After rolling through then-No. 9 Florida State on Saturday afternoon to begin the defense of its ACC crown, No. 4 UVa hits the road for its next two games starting tonight in Chestnut Hill when the Wahoos face Boston College (9 p.m., ESPNU).

Given the game these two teams played early in ACC action a year ago, one might expect this to be a close one. The Wahoos got six 3-pointers from Ty Jerome on a career night and needed every one of them, as they got a one-point win against a BC squad that, with Jerome Robinson in the fold, turned a lot of heads last year.

But this isn't the same Boston College team with Robinson now in the professional ranks and the Wahoos even more primed it would appear.

Boston College Eagles (9-4, 0-1 ACC)

Head coach: Jim Christian, 17th year (299-241, 57-87 in five years at BC)

Series: UVa leads the all-time series 14-7.

Last Meeting: The Cavaliers beat the Eagles 59-58 in Charlottesville last season.

1. The Eagles improved significantly last year but have been underwhelming thus far.

After winning just 29 games in Christian’s first three seasons in Chestnut Hill, including a woeful 7-25 season in 2016 that featured no ACC wins, BC seemingly turned a corner last season. The Eagles finished 19-16 and recorded wins over NCAA Tournament teams in Duke, Florida State, Miami, Syracuse, and NC State. They won two games in the ACC Tournament before bowing out in the quarterfinals and didn’t do quite enough to make the NCAA's. Still, an NIT berth was a sign of significant progress in Christian’s fourth year at BC. Expectations weren’t through the roof coming into this season but being picked 12th in the ACC preseason poll represented a higher opinion of this year’s Eagles team than we’ve seen in some time. But BC is 9-4 heading into tonight’s clash with the Cavaliers with the losses coming to IUPUI, Providence, Hartford, and Virginia Tech. Their best two wins of the season came over Loyola Chicago and Minnesota in back-to-back games in late November, the only two top-100 teams the Eagles have beaten. BC has been pedestrian on both ends of the floor according to the analytics, ranking 104th in adjusted offensive efficiency and 111th in adjusted defensive efficiency. Overall, it's been a pretty mediocre go of it so far.

2. With Robinson gone to the NBA, Ky Bowman’s role is bigger than ever.

The catalyst for last season’s improvement came from the talented and experienced backcourt that featured Robinson and Ky Bowman. The former emerged as one of the league’s best last year, averaging better than 20 points per game and scoring 20-plus points in 14 league games. Robinson scored 46 against Virginia Tech and had one of his better games in the lone matchup with the Cavaliers, pouring in 29 of his team’s 58 points in the one-point loss at JPJ. That success led Robinson to an early NBA draft entry and left Bowman to quarterback the BC backcourt this year. And so far, the junior guard has been up to the challenge. Named to the preseason All-ACC first team, Bowman has averaged 20.4 points and 7.8 boards per contest, simply carrying Boston College at times. He scored a season-high 44 points in the overtime loss to Hartford on New Year’s Eve and chipped in 14 in the loss to the Hokies over the weekend. Against UVa last season, though, he was just 2-for-10 shooting and scored five points, well below his 16.8 average at the time. Needless to say, the Eagles are going to need him to have a big game tonight if they are going to pull off a big-time upset.

3. BC may be shorthanded on tonight against the Hoos.

We likely won’t know until game time which five players will start for the Eagles and whether they’ll still be dealing with lingering injuries. Freshman guard Wynston Tabbs missed Saturday’s game in Blacksburg with a leg injury and Steffon Mitchell has missed two of BC’s last four games as well. Christian said on Monday’s ACC teleconference that the X-rays for both players came back negative but heading into the UVa game the status of both players is uncertain, or has he described it, “day-to-day.” Tabbs is second on the team in scoring this season at 14.6 points per game and would be a significant loss for the Eagles if he has to miss his second\-straight game after playing just nine minutes against Hartford. He has scored in double figures in nine games and if he is absent, BC will lean more on guard Jordan Chatman, who averages 13.1 points per game. Mitchell, meanwhile, doesn’t have the same impact on the box score but he does play 28 minutes per game. The 6-foot-8 sophomore played just 16 minutes in Blacksburg and is averaging 5.2 points and 8.5 rebounds per game this season.