The team was led by head coach Tony Bennett, in his seventh year, and played their home games at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, Virginia as members of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

They defeated Georgia Tech and Miami (FL) to advance to the championship game of the ACC tournament where they lost to North Carolina.

They received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament as a #1 seed where they defeated Hampton, Butler, and Iowa State to advance to the Elite Eight where they lost to fellow ACC member Syracuse.

Despite their best regular season record in school history of 28–2, and reaching their highest national ranking since 1983, they fell in the semifinals of the ACC tournament to North Carolina, and in the NCAA Tournament Round of 32 to Michigan State.

[6] Soderberg had previously served as an assistant at Wisconsin alongside Tony Bennett's father Dick, and was interim head coach following the latter's retirement in 2000.