Virginia lands commitment from Jordan Minor: What he will bring to the table for the ‘Hoos

Virginia basketball picked up one of its top targets from the transfer portal, landing a commitment on Thursday from Jordan Minor, a grad transfer from Merrimack.

A three-year starter at Merrimack, Minor, a 6’8” forward, averaged 17.4 points, 9.4 rebounds and 2.6 blocks per game in 2022-2023, on 51.5 percent shooting.

His offense comes almost entirely in the paint – in four seasons, including a freshman season in which he came off the bench, in 2019-2020, Minor has made a grand total of five three-pointers, on 32 attempts.

According to SynergySports data, 81.6 percent of his shot attempts last season were layups, dunks or tips, and he shot 55.0 percent on those shots at the rim.

From those numbers, he would seem to be a nice fit in Tony Bennett’s mover/blocker-sides offense, which asks its bigs to set screens for guards, with the opportunities for open shots for bigs then coming on pocket passes from the guards coming off those screens for layups or lobs.

There’s not a lot in the offense for post-ups, which might not be so bad with respect to Minor’s game. Post-ups accounted for 25.9 percent of his shot attempts last season, but he wasn’t effective there – connecting on just 35.9 percent of his post-up shot attempts, according to Synergy.

So, a motor guy who can protect the rim, rebound, run the floor – Minor averaged 3.7 points per game and shot 76.4 percent in transition last season, according to Synergy.

He’s also adept at getting to the free-throw line – averaging 7.0 attempts per game last year, though he only shot 58.7 percent there, so, yes, that may be frustrating at times.

Minor will add depth in the frontcourt alongside returning 6’8” motor guy Ryan Dunn and incoming 6’9” motor guy Blake Buchanan.

There would still seem to be a need for an actual five to play in the post. The three guys in the fold now are relatively lithe – Dunn weighs in at 208, Buchanan is listed in the 215 range, and Minor, we are told, is 220.

I would expect a little more work from Bennett and Co. to try to get a solid five to add to the roster before all is said and done this spring.