On3.com appears to be convinced that UVA Basketball guard Dai Dai Ames is headed to Cal, which he visited on Monday, per a report from 247Sports basketball guy Travis Branham.
The On3 portal tracker lists Ames as 100 percent ready to commit to Cal.
I’ll say that I’m not seeing any confirmation on a decision from Ames at this point.
And that I first noticed this update from On3 last night, and we still don’t have any confirmation on anything.
It would seem, from the reporting on Ames, from On3, 247Sports and elsewhere, that UVA is not in the mix for the sophomore, which I can see making sense.
Ames, at 6’1”, 160, is better suited, in terms of size, to play the one, but his skills have him more as an off-guard, and at 6’1”, 160, he’s a tiny off-guard.
This is probably why it was that Ron Sanchez, the interim coach this past season, misused Ames for the bulk of what looks like it will be his only year in a Virginia uniform, trying to force Ames into the point-guard spot, then, when that didn’t work out, gluing him to the bench for a stretch of games in January.
Sanchez conceded the point about the misuse of Ames in his final Zoom availability, on the Monday ahead of the ACC Tournament.
Once the staff figured things out, Ames was a beast on the offensive end – from Feb. 1 on, the sophomore averaged 13.8 points per game.
The issue I see for Ames going forward with respect to Virginia would be where he’d fit in.
ICYMI
The new coach, Ryan Odom, landed a top point-guard recruit in Chance Mallory, who is 5’9”, 170.
Odom, at his previous stops, at VCU and Utah State, has gone with three-guard lineups with a smaller point guard and two bigger, 6’4” to 6’6”, off-guards.
I don’t know that he would want to go with Mallory at 5’9”, 170, and Ames at 6’1”, 160, for long stretches, just because of the potential exposure defensively.
This would lead me to think that Ames would be more a complementary piece in the Odom rotation, and Ames, with what he was able to do down the stretch this past season, is going to be viewed as more than a complementary piece on the market.
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Chris Graham
