It seemed to me back in the spring that Tony Bennett wasn’t thinking Reece Beekman was coming back. I say that because Bennett went out and found a second point guard, Andrew Rohde, on the transfer portal, to go along with his other transfer, former Georgetown point guard Dante Harris, who came in mid-year last year.
Beekman declared for the NBA Draft in March, went through the workouts and the combine, and along the way made it clear that he wasn’t all that happy with how things went for his buddy Kadin Shedrick, who entered the transfer portal, flirted with going to Duke, close to home for Shedrick, a native of Holly Springs, N.C., before eventually landing at Texas.
“I feel like he spoke his mind,” Beekman said, referencing Shedrick’s comment on the way out the door to the effect that he “just didn’t think Virginia was the best place for me anymore, given what happened at the end of the season,” a callback to being benched in mid-January and not even getting garbage minutes some nights afterward.
“Anything he said, he was justified for, I will back him up 100 percent, because I agree with what he said. I’m happy for him. I’m happy to see him in a new situation,” Beekman said.
I read that, and assumed Beekman was gone, so when he decided at the 11th hour to withdraw from the draft to return for his senior season at Virginia, my mind turned to … this, oddly, may create a problem for Bennett, with him now having three point guards on the roster worthy of big minutes.
Chris Graham on the outlook for UVA Basketball in 2023-2024
Bennett, addressing the logjam on Wednesday at the ACC Basketball Tipoff in Charlotte, did what Bennett does – shrugged the issue off while also emphasizing the silver lining.
“Actually, I told this to Reece the other night, watching Reece and Dante go against each other in practice. I think it’s been really good for Reece, because if you don’t have good stuff, you’re not getting by a guy like that, and vice versa. Those guys have been fun to watch go head-to-head in practice and develop,” Bennett said.
Obviously, it’s a good problem for Bennett to have, having three point guards who would be the primary guy for just about everybody else in the country.
Beekman is the clear #1, as the reigning, defending ACC Defensive Player of the Year and projected first-round draft pick, who continues to develop on the offensive end as he tries to complete himself as an elite player.
After shooting a miserable 24.3 percent from three as a first-year in 2020-2021, Beekman shot up to 33.8 percent as a sophomore, and connected on 35.1 percent last year as a junior.
Defenders were able to sag off Beekman, an elite-level paint-toucher, early in his career, daring him to beat them from the perimeter, so his ability to knock down jumpers adds a dimension to his game.
This on top of his ability to dish – his 5.2 assists per game ranked third in the ACC in 2022-2023, with teammate Kihei Clark one of the two ahead of him, ranking second at 5.4 assists per game – makes Beekman a triple-threat on the offensive side.
Bennett has shown that he likes to go with two point guards in his three-guard, two-forward lineup – Beekman and Clark were running mates the past three years, and Clark paired with Ty Jerome and shooting guard Kyle Guy back in 2018-2019, the year UVA brought home the program’s first national championship.
What Bennett hasn’t had until this year is a third point guard that gives him the flexibility of bringing a point guard off the bench as part of his rotation.
It would seem that the leader to be the second point in the starting lineup at this point would be Harris, who because he transferred in midseason was able to get acclimated to Bennett’s system and his teammates as a redshirt.
When you see Harris, listed at 6’0”, 170 pounds, you’ll think, Kihei Clark.
“Dante is one of the quickest on-ball defenders that I’ve coached, and look, I’ve had Kihei, Reece is a terrific on-ball defender, and then a guy named Jontel Evans when I first took over the job who was tenacious,” Bennett said.
“Dante brings a level of quickness and toughness on the ball that is certainly helpful for us, and that he’s played, and he’s a guy that can touch the paint and very competitive, I really have enjoyed seeing that competitiveness, and I think when you have newer guys, you see fierce competitors, that really has an impact,” Bennett said.
Harris averaged 11.9 points and 4.1 assists per game as a sophomore at Georgetown way back in 2021-2022 – yeah, it’s been a minute since he’s played in a competitive environment.
He will need to improve on his shot selection: he shot 37.5 percent from the floor and 27.5 percent from three in 2021-2022, but that was as much a function of lack of talent around him on that Georgetown team as anything.
Rhode is a different kind of point guard, looking at first glance at 6’6” to be more of a wing, and he can knock down shots – hitting 32.0 percent as a freshman at St. Mary’s, where he was first-team All-Summit League and the league’s Freshman of the Year, scoring 17.1 points per game.
Because of his ability to put the ball in the bucket, Rhode will also get minutes at the off-ball guard spot with sophomore Isaac McKneely, who should slide in as the starter at the three to fill the shoes of Armaan Franklin, last season’s leading scorer.
Also competing for time in the three-man backcourt: junior Taine Murray, who you may remember had earned rotation minutes down the stretch last season; Leon Bond, a redshirt freshman who was a four-star recruit from the Class of 2022; and heralded freshman recruit Elijah Gertrude, a 6’4” combo guard who chose Virginia over the likes of Kansas, Syracuse and Maryland, among several others.
Bennett has, over the years, preferred an eight-man rotation, five in the backcourt – you’ll notice that I went over seven guys in this analysis, so there’s competition not just in who will start, but who will get minutes – and three in the frontcourt.
The guys in the mix at forward include sophomore Ryan Dunn, who was recruited as a four-star, 6’4” guard, but grew four inches to 6’8”, and now projects as a De’Andre Hunter-like swiss army knife who can guard all five positions, score in the post, off the dribble and the perimeter, and is a projected 2024 first-round draft pick; Jordan Minor, a beast down low at Merrimack, who transferred in as a grad student; Blake Buchanan, a 6’11” freshman motor guy who chose UVA over Gonzaga; Jake Rhodes, a 6’9” grad-transfer wing, most recently from Oklahoma, who can shoot from three; and Anthony Robinson, another freshman, a 6’10”, 238-pound bruiser.
That roster, without Beekman, would have been competitive at the top of the ACC in 2023-2024.
It was going to take some work, getting all the new pieces to work together – and that will be an issue for Bennett as it is.
“That’s why these preseason scrimmages are so valuable. I think you have to, I’ve thought about this a lot with them, be patient and encouraging, but also very stubborn,” Bennett said. “I think they can coexist, even though it doesn’t sound like it with them. But yeah, you probably are a little different than years past when we’ve had so much experience and continuity. It is exciting, and I think you start with Reece because Reece has played, he’s going into his fourth year. He’s our point guard. So, that’s really important to have that.”
Beekman coming back for one more run, in the context of everything, feels like the icing on the cake for Bennett, who has as much talent with this group as he’s ever had, and then for Beekman, it’s a chance to finally be the guy, after sharing that mantle the past three years with Clark, and in that context, a chance to show NBA scouts that he can lead a team.
“I feel like me coming back just would better myself for the future, just to settle in with the team, give me time to really develop with the team, and kind of go from there,” Beekman told reporters at the Tipoff on Wednesday.
“Also just for this team, as well, I feel like coming back I could help lead us to a good spot,” Beekman said. “I feel like we have all the right pieces. Just everybody’s got to be bought in with that, and I feel like if that happens, I feel like we can go a long way.”
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