Kihei Clark is coming back for a fifth season at Virginia, the program announced today, and the reaction on social media was predictably negative, because UVA basketball fans suck.
Clark is the last remaining player, and starter, from the 2019 national championship team, averaging 6.3 points and 4.0 assists per game, the most memorable of the latter being the halfcourt pass to Mamadi Diakite for a buzzer-beating basket that forced overtime in the Elite Eight.
In 128 games at Virginia, Clark has averaged 8.5 points and 4.2 assists per game, shooting 38.3 percent from the field and 34.8 percent from three.
As a senior in 2021-2022, the 5’9” native of Woodland Hills, Calif., averaged 10.0 points and 4.4 assists per game, on 38.7 percent shooting from the floor and 34.6 percent from three.
His biggest contributions have come on the defensive end, usually guarding the opponent’s point guard, which has freed up Virginia’s two guards, Ty Jerome in Clark’s freshman year, and Reece Beekman the past two seasons, to lock down on perimeter threats.
You know what you get from Clark, basically – he’ll score around 10 points a game, dish out four or so assists, play lockdown defense.
The outlook for 2022-2023 brightens for Virginia with Clark back in the fold. Beekman (8.2 ppg, 5.2 assists/g, 2.1 steals/g, 44.9% FG, 33.8% 3FG) should slide over to the one spot on the offensive end, but there are no other point guards on the roster.
There should be plenty of competition for minutes in the backcourt, with 6’4” senior Armaan Franklin (11.1 ppg, 39.2% FG, 29.6% 3FG), 6’4” four-star recruit Isaac McKneely and 6’6” sophomore Taine Murray pushing Clark for minutes alongside Beekman – and that’s not counting two other incoming four-star recruits, 6’5” Leon Bond and 6’6” Ryan Dunn, who could be headed toward the redshirt route to further their development, particularly in the weight room.
Coach Tony Bennett could have tried to work the transfer portal to find a backup at the point for Beekman, but was he really going to find somebody better than an in-house guy with four years of experience who started for a national title winner?
The marks on social media seem to think so, but such is the way of the marks on social media.
Virginia Basketball got better today. You’re an idiot if you don’t agree.
Story by Chris Graham
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