We should've known better. And by we, I mean I. I should've known better. Because I've been doing this long enough, and telling anybody who would listen for years, that Tony Bennett is among the few coaches who seem capable of winning at a high level basically regardless of how his roster looks. And yet when I did the CBS Sports Top 25 (and one) in the preseason, I somehow ranked 26 schools other than Virginia.

Why would I do that?

Why would anybody do that?

Obviously, Virginia was losing its top two scorers from last season's team that won 23 games, made the NCAA Tournament and finished 12th at KenPom. And the Cavaliers weren't enrolling any McDonald's All-Americans or future NBA Draft picks. So I suppose those are the things I was focusing on. And those are perfectly reasonable things to focus on with most teams and most coaches.

But not this team.

And not this coach.

Which is something I'm bringing up now because, at 2 p.m. ET on Saturday, Bennett's second-ranked Cavaliers will be on the big stage CBS provides in an ACC showdown against fourth-ranked Duke that'll be played inside Cameron Indoor Stadium. Virginia is entering with a 19-1 record that includes a perfect 8-0 mark in ACC games. So win or lose here, things will still be great.

Let me explain.

A Virginia win would push the Cavaliers to 20-1 overall, 9-0 in the ACC and have them in possession of nothing worse than a two-game lead in the league standings thanks to a road victory over the school that was No. 1 in the same preseason AP poll that omitted the Cavaliers. Obviously, that's great. But even if Virginia loses at Duke, things would still be great. Because the Cavaliers would still be 19-2 overall and 8-1 in the ACC with zero home losses, zero neutral-court losses and zero losses to schools currently ranked outside of the top 10 of the AP poll. And Virginia would still be alone atop the ACC standings.

That's how great the Cavaliers have been this season.

They could lose Saturday and still probably be a No. 1 seed in any sensible projected 68-team bracket published Sunday. And can you believe this team was unranked in the preseason -- by me, the AP poll and the Coaches poll too? Totally ridiculous. And consider it a lesson learned. Certain programs deserve the benefit of the doubt. Virginia is one such program.

I used to do this with Wisconsin, by the way.

At some point in 2010, I think, I decided I would never not have Wisconsin in the preseason Top 25 (and one) as long as Bo Ryan was coaching. I no longer cared who left or who enrolled. Long as Ryan was in charge, Wisconsin would have a spot reserved in the preseason Top 25 (and one). And it's an approach that served me well: Wisconsin finished No. 9 (2010), No. 6 (2011), No. 8 (2012), No. 12 (2013), No. 5 (2014) and No. 2 (2015) at KenPom in Ryan's final six seasons even though he never enrolled a top-35 recruiting class in that span. It just didn't matter. There was no way Wisconsin wasn't going to be good under Ryan -- evidence being that the Badgers never finished worse than fourth in the Big Ten on his watch.

Now here we are with Bennett.

His Cavaliers finished No. 4 at KenPom in 2014, No. 6 in 2015, No. 4 in 2016, No. 12 in 2017. And they're No. 2 in both KenPom and the Top 25 (and one) right now. In this span, Virginia has had zero top-20 national recruits and zero top-20 NBA Draft picks. In fact, the highest-rated prospect to play for the Cavaliers in this five-year span has been ... Austin Nichols.

And he only lasted one game.

Total.

And it barely mattered. Virginia was still good without him.

Honestly, we should've learned our lesson then. And by we, I mean I. Either way, never again. Promise. This is the last time Tony Bennett makes me look so wrong.