Blake Buchanan, a 6’11” four-star who just didn’t develop under the Tony Bennett/Ron Sanchez coaching regime the past two years, is headed out to Iowa State for a career do-over.
Buchanan, according to Cyclone Fanatic, cited his relationship with Iowa State coach TJ Otzelberger, who was on the list of finalists for the UVA Basketball job before AD Carla Williams decided to go with VCU coach Ryan Odom as the full-time replacement for Bennett.
“He (Otzelberger) saw me out of high school. We kind of built a relationship there,” Buchanan told the website. “I think the biggest thing for me is that he did a lot of the little things for me, and the player development they have for me, they have a good thing going at Iowa State right now. I’m excited to be a part of it.”
The player-development piece for bigs was a fail the past couple of years at Virginia, with Buchanan a prime example of that.
BB had an 18-point, seven-rebound game in a win over Florida in his second game as a collegian back in the first week of his freshman season in 2023, then didn’t go for double-digits again the rest of the year, finishing the year averaging 3.4 points and 3.1 boards in 15.0 minutes per game, and shooting just 41.4 percent from the floor.
It was clear as his freshman season wrapped that Buchanan needed to hit the weight room to add strength to be able to bang in the post in the ACC.
That he didn’t get stronger isn’t a good reflection on Buchanan, but it’s also an indictment on the coaching and support staff.
The still-spindly Buchanan averaged 5.4 points and 5.3 rebounds in 22.0 minutes per game as a sophomore.
He did improve his shooting, connecting on 53.4 percent from the floor – 71.8 percent at the rim, but just 32.8 percent on shots outside of 4.5 feet.
Gotta admit here, I will not miss those shot-put floaters that never seemed to have a chance.
His value is on the defensive end, with defensive rebounding and rim protection numbers that put him in the top 20 percent of players in D1.
I wrote back a couple of weeks ago in my season wrap that I expected Buchanan to get some offers from Power 6 schools, just based on his potential, and the expectation that he would get better with better coaching.
“Obviously, I came to Virginia knowing it was a defensive school and probably one of the best defensive schools in the country,” Buchanan said. “(Bennett) valued that, and so do I. That’s a big reason why we got along, and why I played, because of the defense I was able to play.”
“No matter what happens, you can control your defense. (Otzelberger) values that, too, and Iowa State’s one of the best defensive teams in the country,” Buchanan said. “I think that side of my game is going to translate super easy for me.”
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Chris Graham
