Good news, it sounds like, regarding the status of UVA Basketball redshirt freshman point guard Elijah Gertrude, who missed the 2024-2025 season after an ugly scooter accident last spring.
The former four-star recruit “is out there working out with our coaches on a daily basis, and has done really, really well,” Virginia coach Ryan Odom said in an interview with the “Wahoo Central Podcast” this week.
“He’s done a great job in his rehab and strength and conditioning aspects,” said Odom, crediting Gertrude’s work with the “tag team” of strength and conditioning coach Mike Curtis and head trainer Ethan Saliba.
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“Now he’s able to get out there, and he’s explosive. He’s an explosive player. I’m really excited that we’re gonna to have the opportunity to work with him,” Odom said.
Gertrude, listed at 6’4”, 185, came to UVA as a four-star recruit after missing his final high-school season with an ACL injury, and Tony Bennett planned to redshirt him as a first-year member of the program in 2023-2024, but injuries in the backcourt created a need for Gertrude to step in, and the young man, to his credit, gave up the redshirt without getting much in return.
He made his season debut in the Nov. 29, 2023, win over Texas A&M in the ACC/SEC Challenge, getting eight minutes, then had a run of six games with double-digit minutes, in which he averaged 5.3 points and shot 48.4 percent from the floor.
For reasons clear only to the genius of Bennett, Gertrude would only get on the floor in nine more games after Jan. 1, all but one of those appearances in garbage time, getting 12 DNP-Coach’s Decisions down the stretch.
I half, maybe more than half, expected Gertrude, who was not a good fit in the Bennett system, to hit the transfer portal after the season, but he didn’t, and then he got caught up in the awful scooter accident that would put him on the sidelines for months thereafter.
I would think Gertrude, if he is able to regain anything resembling his previous level of athleticism, would flourish in the Odom system, which puts a premium on dribble penetration from its guards.
The return of Gertrude would give Odom another great option at point guard, along with incoming four-star recruit Chance Mallory, a local product, from St. Anne’s-Belfield, and incoming transfer Dallin Hall, a two-year starter at BYU.
I’ve written this before, but to reinforce, I’m really liking how Odom’s backcourt is coming together, with those guys at the point, and two big-time scorers at the two spot, 6’6” Toledo big guard Sam Lewis (16.2 ppg, 47.0% FG, 44.4% 3FG in 2024-2025) and 6’3” North Dakota State sharpshooter Jacari White (17.1 ppg, 45.2% FG, 39.8% 3FG in 2024-2025).
I still think there’s room for one more guy to flesh out the backcourt rotation, but what Odom has in place should play his style of basketball well.
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Chris Graham
