1. After winning three in a row, UVa was served a major reality check in Monday’s loss to Duke.

Virginia got back above .500 with Saturday’s win in Blacksburg, and were up to 6-8 in ACC play after a rough start. UVa’s play heading into Monday’s game was probably their best, most-consistent stretch of the season to date, and the Hoos had a chance to make a major statement and pull an absolute stunner with the Blue Devils in town. While UVa fans were holding out hope of an upset, most were probably expecting a loss. And that’s exactly what Duke delivered to UVa, handling the Wahoos easily in a 80-62 victory.

UVa looked solid offensively for the first few minutes of the game, and then were dominated the rest of the way. The Blue Devils owned the glass, out-rebounding Virginia by 20, and those extra chances led to a bunch of buckets that sunk the Hoos by halftime. While it’s far from a surprise that Duke came into JPJ and handled the game, it was a reminder of where this Virginia team is. While UVa has played better of late and strung some wins together, they haven’t come close to beating a team of Duke’s caliber, and haven’t notched a win over an at-large NCAA Tournament team this season. Monday’s blowout was a reminder that while progress has been made, this team is still pretty far away from where they’ve been in previous years.

2. UVa’s five-game stretch run will be challenging.

With the Duke game behind them, UVa gets a bit of extra rest before Saturday’s contest at UNC. The Tar Heels have been a disappointment this season and their NCAA Tournament chances look more and more bleak, but they’ll still be favored to beat UVa in Chapel Hill. After that one, UVa has four games remaining, two at home and two away, and all of their remaining games should be tough battles.

UVa heads to Wake Forest next week, before hosting 2nd-place Clemson in Charlottesville. Wake is a borderline NCAA Tournament team and will probably be a tough out on the road, and then the Tigers have been playing great basketball of late, and are the only team in the conference to beat Duke this season. After those two, UVa’s final week of the regular season features a more manageable two-game schedule, but neither is a gimme. UVa hosts FSU at JPJ for Senior night, before traveling to Syracuse for the regular-season finale. The Hoos will be underdogs in at least three of these games and probably four, as they look to finish the season strong.

3. Andrew Rohde has been UVa’s best player in the last month.

During UVa’s best stretch of the season, a lot of players have upped their game, but none more than junior guard Andrew Rohde. In his second year with Virginia, Rohde looks more comfortable and has been more consistent of late. Even in Monday’s blowout loss to Duke, Rodhe battled and played relatively well, finishing with a team-high 15 points and 5 assists. Rohde has had 5+ assists in each of his last five games, including three consecutive games with nine helpers.

Rohde can’t do it on his own to be sure, but the key to UVa coming away with a few more wins down the stretch will be Rohde’s distribution paired with decent scoring nights that he’s capable of.

1. How solid are UVa’s ACC Tournament chances?

Following Monday’s loss, UVa is 6-9 in ACC play, seven spots from the bottom of the standings. The bottom three teams in the ACC will not make the ACC Tournament, and for a long stretch of this season, it looked like Virginia might finish outside the top 15 and miss any sort of a postseason. But after playing better over the past month or so, UVa is in a much better position, though they’d really help themselves out with another win.

The bottom three teams in conference play, NC State, Boston College and Miami, all have three wins or fewer. UVa beat all three of those schools head-to-head which should help them should they have a rough finish and one or two of these teams finishes strong. At this point, it seems quite unlikely that any of those three teams will get to 6+ wins, and 7+ is even more remote. So if UVa can at least win one more game, they have a great chance to make the conference tournament, even if they have to play on the first day of knockout play for the first time since conference expansion. If UVa gets to 8 ACC wins, they should be totally safe.

2. What’s going on with the coaching search?

While UVa’s season is playing out, work on who will lead the program in the future is ongoing in the background. Carla Williams told the media when Tony Bennett retired that the athletics department would have a national search to find their new coach, with interim coach Ron Sanchez among the candidates they’ll review. Looking at how Sanchez has fared, it seems more likely than not that the program will look elsewhere for their next leader, barring a big-time run down the stretch and into the postseason, or overwhelming donor support for the status quo.

So the simple answer is that there isn’t a ton to report here. UVa’s interest in other candidates, and their reciprocation, will stay off the radar in large because those candidates are playing out their own seasons and are not solely focused on their own futures. UVa will also contend with a few other similar programs for the top candidates this cycle, including Indiana, Florida State and Miami thus far. As we get into the offseason we can take a longer look at those candidates, including Sanchez, and discuss what their appointment would mean for the future of the program.

1. UVa will make the ACC Tournament, but their season will end there.

We outlined above where UVa stands in the ACC race right now, and despite Monday’s loss to Duke, we feel confident that the Hoos will make it to Charlotte unless they take a major dip in form and the teams at the bottom of the standings suddenly decide to be competitive. But those thinking that UVa could repeat what NC State did last year, winning five in five days, are likely to be disappointed. And Monday’s game against the ACC leaders showed how unlikely it would be for the Hoos to not only beat teams they play on the first day or two of the tournament, but then follow it up by upsetting the league’s frontrunners. We expect the Hoos to get to the conference tournament, but don’t expect them to be around when we get to the Quarterfinals on Day 3.