The reigning national champions have four players remain who played in the NCAA Tournament title game win over Texas Tech.

Virginia started the season 7-0 with wins at Syracuse and Arizona State on a neutral court. Then the season got a little bumpy starting with Purdue obliterating UVA 69-40 on Dec. 4. Virginia has gone 5-5 in the months of December and January.

Virginia (12-5 overall, 4-3 ACC) hosts NC State at 7 p.m. Monday on ESPN. UVA is 8-2 at home this season.

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The four returning players are also the top four scorers for Virginia this season. They just haven’t gotten much help.

Seniors Mamadi Diakite and Braxton Key have both improved from last year and anchor the two forward spots. Redshirt junior center Jay Huff and sophomore point guard Kihei Clark have grown into their increased roles.

Finding outside shooting on the wing has been a season-long concern.

Rankings

In the NET rankings done by the NCAA, Virginia is currently No. 60 in the country. KenPom.com has Cavaliers at No. 44, and ESPN’s College Basketball Power Index (BPI) has UVA at No. 38.

Virginia is ranked No. 47 in the old RPI formula used by the NCAA — according to RealTimeRPI.com.

Shooting

Virginia was counting on some outside shooters that instead have struggled. The Cavaliers are 13th in the ACC at 40.6 percent from the field and last in the league in both three-point field-goal percentage (26.8 percent) and points per game (55.8).

Sophomore point guard Kihei Clark leads the team at 36.7 percent on three-pointers, going 22 of 60. Junior college transfer Tomas Woldetensae of Italy shot 47 percent from the three-point arc last year, but has slowly coming around. He is shooting 32.8 percent on three-pointers, but is 8 of 20 from beyond the arc over his last three games.

Rebounding

The Cavaliers are 11th in the ACC with 35.4 rebounds per game, but fourth in the league with a plus-4.4 rebounding margin.

Senior forward Braxton Key, who is a listed 6-8 and 230 pounds, leads the way at 7.1 rebounds per game. Senior post player Mamadi Diakite is right behind at 6.8 boards a contest and redshirt junior post Jay Huff is at 6.2 rebounds per game.

Defense

Virginia paces the ACC in all three key defensive categories. The Cavaliers lead the ACC in allowing 49.5 points per game, having opponents shoot 35.6 percent from the field and make 28.4 percent of three-pointers.

Huff has 26 blocks and Diakite has 21, and Braxton Key and Kihei Clark have a combined 45 steals.

Depth

Virginia only played two players off the bench against Georgia Tech, and that was for a combined 23 minutes. Wings Kody Stattmann and Casey Morsell were the two bench players.

Stattmann, who is from New Zealand, is averaging 4.8 points and 3.1 rebounds per game. Morsell, a standout in high school, has struggled with his shooting in college. He’s shooting 24.3 percent from the field and is 9 of 62 on three-pointers. Stattmann is just 8 of 41 from beyond the arc.

Redshirt freshman center Francisco Caffaro and freshman power forward Justin McKoy have played in nine game and 13 contests respectively.

Senior post player Mamadi Diakite toyed with entering the NBA Draft like his teammates Ty Jerome, Kyle Guy and De’Andre Hunter, but elected to return to Virginia.

The move back to college has paid off and he’s having his best season. Diakite is averaging 13.4 points, 6.8 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game, and he’s shooting 12 of 33 on three-pointers. He had a season-high 21 points in a 70-59 loss vs. South Carolina on Dec. 22. He has a pair of double-doubles and has scored in double figures in all but three games.

Diakite was ranked at No. 30 at one point in the class of 2016, but made the move to the class of 2015 and redshirted his freshman year at Virginia.

The 6-foot-9, 224-pounder from Conakry, Guinea, has made steady progress, but came through in a big way during the NCAA Tournament run. He had nine points, seven rebounds and two blocks in the 85-77 overtime win over Texas Tech. He forced overtime with a jumper at the buzzer in the win over Purdue in the Elite Eight.

Diakite averaged 10.5 points, 8.2 boards and 2.7 blocks per game in the Big Dance. Those numbers were all better than his regular season marks of 7.4 points, 4.4 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game.

NC State

PG — 11 Markell Johnson (6-1, 175, Sr., 13.1 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 6.7 apg, 1.9 spg)

SG — 13 C.J. Bryce (6-5, 210, R-Sr., 15.0 ppg, 6.6 rpg, 2.4 apg, 1.7 spg)

SF — 24 Devon Daniels (6-5, 205, R-Jr., 11.2 ppg, 4.7 rpg, 2.3 apg, 1.7 spg)

PF — 4 Jericole Hellems (6-7, 205, Soph., 9.9 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 0.8 apg)

C — 0 D.J. Funderburk (6-10, 225, R-Jr., 13.1 ppg, 6.0 rpg, 0.4 apg)

Virginia

PG — 0 Kihei Clark (5-9, 163, Soph., 9.8 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 5.9 apg, 1.2 spg)

SG — 53 Tomas Woldetensae (6-5, 196, Jr., 4.8 ppg, 2.1 rpg, 0.8 apg)

G — 2 Braxton Key (6-8, 230, Sr., 10.4 ppg, 7.1 rpg, 1.7 apg, 1.7 spg)

PF — 25 Mamadi Diakite (6-9, 224, Sr., 13.4 ppg, 6.8 rpg, 0.6 apg, 1.2 bpg)

C — 30 Jay Huff (7-1, 243, Jr., 9.1 ppg, 6.2 rpg, 0.8 apg, 1.5 bpg)

12.8 Personal fouls per game for Virginia, which ranks No. 2 in the country.

139 Career blocks for senior post player Mamadi Diakite, which ranks fourth all-time at Virginia. He is three blocks away from moving into third place.

151 Home wins at John Paul Jones arena under head coach Tony Bennett. UVA is 151-28 at home under Bennett.

Durham, N.C., native Jay Huff has started six out of 16 games, and was in the starting lineup for the 63-58 win over Georgia Tech. The 7-1, 243-pounder had arguably his best game of the season with 17 points, eight rebounds and six blocks in the win.

Huff was ranked No. 50 overall in the country by Rivals.com in the class of 2016, and he played for his father at Durham Voyager High. Mike Huff played for Pacific Lutheran and his mother, Kathy, played at West Virginia. NC State evaluated Huff but never offered him, and he wanted to stay within driving distance of the Bull City.

Because Huff weighed less than 200 pounds during his prep career, he elected to redshirt his freshman year at UVA. He flashed potential here and there, but is starting to find his stride. Huff is averaging 9.1 points, 6.2 rebounds and 1.5 blocks in 24.5 minutes per game. He has scored in double digits in nine games, and has a pair of double-doubles.

Huff loved facing Syracuse’s zone defense this season, going for 11 points and 12 boards in the season-opening 48-34 road win Nov. 6, and then 16 points and 10 boards in a 63-55 overtime loss at home Jan. 11.

NC State redshirt freshman center Manny Bates (head/neck) and senior power forward Pat Andree (ankle) both suffered injuries against Clemson on Saturday. Huff could be getting guarded by either redshirt junior center D.J. Funderburk or sophomore forward Jericole Hellems.

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