UVA Basketball: Christian Bliss lands at Delaware off the transfer portal

Christian Bliss, who spent two years on scholarship with the UVA Basketball program without playing a game, has landed at Delaware, which is headed to Conference USA on July 1.

Maybe he’ll get on the court there.

Maybe not. You never know.

I can’t imagine there’s any NIL money at a place like Delaware, but it is a D1 school, and has scholarships to give out.

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ICYMI: Christian Bliss at UVA

• Ty Jerome gives glowing UVA endorsement as Christian Bliss set to announce college choice
• Tony Bennett confirms redshirts for Bliss, Gertrude, Robinson: ‘That’s the plan right now’
• UVA Basketball: Updates on point guards Christian Bliss, Dante Harris
• UVA Basketball: Staff frustration with Christian Bliss bubbling to the surface
• Ron Sanchez on Christian Bliss: ‘My focus is literally on the on the guys that are on the floor’
• UVA Basketball: Updates on point guards Christian Bliss, Dante Harris

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So, good news, in that respect, for the former borderline three-star/four-star recruit, who reclassified to the Class of 2023 to be able to enter UVA early, specifically to spend what would have been his senior year of high school as a college redshirt.

The idea there: he’d develop his game more practicing every day with the likes of future NBA point guard Reece Beekman than he would playing against high school kids.

Unfortunately for all involved, things didn’t go as planned.

Bliss suffered an ankle injury late in that redshirt season that required surgery, then another foot injury slowed his roll in the the 2024-2025 preseason.

The status of the 6’4” point guard was said to be “day-to-day” beginning in October, and he made sporadic appearances in pregame shootarounds beginning in mid-November, but he never did suit up in what would have been his redshirt freshman season.

You might remember my reporting on the Bliss situation from this past season, regarding interim coach Ron Sanchez’s frustration over Bliss’s status.

“Well, right now, you know, Christian has, you know, the opportunity to step on the floor and practice. He’s just not feeling, you know, good enough to get on the floor. And you know, that’s a player decision. You know, we as coaches aren’t going to force him to get up if he says that my foot is bothering me, you know, and I don’t feel like I can perform at the level that I want to,” Sanchez said on a Jan. 6 Zoom call with reporters.

Then, after Virginia’s 74-56 win over Boston College two weeks later:

“He worked out yesterday, said he felt a little sore. We’re kind of just letting him and our training staff and physical development staff kind of handle that right now. My focus is literally on the on the guys that are on the floor and playing right now,” Sanchez said, just short of quietly seething.

I’d analyze Bliss’s game for the Delaware fans clicking on the headline to try to get a feel for the game of their new point guard, but all I can do is tell you how he looks in pregame warmups, which is, tall.