Redshirt freshman Kadin Shedrick, still recovering from a bout of mono that caused him to drop 25 pounds in October, had a career-high 12 points in 17 minutes in #15 Virginia’s 76-51 win over Saint Francis on Tuesday.
“In terms of play, I feel 100 percent. In terms of my stamina, it might be down a little bit still. You know, I get winded a lot faster than I used to, but it will come back in time. I think I’m able to play hard enough for the minutes that I do get before I get a break, so I say I’m almost back to 100 percent in terms of stamina,” said Shedrick, a four-star recruit in the Class of 2019 who redshirted last season, then had to think he was jinxed when he started feeling sick in early October.
“I had it whole month of October,” said Shedrick, who had worked hard his freshman year to put good pounds on his 6’11” frame.
He arrived at UVA weighing 200, and he was at a more densely packed 223 when he came down with mono.
By the time he had begun to recover, he’d lost all the weight that he had put on.
“Yeah, it was very frustrating for me,” Shedrick said. “Mono definitely had me pretty down, and I knew when I came back I would just have to push even harder to try and earn what I wanted to get. And so that’s what I did. I worked with (strength and conditioning coach) Mike Curtis, and I made sure I ate a lot, got plenty of sleep and got back to health, and (head athletics trainer) Ethan Saliba helped me a ton with that, too.”
Shedrick put up the kind of performance Tuesday that made you realize why he was an ESPN Top 100 recruit – connecting on 5-of-6 from the floor and grabbing eight rebounds, four of them off the offensive glass.
Jay Huff, who had 13 points in 14 minutes in the win, saw the improvement in practice, and attributed it to the work that Shedrick put in over quarantine, “stuff that nobody really sees.”
“I saw a lot of improvement, just in his mid-range jump shot and his three-point shooting as well,” Huff said. “I know we haven’t seen much of it yet, but he’s improved dramatically in that area. Then also I saw a lot of fight in him today, and that’s something that we’ve seeing a lot in practice recently, too. He’s just been getting a lot of offensive rebounds. His long arms help a lot with that, so he’s going to be a big piece moving forward.”
A big piece, indeed.
UVA is deep in the frontcourt – power forward Sam Hauser is on the Wooden Award watch list; there’s Huff, an NBA prospect; sophomore Justin McKoy has earned starter’s minutes, and looked solid on both ends.
Add Shedrick to the mix, and, well, watch out.
“Well, first, you can’t help but use your eyes to see his length, his dimensions. He’s long, and he’s very active. And he continues. He plays hard on the glass, and he’s working,” coach Tony Bennett said.
“I think he gives us a dimension that was good, and I was really pleased with his effort, his output, tonight,” Bennett said.
Story by Chris Graham
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