The team was led by head coach Tony Bennett in his 15th year, and played their home games at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, Virginia, as members of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

They lost to Pittsburgh and won a low scoring game against Wake Forest before falling out of the rankings again.

The Cavaliers finished out the season 2–3 losing a rivalry rematch to Virginia Tech and to North Carolina and Duke, who were both ranked tenth at the time of the matchup.

They earned a controversial at-large bid to the NCAA tournament and were placed as a tenth seed in the First Four in the Midwest region.

They defeated North Carolina and Clemson to reach the championship game of the ACC tournament, where they lost to Duke.