The victories piled up for the Cavaliers last winter—30 wins and a second-consecutive ACC regular season title. But Virginia’s style of play, characterized by low-scoring games and Coach Tony Bennett’s stifling Pack Line Defense, drew criticism. In his weekly Top 12 NCAA Power Rankings on Grantland.com and on Twitter ( @clubtrillion ), writer Mark Titus regularly expressed praise and appreciation for Virginia, becoming a folk hero of sorts for many Cavalier fans. Here, Titus answers our questions about last year’s team and what might be in store for the season ahead.

Some have described Virginia’s style as not only boring, but bad for college basketball—an assessment you strongly disagreed with last year. What led you to defend Virginia’s style of play?

I remember watching an early-season Virginia game last year and pausing the game to collect myself because I was so blown away by the defensive discipline of the Hoos. It was unlike anything I had ever seen in college basketball, including Virginia’s team from the season before. Most teams are typically lucky to have either great athletes or disciplined players who are all on the same page defensively. Virginia had an overwhelming abundance of both. I was watching poetry come to life and the basketball junkie in me felt like I was overdosing.

I assumed that as the season wore on, the rest of college basketball’s media would see what I saw and shower the Hoos with praise. Not only did that not happen, many claimed Virginia was “ruining” college basketball. This drove me crazy, and over time my frustration led to me becoming the national standard-bearer for Virginia basketball. I understand casual fans not liking low-scoring games, but college basketball media guys have no excuse. It’s part of our jobs to praise great basketball wherever we see it. When it came to Virginia, way too many of my colleagues were failing at this.