My colleague, Jerry Ratcliffe, has the scoop on five-star power forward Jarin Stevenson, who seems to be very interested in Virginia.
Tony Bennett has a national championship on his resume, but he has not to this point in his UVA tenure had access to a five-star talent, so that’s one part of the big news to this story.
The other: how Bennett would integrate Stevenson, a 6’10” power forward with guard skills, into his offense.
Stevenson’s father, Jarod, who played at Richmond, then went on to a long career in Europe, clearly doesn’t see his son being used to set screens and rebound.
“I’ve noticed that because he’s a taller guy at 6’10”, and sometimes we’ve gone to an all-star camp and they really know who Jarin is, so they say, OK, just go set a screen on the ball and roll,” Jarod Stevenson told Hootie, on his way to making the point that what he wants for his son is “a coach that we trust that’s going to push him and give him freedom, just to be able to show some of the things he can do. That’s a big factor.”
Jarin Stevenson is so solid on the ball that his high-school coach used him to break full-court presses.
He can score in the post, but he’s also proficient on the wing as a perimeter shooter, and because of his strong handle, he can create shots for himself off the dribble, in the mid-range and getting to the rim.
I can’t think of anybody in the Bennett tenure at Virginia who fits this profile. The first thought is, maybe Trey Murphy III, an athletic 6’8” shooter, but honestly, Murphy is, nothing wrong with it, but he’s pretty much a spot-up shooter.
In his one year at Virginia, in 2020-2021, SynergySports data had 70.0 percent of Murphy’s shots being jumpers.
The data had Murphy shooting a grand total of 14 dribble jumpers, six runners and two post-up shots all year, and just 24.2 percent of his shots were at the rim.
I write this with full knowledge of the fact that Murphy ended up being a first-round pick, and that this past season in New Orleans, he averaged 14.5 points a game, was thisclose to being a 50/40/90 guy, and came in second in the dunk contest at the All-Star Game.
Which is to say, yeah, TM3 is good, but maybe not a good comparison for how Bennett would use Stevenson.
I don’t see Stevenson at his best in Bennett’s mover/blocker motion offense, setting screens and rolling to the hoop, or popping out for a jumper.
He’s also not going to be at his best standing in the corner waiting for a kickout pass for a three.
Even the way Bennett used Ben Vander Plas, a 6’8” center who spaced the floor with his perimeter shooting, doesn’t seem to compute in the context of Stevenson’s skill set.
Now, if it sounds like I’m trying to offer advice to the Stevensons that they don’t choose Virginia, no, that’s not the case.
What I’m getting at is, Bennett, if he lands Stevenson, is going to have to make some adjustments on the offensive end, which is where the looming hires of three new assistants comes into focus.
Rumor has it that Bennett is ready to elevate grad assistant Isaiah Wilkins, a 2018 UVA alum, to one of the openings, and I’d expect Brad Soderberg, a former full-time assistant with a long history coaching with Tony and his father, Dick, to move back up to take the second spot.
The third spot should maybe go to someone from the outside, who can bring in a fresh perspective, particularly on the offensive end.
Hootie threw out one name as a possibility: Anthony Solomon, who was Mike Brey’s top assistant at Notre Dame, and is a UVA alum, as a possibility.
Solomon could bring some expertise from Brey’s motion offense, which, counter to Bennett’s, puts the focus on its bigs, who have the freedom to create in the high post, and get screens from guards to create favorable matchups in the post.
It wouldn’t hurt, short term, that Solomon has a long-standing relationship with the Stevenson family. Solomon was the coach who recruited Jarod Stevenson to Richmond, and the two have maintained a friendship since.
However the Jarin Stevenson story plays out, it might not hurt Bennett to add some diversity to the offense, to give recruits like Stevenson less reason to have pause about Virginia down the road.
Because everything else about what Virginia and Bennett have to offer stands out. Bennett has had 13 of his UVA guys play in the NBA, including Murphy, Malcolm Brogdon, this season’s Sixth Man of the Year, De’Andre Hunter, the #4 pick in the 2019 draft, and Joe Harris, a double-digit scorer over his nine seasons in Cleveland and Brooklyn, among others.
Virginia, under Bennett, has a reputation as a player-development school, and then there’s the intangibles.
“I mean, we’ve been up there a number of times on unofficial visits, and every time we’ve been there, Coach Bennett has been great,” Jarod Stevenson told Hootie. “We like everything he’s doing at Virginia, his Five Pillars and the way he develops players. We definitely like what he’s doing with the Virginia program.”
Will it all be enough to land Bennett’s first five-star, though?
Stay tuned.
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Chris Graham
