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From our friends at GW Athletics Communications...
2014 NCAA Tournament Teams to Play in D.C. and Charlottesville
The GW and Virginia men's basketball teams, both coming off NCAA Tournament appearances and seasons that ranked among the best in the schools' histories, have agreed to a home-and-home series for the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons, GW Head Coach Mike Lonergan announced on Monday.
GW is slated to travel to Charlottesville, Va., to face Virginia at John Paul Jones Arena on Nov. 21, 2014. That meeting will mark the second straight season the Colonials will face the defending ACC regular season and tournament champions after they defeated Miami in the Wooden Legacy in November 2013. GW is then scheduled to host Virginia at the Charles E. Smith Center on Nov. 16, 2015.
"Our goal is to play a schedule that is challenging and puts us in a position for a berth to the NCAA Tournament every season," said Coach Lonergan. "It's going to be an exciting regional rivalry for our players, students, alumni and fans."
The Colonials and Cavaliers both recently completed banner 2013-14 seasons in the 2014 NCAA Tournament. GW received an at-large bid to the tournament for the first time since 2007 and finished with a 24-9 overall record to equal the second-most wins in program history. Virginia won both the ACC regular season and tournament titles en route to a school-record tying 30 victories and a trip to the NCAA Sweet 16. The Cavaliers have been ranked in early 2014-15 preseason polls at No. 7 by ESPN, No. 9 by USA Today and No. 11 by CBS Sports.
GW has won 23 of the 48 all-time meetings against Virginia since its debut intercollegiate season in 1906-07, with the most recent contest coming in the first round of the Postseason NIT in March 2004. The home-and-home series will mark the first regular-season meetings between the programs since 1984.
The Cavaliers' visit to the Smith Center in 2015 will mark the seventh for an ACC opponent since the facility opened for the 1975-76 season and the first since Georgia Tech in 1988. Virginia last visited the Smith Center during the 1983-84 campaign.
