Tony Bennett on Virginia’s depth: ‘We do have some more options this year’

Tony Bennett experimented with his team’s depth in Virginia’s 73-61 opening-night win over North Carolina Central on Monday.

Bennett used five guys at the three backcourt spots – Armaan Franklin (35 minutes), Kihei Clark (34 minutes), Reece Beekman (26 minutes), Isaac McKneely (23 minutes) and Taine Murray (2 minutes) – and four at the two frontcourt spots – Kadin Shedrick (27 minutes), Ben Vander Plas (23 minutes), Jayden Gardner (20 minutes) and Francisco Caffaro (10 minutes).

Left on the outside looking in were freshmen Isaac Traudt, Ryan Dunn and Leon Bond, the latter of whom Bennett said he is planning to redshirt this season, though he left open the chance that he could go back on that decision.

Beekman’s minutes were limited a bit because of foul trouble – he only played 10 minutes in the first half because he subbed out after picking up his second foul at the 5:54 mark.

McKneely subbed in for him, so it’s a safe bet that the plan had been to use him for more like 15-18 minutes without the foul trouble for Beekman.

The dynamic in the frontcourt is also something to watch. Bennett went, briefly, roughly three minutes, with Gardner and Vander Plas alongside each other at four and five.

Gardner had something of an off-night – he did pull down a game-high nine rebounds, but only had three points, all from the free-throw line, and had a plus/minus of -1, the only negative rating on the team on the night.

Vander Plas had seven points, hitting a pair of threes, and had four rebounds, two assists, a blocked shot and a steal, and a +10 plus/minus, second-best on the team.

After the game, Bennett said “it’s nice to have options,” no doubt a reference to how he had limited options in terms of rotation options.

“We gave Taine some minutes, just a few minutes, and Isaac McNeely, who’s played well in the summer and all that, and that’s, again, against a team that puts that kind of pressure on the ball and in the passing lanes,” Bennett said. “I thought we looked a little hesitant, we need to clean it up a little bit. Even Reece and Kihei early on did that, but those are good experiences for Isaac and certainly Ben being there.

“Just because I didn’t play some of the other guys, there’ll be opportunities, and I believe in them, but again, it’s nice to have options, and it’s a good experience for them,” Bennett said. “Armaan got us off to a good start, I didn’t mention him. You have got to go with those guys who have the experience or who is playing well, and we do have some more options this year.”