Virginia Shows Why It's Still Worthy of No. 1 Seed in Win over North Carolina

If you thought Virginia might start to fall apart after losing to Duke over the weekend, think again.

The No. 3 Cavaliers went into Chapel Hill on Monday night and put a beating on No. 12 North Carolina that was much more convincing than the 75-64 final score indicates.

To be fair, North Carolina is banged up. 

According to Inside Carolina's Sherrell McMillan, head coach Roy Williams said Kennedy Meeks has the flu. Marcus Paige is dealing with some combination of plantar fasciitis and, according to Williams, a sprained ankle (h/t The Courier-Journal's Jeff Greer). Jay Bilas said during ESPN's broadcast that Brice Johnson has been playing through back spasms. J.P. Tokoto appeared to tweak something early in the game and never really looked right the rest of the way.

It wouldn't have mattered, though, because the Cavaliers simply imposed their will on this game after trailing by one at the half.

ESPN's Jeff Goodman wasn't blown away by the outcome:

Save for a stretch of 10 minutes on Saturday in which Duke was insatiably on fire, Virginia has been pretty much unstoppable this season on both ends of the court. According to KenPom.com, the Cavaliers have the sixth-most efficient offense and third-most efficient defense in the nation.

But it's more than just the stats on the resume that make Virginia one of the strongest candidates for a No. 1 seed on Selection Sunday.

The Cavaliers simply look the part of a title contender.

When they're firing on all cylinders, they are more poised and fluid than any other team in the nation, and they certainly played their game for the final 20 minutes against North Carolina.

"We got the game the way we needed to in the second half," Virginia head coach Tony Bennett told ESPN's Allison Williams after the game on the television broadcast. "Our guys played the way we needed to play. That's the blue-collar way, and that'll never change."

One of the biggest things that Virginia has done well this season is dominate the defensive glass. The Cavaliers are among the best in the nation in a lot of categories, but they entered Monday night's game ranked fifth in defensive rebounding percentage, according to KenPom.com.

Gerry Broome/Associated Press

The Tar Heels did grab 11 offensive rebounds, but it was Virginia's ability to shut them out on the offensive glass for a long stretch of the second half that really allowed the Cavaliers to bust this thing wide open.

Isaiah Hicks got an offensive rebound on a tip-in that cut Virginia's lead to 42-40. A full 10 minutes passed before North Carolina's next offensive rebound, when the scoreboard read 66-48.

North Carolina, which had assists by six different players on its first six baskets, was able to effectively move the ball early in the game, but once Virginia's defense clamped down and started doing a better job of rotating, points came at a premium for the Tar Heels.

Whether North Carolina slowed down, Virginia sped up or a little bit of both, those wide-open touches in the paint went by the wayside after halftime as Bennett's pack-line defense really began to sink its teeth into the Heels.

Virginia eliminated second-chance opportunities, vehemently contested North Carolina's first chances and quietly remained one of the most efficient offenses in the nation by scoring 75 points on 64 possessions.

What's scary for the rest of the world is that this is simply the way things are supposed to go for Virginia. As Jon Rothstein of CBSSports.com indirectly tweeted, this is one of the most complete teams in the entire country:

This road win by double digits against a legitimate Final Four contender wasn't the fluky outcome of the past few days. That honor would belong to Duke scoring 35 points in its final 15 possessions against the Cavaliers on Saturday.

If the most efficient offense in the country was playing against the least efficient defense in the country, that would still be a ridiculous stretch of scoring. For it to happen against one of the nation's best defenses just makes it that much stranger.

But probabilities, sample sizes and momentum are fickle beasts, and Duke simply couldn't miss from downtown after struggling to hit anything for the first 30 minutes. Such is basketball.

The important thing is that the Cavaliers didn't even remotely let it affect their psyche. They played the exact same game with the exact same tenacity against North Carolina as they had displayed all season, keeping this team very much on the right path for a No. 1 seed for a second consecutive NCAA tournament.

After all, the Cavaliers now have four road wins against teams ranked in the Top 18 of Monday's AP Top 25—an insane statistic, considering those 18 teams have suffered a combined 13 losses at home this season. Virginia entered the day ranked No. 3 in RPI and No. 2 in ESPN's BPI.

So let's go ahead and forget about that little hiccup against Duke. Because if Virginia keeps playing the way it did against North Carolina and the way it has in its other 19 wins this season, the Cavaliers aren't just a lock for a No. 1 seed.

They're one of the biggest threats to win the national championship.

Kerry Miller covers college basketball for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @kerrancejames.