The California Golden Bears will have a really marquee road matchup, as they could face a potential Final Four team next Christmas.
Virginia will host Cal on Tuesday 12/22/15 in Charlottesville, source told @CBSSports. Return game of home-and-home series.
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) April 29, 2015
The Cavaliers have joined the level of blueblood ACC elites by taking the conference title in two straight seasons from teams like Duke, UNC, Syracuse, Notre Dame and more. Virginia went 30-7 in 2013-14 and made the Sweet 16, and they won another 30 games in 2014-15, but got bounced as a two seed in the first weekend. Former WSU coach Tony Bennett has done an incredible rebuilding job in his time at Charlottesville, as the team had a few .500 seasons before moving to top-four status in the ACC the last four seasons. They will be returning all but one rotation player and figure to be title contenders.
I have to imagine that Cuonzo Martin is aiming for Cal to rebuild their program in a similar model as Bennett--defense first, with a team filled with versatile, big, long-armed wings that can disrupt and cause people to think quite a lot. Virginia has had a top five defense the last two seasons, and was ranked first in Pomeroy in defensive efficiency.