavaliers.

That’s what Young has to contend with on Wednesday, a Virginia team that has scored 80 or more points in 11 games (the most since 2007-08), a team that averages 87.2 points per game (second most since the Buzzy Wilkinson days of 1954-55).

Virginia, which has a NET ranking of 24 and rated No. 23 by Kenpom, is one of the most dynamic 3-point shooting teams in the nation and one of the country’s top shot-blocking units as well with Grünloh and seven-footer Ugonna Onyenso.