With less than two months left before Virginia men’s basketball opens at JPJ, the Cavaliers finally have their non-conference slate in place - and Ryan Odom didn’t waste time getting ambitious.
The schedule leans hard in one direction: either heavyweight tests or games Virginia should control from the opening tip. Odom avoided the usual middle ground, stacking the calendar with ranked-caliber opponents and buy games rather than rolling the dice on tricky mid-majors.
Torvik’s preseason numbers reflect that approach, with five opponents sitting in the top 50, led by No. 12 UConn.
Every non-power conference team on the slate lands outside the top 150.
It’s a loaded mix of home dates, one true road game, and several major showcases. Virginia will play eight times at home, go on one true road trip, and visit Washington, D.C., Madison Square Garden in New York, and the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas. The preseason tune-ups are in place too, with public exhibitions set for Sunday, September 27 against Vanderbilt in Charleston, SC, Friday, October 9 against Richmond at JPJ, and Thursday, October 22 at Villanova.
That setup should tell Virginia a lot about itself by the time the calendar flips.
The opener comes Friday, Nov. 6, when Northeastern visits JPJ. Bill Coen is coming off his worst season, one that produced just seven total wins in 2025-26, and Torvik has the Huskies 260th in its projections.
Two days later, Virginia gets a much bigger stage. On Sunday, Nov. 8, the Cavaliers meet Arkansas in Washington, D.C.
John Calipari has pushed the Razorbacks back into top-25 territory and taken them to the Sweet Sixteen in each of his first two seasons. Arkansas also brings in the nation’s top freshman class, a group that includes four top-20 recruits, with guard Jordan Smith Jr. as the headliner.
Virginia returns home for Bucknell on Tuesday, Nov. 10. The Bison are coming off a 10-23 season and enter John Griffin’s fourth year as head coach projected 350th nationally by Torvik.
The first road game lands Friday, Nov. 13 at Maryland, and it’s a matchup with plenty of moving parts. Buzz Williams is in year two, and while first-year head coaches often hit rough patches, Maryland is expected to be far more competitive after a strong transfer haul.
The Terrapins will feature a completely new backcourt, with D.J. Wagner arriving from Arkansas and Tennessee transfer Bishop Boswell, who scored 13 in that Round of 32 game against the ‘Hoos.
Old Dominion comes to Charlottesville on Tuesday, Nov. 17, and the Monarchs are a familiar name with a distant memory attached. Virginia last saw ODU in 2012, when the 1-10 Monarchs stunned the Cavaliers 62-60 in Richmond. Since then, the program has struggled to build steady success and is again expected to sit in the bottom half of the Sun Belt.
Loyola Maryland follows on Friday, Nov. 20.
Like Bucknell, the Greyhounds usually live near the bottom of the Patriot League, and the NIL era has not helped. Their best bright spot from last season, 6-foot-9 freshman Emmett Adair, has moved on to George Mason.
The holiday stretch sends Virginia to the Battle 4 Atlantis, where the competition gets serious. Marquette waits on Wednesday, Nov.
- Shaka Smart’s group is a classic “better than last year” candidate after bringing back much of what mattered from the 2025-26 roster.
Rising sophomore Nigel James is in the mix for Big East Player of the Year, and Louisville transfer Sananda Fru adds frontcourt presence after finishing sixth in the ACC in blocks as a freshman.
Xavier follows on Friday, Nov. 27, and the Musketeers are projected as Virginia’s only power-conference opponent outside the national top 50. Richard Pitino rebuilt almost the entire roster, bringing in players like Tru Washington, who has been part of winning teams at Miami and New Mexico. Even so, the Musketeers may not have enough scoring to match up with Virginia.
Back at JPJ on Wednesday, Dec. 2, the Cavaliers host Kentucky in what stands out as the most recognizable non-conference visitor to come to Charlottesville in a while. Mark Pope’s Wildcats have slipped some, but Milan Momcilovic could change the look of the team quickly. The Iowa State transfer shot 48.8% from three last season on 7.5 attempts per game, the best mark in the country.
Bethune-Cookman comes next on Tuesday, Dec. 8.
The Wildcats are shaping up to be one of the most talked-about SWAC teams in years, thanks to Reggie Theus assembling a roster filled with players who have already found offensive success at other Division I stops, especially in the backcourt. Virginia beat Bethune-Cookman 59-41 in 2024-25, though this one is expected to bring a little more scoring on both sides.
The final home game on the list is Sunday, Dec. 13 against Western Carolina. If Bethune-Cookman is not Virginia’s best buy-game opponent, Western Carolina might be.
The Catamounts closed last season with six straight regular-season wins and bring one of the SoCon’s explosive offenses into the matchup. Virginia should still be in control, but the Catamounts have enough bite to make things interesting before the Cavaliers turn their attention to a much larger test.
That final challenge comes Sunday, Dec. 20, when Virginia faces UConn in New York. Dan Hurley’s program needs no introduction: multiple national titles, a perennial top-five profile, and another roster built to contend.
The Huskies return two starters in Silas Demery Jr. and Braylon Mullins, while Duke transfer Nikolas Khamenia - who played a season-high 32 minutes in the ACC title game against Virginia - anchors the front court. It will be Virginia’s first matchup with UConn since 1997-98, though the Cavaliers did beat Hurley’s Rhode Island team 70-55 in New York in 2017-18.
This time, the crowd advantage figures to tilt heavily toward the Huskies.
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