A key reason Carla Williams wants a new UVA Basketball coach in place ASAP is the Monday, March 24 date set by the NCAA for the opening of the transfer portal.
Not only do you want to be able to start recruiting the top guys from other schools who enter the portal, but you’ve also got to recruit your own guys.
I’ve been writing for a few weeks now about how it would be nice if we already had a GM in place, and the recruitment and retention angle to the NIL/transfer portal is the biggest thing there.
ICYMI
The front office, as it were, could already be talking to the kids that the next coach (if what we hear about there being a handshake deal in place is accurate) would want to prioritize in the rebuild.
The analytics folks could also get us out ahead in recruiting on the free-agent market.
Alas, looks like we’re going to have to wing it, as was the case last year, when Tony Bennett was on the fence about returning, eventually decided to come back for one more year, then had to scramble to flesh out the roster from what was left over after everybody else had picked through the NIL/transfer portal several times through.
As you would expect, I’ve got thoughts. I’ll start with the guys on the 2024-2025 roster that I would focus my time on.
Isaac McKneely
Isaac McKneely has signed with an NIL agency that, from its Twitter activity, reps one ACC guy and a bunch of mid-major kids, so I wouldn’t read too much into iMac getting himself new representation, in terms of what that signals about his future plans.
If I’m McKneely, I finish out the degree at UVA, because that’s with you for life, and I’d assume that whoever UVA hires as its next coach is going to be better than all but a couple of the head coaches elsewhere that you could end up playing for.
There’s also the issue of fit: McKneely’s high school played a similar system as Tony Bennett used at Virginia, and aside from transferring down to Liberty to play for Ritchie McKay, there aren’t many schools that run TB’s antiquated offense and Pack Line D.
For whoever the next coach is, McKneely is clearly the top priority – he averaged a career-best 14.4 points per game this past season, shooting 43.9 percent from the floor and 42.1 percent from three, on high volume (7.5 three-point attempts per game).
Always a threat from three, where McKneely grew this past season was in the midrange (26-of-46, 56.5 percent, in 2024-2025; vs. 35-of-88, 39.8 percent, in 2023-2024) and at the rim (17-of-34, 50 percent, in 2024-2025, vs. 7-of-20, 35 percent, a year ago).
Those zone-specific shooting numbers, and the ones to follow elsewhere in this column, are from CBB Analytics.
He also got better as a playmaker, averaging 2.9 assists, nearly double his 2023-2024 number (1.6 assists per game).
Odd stat: iMac still has just the one career dunk, back in his freshman year, in the 61-58 win at Louisville on Feb. 15, 2022.
To be honest, that’s one more than I thought he had when I did my deep dive.
Jacob Cofie
Jacob Cofie is the only big that I’d prioritize from the 2024-2025 roster, and it’d be based entirely on potential, not necessarily what we saw from him on the court in his freshman season.
I’m assuming his stunted development is the result of poor big-man coaching, and that the NBA talent that we saw in spurts will start to come out once he gets better coaching.
Cofie is solid around the rim (56-of-80, 70 percent), but not as much on paint jumpers (15-of-34, 44.1 percent) and in the midrange (9-of-27, 33.3 percent).
The issue on his jumpers is a tendency to fade away on his shots, which, fortunately, can be coached out of you.
Cofie shot 75 percent from the foul line, which should translate into better numbers on jumpers than what we saw – including his attempts from three, Cofie was 31.7 percent on his jumpers this past season.
Cofie rates as a solid rebounder – his 9.1 percent offensive-rebound rate is in the 62nd percentile nationally, and his 19.1 percent defensive-rebound rate is in the 75th percentile nationally, per CBB Analytics.
And again, I assume he only gets better with better big-man coaching.
Andrew Rohde
Andrew Rohde has an old man game that at least makes him a valuable guy to have around as a second-team point guard, akin to the role that UVA Basketball alum Ty Jerome is playing with the Cleveland Cavaliers this season.
Rohde, in his junior season, averaged 9.3 points and 4.3 assists, and from Feb. 1 on, his numbers were 10.3 points and 4.6 assists per.
His shooting (43.2 percent from the floor, 41.3 percent from three) was solid, and he proved able to get into the lane (22-of-47, 46.8 percent, at the rim, 21-of-49, 42.9 percent, on twos in the paint).
He was also good in the midrange – 15-of-34, 44.1 percent.
Assuming Elijah Gertrude returns, and Chance Mallory commits, it may be hard to put Rohde ahead of one or the other (or both) in the starting lineup, but he can be a valuable contributor leading the second unit next year.
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The next tier of guys is the fellas that I assume would be role players going forward at UVA, and will probably have more perceived value on the NIL/transfer portal market, and are thus less likely to hang around as a result.
Dai Dai Ames
I’ll start here with Dai Dai Ames, who Ron Sanchez conceded in his final Zoom availability, on the Monday ahead of the ACC Tournament, was misused in the first couple of months of the season as a point guard, when it’s clear that Ames is at his best, even at 6’1”, as an off-guard.
Once the staff figured that out, Ames was a beast – from Feb. 1 on, the sophomore averaged 13.8 points per game.
The issue I see for Ames going forward would be where he’d fit in, if the new coach is able to keep McKneely, Rohde and Gertrude, and get a commitment from Mallory.
Ames would be a complementary piece in that backcourt rotation, and based on his numbers in February and March, he’s going to fetch some strong offers on the NIL/portal market, particularly given that he’s got two years of eligibility remaining.
Blake Buchanan
Blake Buchanan just has not worked out. The former four-star recruit is still too lithe (listed at 6’11”, 227) to be able to bang in the post in the ACC night-in, night-out, and he just doesn’t seem to have developed at all in his two seasons in Charlottesville.
That’s probably an indictment on the coaching staff more than on the kid.
With two years of eligibility, I would expect Buchanan to get some offers from Power 6 schools, just based on his potential, and the expectation that he would get better with better coaching.
Elijah Saunders
Elijah Saunders only has one year left, but his counting numbers – 10.4 points and 5.0 rebounds per game – will get him some good, if not great, NIL offers.
To me, he’s not a foundational guy for UVA going forward, not being much of a presence on defense or on the boards, and his productivity fell off a cliff in February and March.
From Feb. 1 on, Saunders averaged 7.3 points and 4.1 rebounds per game, and shot just 32.2 percent from the floor and 26.3 percent from three.
TJ Power
Former five-star recruit TJ Power was in the starting lineup in November, averaged 2.8 points and 2.4 rebounds in 18.8 minutes per game as a starter, then just … disappeared.
Power got a total of 11 minutes in February and March, with seven DNP-Coach’s Decisions in his last 10 games.
His NIL value is as close to zero as it can get, unfortunately for him.
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The final tier here is the two young guys who both have potential, but are probably better served moving on.
Ishan Sharma
I liked what I saw out of Ishan Sharma, who had his moments – four made threes in the 59-41 win over Bethune-Cookman on Dec. 12, 10 points in 18 minutes off the bench in the 54-52 loss to SMU on Jan. 15, eight points in 13 minutes off the bench in the 75-75 loss to Virginia Tech on Feb. 1.
The kid seems to play with moxie, and I can see him being a contributor at the Power 6 level.
Sharma could be the one that we really miss when we look up in a couple of years and see him putting up good numbers somewhere.
Anthony Robinson
Anthony Robinson became a fan favorite down the stretch of his redshirt freshman season, but being brutally honest here, he’s still a project.
There’s a reason, even as he started to get minutes and show some promise in the last few weeks of the season, that he didn’t get off the bench for the Wake and Georgia Tech games in the last couple of weeks – his footwork is still suspect, making him (and the rest of the defense, when he’s on the floor) vulnerable in the pick-and-roll and on screens.
I suspect we’ll see Robinson transfer down from the Power 6 level to the middle of the mid-majors and put up decent numbers for somebody going forward.
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Chris Graham
