VT football of course had so many years of the same thing over and over it became relatively definitive there. Overall I'd say that, in general, limiting the number of possessions in a game is an equalizer, but it cuts both ways. It can make up for a talent differential against a team with a couple lottery picks and the rest just regular old pro potential, but it can also let a lesser team hang around in the game long enough to steal an upset, the latter happening just enough times to kill your title chances. (Whether it's in football where even 1 loss to the wrong team can end a title shot, or in basketball where, not even necessarily a tournament loss directly, but maybe a few flubs in the regular season knocks you out of a 1 or 2 seed, indirectly giving you a higher chance to lose by means of worse matchups).

Ultimately what I'm saying in the original post is that just like in VT football's prime of winning tons of games, winning lots of conference titles, and playing in big postseason bowl games, you can count on UVA basketball to do the same (Sweet 16 and above runs replacing bowl games). But, while this would naturally lead to hope for something more, that might be left unfulfilled, and, in my opinion, for similar reasons that VT football couldn't quite make it.