UVa’s non-conference hoops schedule hasn’t been announced yet, but a lot of the opponents are known at this point. UVa’s marquee home matchup comes against long-time rival Maryland. The Terps and Hoos met a few times in the ACC/B1G Challenge, but this is their first scheduled series. The 2025 meeting, taking place on December 20th at JPJ, is the start of a four-game series played between Charlottesville and College Park.

While it’s great to see an old rival back on the schedule, UVa will be looking for more home-and-home series to fill out the slate in the years to come, as well as neutral site matchups. Virginia fans have been treated to a bunch of different opponents playing in Charlottesville since JPJ opened, but there are a few programs that the Hoos haven’t matched up with much, but could provide fans with some exciting early-season clashes.

Today, we’re taking a look at a few non-conference series, or stand-alone games, that we’d like to see on Virginia’s schedules in the years to come.

Outside of Virginia Tech, there isn’t a closer high-major program to UVa than Georgetown. Yet, the Hoos and Hoyas have rarely met on the hardwood outside of a famous matchup in the early 1980’s between Ralph Sampson and Patrick Ewing. Virginia and Georgetown have met 23 times total, with the Hoyas holding a one-game edge. The programs have avoided each other since playing on December 28th, 2002 at U-Hall. UVa won that game.

The DC area is UVa’s most fertile recruiting ground, and getting a game either annually or every few years in the nation’s capital seems like a win for the Hoos. Playing Georgetown is the easiest way to make that happen. The Hoyas have struggled of late, but are hopeful for a resurgence under head coach Ed Cooley, who is heading into his third year in DC. A series between UVa and Georgetown would bring great local flavor, and surely a lot of Cavalier fans would find their way into the building for a game at Capital One Arena. UVa has Maryland on the schedule for the next four years, but perhaps Georgetown could be added in a similar multi-year scheduling arrangement in the future.

Here’s another major east coast program that has rarely crossed paths with UVa. Virginia and UConn haven’t played since the Huskies won in Charlottesville in 1997. Since then, both UVa and UConn have had great moments, and elevated their respective programs. UConn has become a perennial contender, and as long as Dan Hurley is there, the Huskies should be one of the nation’s top programs. UVa is trying to build back under a new coach, something that UConn was able to do themselves, with both Kevin Ollie and Hurley winning titles after taking over the program that Jim Calhoun built.

A UVa/UConn series would be fun, and makes sense for both programs to get a premier east-coast home-and-home matchup. This would also make sense as a one-off neutral site game somewhere along the Acela corridor between DC and New York. Watching Hurley storm around on the sideline would probably be worth the price of admission, in addition to what could be a good hoops series.

You may be noticing a theme here, as Kansas is another program that UVa has rarely squared off with. The programs have only met three times, and not since 1996 (Kansas won that matchup). Oddly enough, all of the UVa/KU games came in an 18-month period, with UVa beating the Jayhawks in the 1995 NCAA Tournament, and then they played in back-to-back neutral site games in the 95-96 and 96-97 seasons, with KU winning both.

UVa has never played in Lawrence, and that’s a big part of the appeal here. Virginia has a ton of experience with the sport’s most-famous old gym, Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium, but a trip to Allen Fieldhouse would be awesome. This would be a good serious from a basketball perspective too, of course. A loss at Kansas would almost never be damaging to a program’s NCAA Tournament resume, and playing in that environment would be good preparation for league play. And of all of these games we’re hoping for, Kansas playing at JPJ would probably be the most sought-after ticket, and one of the most anticipated non-conference home games in quite a while.

We mentioned at the top that we’re not going to suggest any SEC programs as the ACC/SEC Challenge should give UVa an opportunity to rotate through those teams each year. That was the case with the Big Ten for a long time before the challenge shifted to the SEC, so if UVa wants to play a B1G program now, they’ll have to draw them in an early-season MTE or schedule a series.

UVa and Michigan State aren’t exactly rivals, but they’ve had a good amount of recent history. The Spartans beat UVa in back-to-back NCAA Tournaments in 2014 and 2015, and the programs squared off in an oddly-cancelled game at the Richmond Coliseum when a wet floor forced the game to be stopped. UVa and MSU had another unfortunately ACC/B1G cancellation in 2020-21, when a COVID outbreak at UVa forced the game to be called off.

It would be fun to get the Spartans on the schedule again, especially if they can do it before Tom Izzo retires. UVa fans have a bit of an axe to grind against the Spartans given the losses in March, and this would certainly be another hyped non-conference series.

Virginia has very recent history with the Red Storm, getting blown out by them in the Bahamas in November. Before that, UVa’s most-recent matchup with St John’s came in the 2013 NIT, with the Hoos coming out on top. But like a Kansas series, a lot of the appeal here would be the destination for a home-and-home. A UVa/St. John’s matchup would take place at the ‘World’s Most-Famous Arena,’ Madison Square Garden. That alone is appealing, as players want to play there, and fans want to watch games there.

Rick Pitino has re-energized the St. John’s program, so this would probably be another quality series against an east coast program on the rise. Virginia has played some neutral site and postseason games at MSG, but haven’t played the Red Storm in Manhattan since December 4th, 1999, a 22-point loss for the Hoos. UVa has beaten the Red Storm just once in nine all-time meetings.

This one might be a bit more controversial. Some UVa fans like playing VCU, and some don’t. But our contention is that it’s better to play games like this than similar ones against programs further away. The UVa/VCU series of the past were competitive and good games for both programs to play. The Hoos and Rams had a pair of home-and-homes in the Bennett era; the first was a split with both programs winning on the road, and then UVa swept VCU in the second series, in 2017 and 2018.

Typically VCU requires coaches that leave for another job to play a home-and-home series against the Rams once they’re with their new school. It’s a bit unclear whether that will be a requirement for Ryan Odom, but it would be fun to see this series get renewed, regardless. It gives VCU an opportunity to prove themselves against power-conference competition and for UVa, it’s a quality non-conference opponent in most years.