UVA Basketball Notebook: First thoughts on Bennett’s rotation, how the transfers are doing

Tony Bennett gave rotation minutes to 10 guys in the easy 80-50 win over Tarleton State on Monday.

On Friday, in the 73-70 win over Florida, we got our first look at how Bennett will divide minutes up against a Power 5 opponent.

Bennett basically went with seven guys – an eighth, Leon Bond III, who had 12 points and nine rebounds in 19 minutes in the win in the season opener, got just four minutes last night, all in the first half, all at the four spot.

Four of the starters got 30+ minutes – guards Andrew Rohde (36), Isaac McKneely (35) and Reece Beekman (34), and forward Ryan Dunn (33).

The fifth starter, forward Jake Groves, was limited to 16 minutes because of foul trouble, which has been an issue for him in both starts this season (Groves got 15 minutes in the opener).

Blake Buchanan, who got 17 minutes off the bench on Monday, went for 27 minutes against the Gators, and Bennett went with Buchanan to start at the five spot in the second half, in which the 6’11” four-star freshman logged 16 minutes.

The one guard off the bench, Dante Harris, got 15 minutes off the bench last night.

Harris had played 23 minutes in the win over Tarleton State.

How the offseason transfers are doing at their new schools

Kadin Shedrick, still getting his legs back under him after offseason shoulder surgery, scored three points and grabbed three rebounds in 10 minutes off the bench for #17 Texas in the Longhorns’ 86-59 win over Delaware State on Friday.

Shedrick, a 6’11” forward who transferred to Texas after four years at UVA, had scored 12 points in 11 minutes off the bench in the 88-56 in over Incarnate Word on Monday.

Isaac Traudt had seven points and four boards in 19 minutes off the bench for Creighton in an 89-60 win over North Dakota State on Saturday.

Traudt, a 6’10” redshirt freshman who transferred after sitting out his one season on scholarship at UVA, had 12 points and six rebounds in 21 minutes off the bench in the Blue Jays’ 105-54 win over Florida A&M on Tuesday.

Francisco Caffaro had 13 points and eight boards in 28 minutes off the bench for Santa Clara in a 77-69 win over Utah Tech on Wednesday.

Big game for Poppy, a 7-foot center who was at Virginia for five years, redshirting as a true freshman in the 2018-2019 national-title season.