UVA Basketball has nine (!) guys in the transfer portal. According to my sources, the portal guys were full participants in two workouts with the new coach, Ryan Odom, and his staff, this week – one on Monday that we all already knew about, and then another on Wednesday.
This is why I keep telling people who are texting and emailing me about the pending end of the world, relax.
Sure, any or all of the nine may end up leaving, but guys participating in workouts with the new coach are, at the least, hedging their bets, right?
If I’m, for instance, Isaac McKneely, averaged 14.4 points a game last year, one of the best shooters in the portal, I’m not risking turning an ankle or blowing out my ACL just to get a couple of runs in with my guys before I leave.
I’m guessing here that McKneely is a high-six-figure NIL guy. I’m also guessing McKneely isn’t an NBA prospect, and that whatever he gets in NIL for his senior season is the most money he’ll make in his life.
He’s a smart kid, Academic All-ACC, but he’s majoring in American Studies.
Not a lot of money out there for American Studies alums.
The other kid that I’d expect to be in demand is Jacob Cofie, a 6’9” freshman who, at his best, looks like an NBA prospect, but floundered developmentally with the subpar big-man coaching from the Tony Bennett/Ron Sanchez staff.
If I’m Cofie, I’m encasing myself in bubble wrap until I sign my next NIL deal, not running pick-up games for Ryan Odom to get a look at my game.
From what I understand, the guys watched some video of VCU from this past season, to get a feel for Odom’s style of play, and then were let loose on each other, the weighted vests of Bennett Ball taken off their backs.
My spies tell me that the guys who stood out were Elijah Saunders, who at this writing still isn’t in the portal, and Anthony Robinson, who was said to look like a great fit in the Odom system.
Saunders, I think, is also a good fit, as a 6’8” stretch four – Odom’s offense features the stretch-four, a power forward who can stretch defenses with perimeter shooting.
I can see Cofie developing into being an effective stretch-four with Odom as well.
And it shouldn’t have gone unnoticed that Odom talked up his desire to “play fast” at his introductory presser on Monday.
The new coach was looking in the direction of the basketball players in attendance at the presser as he talked up playing fast, and how his teams are free to hoist threes to their hearts’ content.
Carla Williams emphasized after the presser that UVA Athletics has “Top 10” money to play with in terms of an NIL budget, so it’s not going to be a matter of, this kid left, must have been because the other school offered him more than we could afford to.
It would be more along the lines of, the kid didn’t see himself fitting into Odom’s system, or Odom and his staff didn’t see the kid fitting into the system.
So, relax.
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Chris Graham
