UVA Basketball: Elijah Gertrude earning minutes; concerns about depth

UVA Basketball coach Ryan Odom recruited over former four-star recruit Elijah Gertrude, bringing in double-digit scorers at guard off the transfer portal like Jurian Dixon, Christian Harmon and Jan Vide, plus Euroleague import Nolan Adekunle.

Through two games, Gertrude is averaging 9.0 points per game, shooting 54.5 percent from the floor, 50 percent from three.

The guys recruited over him, combined: 10.5 points per game, shooting 40.9 percent from the floor, 27.3 percent from three.

In tonight’s 97-72 win over Northeastern, Gertrude, in 18 minutes off the bench, put in 10 points, on 3-of-4 shooting from three, with five rebounds, a steal and a blocked shot, and a plus/minus in his 18 minutes at +19 – so, worth a point in margin per minute.

The combined output of Adekunle, Dixon, Harmon and Vide tonight: seven points, 3-of-10 shooting, six rebounds, in 50 minutes, with a cumulative plus/minus in those 50 minutes at +25, so, worth about a half-point in margin per minute.

Adekunle, who started each of the first two, was dramatically outplayed by Northeastern sophomore Louis Bond, who poured in 23 points on 9-of-16 shooting in 35 minutes, and seemed to relish opportunities to go one-on-one at the 24-year-old German.

Dixon was barely there in the 15 minutes he got off the bench – two points, 1-of-3 shooting, two assists, one rebound, a mere +7 in his time on the floor.

Vide, who got good minutes in the preseason wins over Richmond and Villanova, has only gotten a total of 15 minutes in the two tuneups; wonder what’s going on there.

We know that Harmon was slowed by an injury in preseason, but after getting six minutes in the win over Drexel on Tuesday, he got in with two minutes and change to go tonight, for garbage time with the walk-ons and managers; that can’t be a good sign.

Figuring things out

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Head coach Ryan Odom went with an 11-man rotation tonight.

• Backcourt: Sam Lewis (30 minutes), Chance Mallory (28 minutes), Elijah Gertrude (18 minutes), Jurian Dixon (15 minutes), Martin Carrere (9 minutes), Jan Vide (8 minutes)
• Frontcourt: Thijs de Ridder (24 minutes), Johann Grunloh (21 minutes), Kalu Anya (12 minutes), Favour Ibe (2 minutes)
• Tweener: Nolan Adekunle (25 minutes)
• Outside of rotation minutes: Silas Barksdale (3 minutes), Carter Lang (2 minutes), Owen Odom (1 minute), Nick Rotter (1 minute), Quincy Watson (1 minute)

This was the breakdown for the Drexel game on Tuesday:

• Backcourt: Sam Lewis (27 minutes), Chance Mallory (22 minutes), Elijah Gertrude (15 minutes), Jurian Dixon (12 minutes), Martin Carrere (9 minutes), Jan Vide (7 minutes)
• Frontcourt: Johann Grunloh (29 minutes), Thijs de Ridder (27 minutes), Kalu Anya (16 minutes)
• Tweener: Nolan Adekunle (20 minutes)
• Outside of rotation minutes: Christian Harmon (6 minutes), Favour Ibe (6 minutes), Silas Barksdale (4 minutes)

Analysis: it’s two games, but man, I’m worried

Adekunle is playing a lot of small-ball four, and not very productively (4.0 ppg, 3.0 rebounds/g, 22.5 minutes/g).

Anya, similarly, hasn’t been all that productive subbing in at the four (2.0 ppg, 0.5 rebounds/g, 14.0 minutes/g).

Barksdale and Ibe haven’t done enough to earn minutes, which is not a good sign.

Also worried about Vide only getting 7.5 minutes per game, and Dixon looking replacement-level at best, and Harmon only getting two garbage-time minutes tonight.

It had seemed that Odom had recruited the portal well to restock the roster, but two games in, it’s looking mighty top-heavy.

We’re going to need, in addition to Gertrude continuing what he’s doing, to see a couple of guys from among Dixon, Harmon, Vide and Anya step up and into giving us consistent productive minutes, else …