The 2018–19 Virginia Cavaliers men's basketball team represented the University of Virginia during the 2018–19 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The team was led by head coach Tony Bennett in his tenth year, and played their home games at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, Virginia as members of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

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2018–19 Virginia Cavaliers men's basketball
NCAA tournament National champions ACC regular season co-champions Battle 4 Atlantis champions
Conference	Atlantic Coast Conference
Ranking
Coaches	No. 1
AP	No. 2
Record	35–3 (16–2 ACC)
Head coach	Tony Bennett (10th season)
Associate head coach	Jason Williford (10th season)
Assistant coaches	Brad Soderberg (4th season) Orlando Vandross (1st season)
Offensive scheme	Blocker-Mover
Base defense	Pack-Line
Captains	Jack Salt Kyle Guy Ty Jerome
Home arena	John Paul Jones Arena
Seasons ← 2017–18 2019–20 →

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UVA opened the season with consecutive wins over ranked Big Ten teams, No. 25 Wisconsin (Battle 4 Atlantis) and No. 24 Maryland (ACC–Big Ten Challenge), the latter of which improved Bennett's record in the Challenge to 8–2. An unheralded two-star recruit, 5'9" Kihei Clark from Los Angeles, California, started both games as a true freshman. The team then started the season 16–0 before falling to No. 1 Duke, 72–70.^[1] The game was just the fourth in college basketball history between two teams both ranked No. 1, as the No. 4 Cavaliers were voted atop the Coaches Poll before the loss.^[1] After a 16–2 ACC record, Virginia won a share of their fourth ACC regular season title in the past six years.^[2]

In the ACC tournament, the Cavaliers defeated NC State 76–56, before falling to Florida State in the conference semifinals. Virginia was then awarded the No. 1 seed in the South region and dispatched Gardner-Webb and Oklahoma by healthy margins in the first two rounds in Columbia, South Carolina. They advanced to a Sweet 16 matchup with Oregon and beat Oregon 53–49 to advance to their 2nd Elite 8 under Bennett. In the Elite Eight, they beat Purdue 80–75 in overtime to secure a trip to their first Final Four since 1984. On April 6, 2019, they defeated Auburn in their Final Four matchup by a score of 63–62 on 3 last-second free throws by Kyle Guy, cementing the program's first ever trip to the national championship game.^[3] On April 8, 2019, Virginia beat Texas Tech 85–77 in overtime, winning its first national championship.

Unranked by the AP in the preseason poll, the Cavaliers surprisingly finished the 2017–18 season 31–3, and 17–1 in ACC play to win both ACC Regular Season and tournament titles. The Cavaliers received an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament as the No. 1 seed in the South region, where they were upset by No. 16 UMBC in the first round. This was the first time in Men's NCAA tournament history that a No. 1 seed was upset by a No. 16 seed.

Virginia's offseason started on the night of March 16, 2018, and ended on the evening of November 6, 2018.

The Cavaliers lost five players and gained four.

Departures

More information Name, Number ...

Virginia Departures

Name	Number	Pos.	Height	Weight	Year	Hometown	Reason for Departure
Devon Hall	0	G	6'5"	211	Senior	Virginia Beach, VA	Graduated/2018 NBA draft
Justice Bartley	2	G	6'5"	212	Junior	Lilburn, GA	Transferred to Maryland Eastern Shore
Trevon Gross Jr.	10	G	6'3"	200	Junior	Jackson, NJ	Transferred to Monmouth
Isaiah Wilkins	21	F	6'7"	227	Senior	Atlanta, GA	Graduated
Nigel Johnson	23	G	6'1"	182	Senior	Ashburn, VA	Graduated

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Source:^[4]

*AP does not release post-NCAA Tournament rankings
^Coaches did not release a Week 2 poll.