The Virginia basketball season is nearly here with just over two weeks remaining until the season starts on Nov. 6 against Tarleton State. Despite the uncertainty of who will play significant minutes with several newcomers expected to play a role, we’re here to provide five preseason predictions for the 2023-24 Cavaliers.

No, we didn’t predict that Reece Beekman would win a second straight ACC Defensive Player of the Year, or that Ryan Dunn might burst onto the scene as just about every publication has forecasted since the end of last year. That’s not to say those aren’t fair predictions, but we went a little less obvious with the five we dive into below.

The Cavaliers will lose no more than two games before New Year’s.

This year does not feature an easy early schedule, but it is definitely less difficult than last year’s – which the Cavaliers handled incredibly well. Granted that was with nearly everyone returning from the year before, but still, UVA should be able to manage this early stretch before the calendar switches to 2024.

In sum, UVA will play 13 games before New Year’s. Presumably, the Cavaliers will handle business in their home dates against low major conference opponents. They should have no problem beating Tarleton State, North Carolina A&T, Texas Southern, NC Central, Northeastern, and Morgan State.

Then, a few of the mid and high major teams that UVA will face are effectively going through rebuilds, so the Cavaliers should get wins against them as well – though Syracuse can always be a tough matchup.