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What Virginia Basketball fans need to know about … Virginia

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Tony Bennett talks with his team. Photo by Andrew Shurtleff/courtesy Atlantic Coast Conference.

The national pundits, the ACC beat writers, are giving Virginia whatever love they’re giving them not because of what they foresee, but because of what they think about Tony Bennett.

There’s a lot new to the 2021-2022 Cavaliers, and a lot that I like, but it’s going to be a work in progress.

The main holdovers are Kihei Clark and Reece Beekman, talented point guards who, to put it gently, can’t shoot – Clark is a career 38.0 percent shooter, 35.0 percent from three; Beekman, as a freshman last year, shot 38.2 percent from the field, 24.3 percent from three, made 13 (13!) jumpers, twos and threes combined, all season.

Bennett loses his Big Three – Sam Hauser (16.0 ppg, 6.8 rebs/g, 50.3% FG, 41.7% 3FG), Jay Huff (13.0 ppg, 7.1 rebs/g, 58.5% FG, 38.7% 3FG) and Trey Murphy III (11.3 ppg, 50.3% FG, 43.3% 3FG).

Right there, that’s 59.1 percent of your points, gone.

But, and I’m going to put this gently, because Virginia did actually win the ACC last year.

OK, another banner, great, but, it wasn’t Tony Bennett basketball.

Virginia ranked 36th nationally in the KenPom.com defensive efficiency metric, the lowest under Bennett since year two, back in 2010-2011.

It was a Faustian bargain, going with Hauser, Huff and Murphy, for big minutes. Huff, at least, can defend the rim (2.6 blocks/g), but Huff and Murphy never did figure out the Pack-Line.

And then, on the offensive end, each of the three stands 6’9” or taller, but their game is perimeter-based, which made Virginia a feast-or-famine team – good, great, when the threes were falling, not so much when they weren’t.

That should change this year, if only because of East Carolina transfer Jayden Gardner, who averaged 18.0 points and 8.7 rebounds per game in three seasons at ECU, shooting 50.1 percent from the floor, and 7.1 free-throw attempts per game.

For frame of reference with that last number, Virginia, as a team, averaged 11.5 free-throw attempts per game last season.

Gardner will give the Cavaliers a presence in the middle that the program hasn’t had since the days that Anthony Gill, now in the NBA with the Washington Wizards, set his backside in the paint.

Another transfer, 6’4” guard Armaan Franklin, who played his first two college seasons at Indiana, adds punch from the perimeter (11.4 points per game, 42.4% from three in 2020-2021), and should get open looks because of the ability of Clark and Beekman off dribble-drives, and Gardner drawing extra attention in the post.

Those are your new-look Big Four – with 6’11” redshirt sophomore Kadin Shedrick and 7’1” redshirt junior Francisco Caffaro getting minutes at five, and backcourt minutes going to 6’7” senior Kody Stattmann, 6’3” sophomore Carson McCorkle, and a pair of freshmen, 6’10” swingman Igor Milicic Jr. and 6’5” sharpshooter Taine Murray.

That’s it – your 10 scholarship players for 2020-2021.

Which might not sound like a lot of guys, but Bennett tends to go with a seven- or eight-man rotation once we get to January, February, stretch drive time in March.

Good news is, there’s a more regular November and December schedule-wise to figure out who those seven or eight guys are going to be.

“We can’t play all 10 guys equal minutes. It’s not like that, but the large majority are going to be part of playing, and at some point, all of them will. So, I think that is healthy in that regard,” Bennett said this week.

Bennett told reporters at the program’s annual media day – held this year, as last, via Zoom – that he likes his team’s chemistry, and that “everyone has an opportunity.”

“There’s nothing like the opportunity to play that keeps you engaged and working hard. So everyone, as Jayden said, has to stay ready and know that they’re their number could be called, whether it’s foul trouble, an injury or just, you’ve played well and you’re starting to move up,” Bennett said.

You no doubt have seen, at least heard, that Virginia cleaned up in one of its closed-door scrimmages, showing scoring punch, lights-out perimeter shooting and defensive intensity.

Bennett obviously couldn’t address whether or not what you’ve seen or heard is true, but he could talk, generally, about what he has seen from his team on the eve of the start of the season, which tips off Tuesday night at JPJ with Navy coming to town.

“I think there’s a newness to this team that we’ve discussed. We’re still forging our identity. You say that every year at this time, but especially with a team that’s newer. I thought we played hard. I thought we were active in both of the scrimmages,” Bennett said.

“We’ve got some mobile guys on the interior, I think, you know, Kadin and Poppy (Caffaro) are aggressive and active, and Jayden Gardner works hard. There’s mobility there. And then, you know, I think defensively with Kihei and Reece, the two most experienced players, our backbone has to be trying to be as good as we can defensively on the perimeter. Guys like Armaan, and then you know, all of the new guys, they’re just continuing to learn their way, but everybody’s bringing value, you know, with a team that only has 10 scholarship guys.

“I thought there was effort,” Bennett said. “Again, what do we need to improve on? I mean, it’s just continuing to realize how important every possession is. You see some sloppy play on both ends of the floor in those scrimmages. At least we did. That just the rough edges need to continue to be sanded off, to become as good and as efficient as we can be, whatever that ends up looking like.”

Story by Chris Graham

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