Mailbag: What is behind Tony Bennett, Virginia, not getting any transfers?

I’ve been mostly successful in avoiding the drama of college basketball’s silly season in portal land. But Bryan Paul Hagen’s piece prompted me to dip in a toe in. 

Of course, I have no idea what role NIL is playing in Igor Milicic’s decision, but I’ve doubted the speculation that UVA had an inside track on him. If I were Milicic, UVA is the last place to which I’d want to transfer.  It’s not an exaggeration to say that his first stay here almost ruined his career.  In one season he went from being a high D1 recruit to having to transfer to a mid-major. 

In his first year there, under Tony Bennett protégé Ron Sanchez, he played decently, but nothing special. Only under Sanchez’s successor did his game blossom.

Of course, there’s no way to know whether that just reflects his natural development as a player, or if Tony and Ron held him back. But in his freshman year, we desperately needed size and shooting, and it was Tony’s decision that Milicic didn’t provide enough of either to warrant playing time. 

Now Rick Barnes wants a guy who would have probably started for us last season if he’d only gotten some playing time as a freshman. 

Jim

I mean, Jim makes a series of great points here. The only one that I’d quibble with is, if I were Milicic, UVA would be the last place I’d want to transfer.

The word that got to me from people who know is that Milicic was very interested, loved his time at Virginia, still has close friends on the roster, and that the good feelings were mutual.

Now, to Bryan’s piece about the role that NIL played in Milicic having since left Virginia out of his top three, I can say that word, again, from people who know, is that there might be something to the money part of the story.

But for all the UVA hoops fans frustrated that it’s April 28, and there’s still not a commit from the portal, despite all the apparent activity, I’d suggest keeping in mind, it’s not just money.

I wrote a few weeks back about the approach that the admissions people at UVA take to athletics transfers.

The basic facts from that column were: it’s easier, not easy, but easier, to get a kid in who is early in his academic career (i.e. a first-year), or someone who already has a four-year degree.

Milicic, to me, having already been admitted once, would have seemed to have been a lock to get back in again.

There’s word out there now that, maybe not so much, though I will caution, this isn’t information that I’ve been able to vet, in terms of knowing who is propagating it.

It’s being speculated that there may also have been issues of the admissions nature with the Northern Illinois kid, Xavier Amos, a sophomore, who would seem to be, like Milicic, a good frontcourt fit.

Again, I haven’t been able to corroborate that.

As frustrating as it might be for fans to accept, it might help to keep perspective on what we’re talking about with all of this.

Namely, that UVA Athletics is a wing of the University of Virginia, not the other way around.

If you want your favorite college team to just let the coaches decide who gets into school, there’s an entire conference called the SEC full of programs with cool logos, nicknames and the rest that you might be interested in checking out.