Virginia has reportedly been in contact with Virginia Tech transfer Tyler Nickel, who entered the transfer portal last month, looking for his third school in three years.
Nickel starred as a prep at East Rock High School just up Interstate 81 from me in Rockingham County, where as a four-star recruit he committed to North Carolina, from among a long list of suitors.
There wasn’t much interest from UVA and coach Tony Bennett back then; according to 247Sports, Nickel visited Virginia, but the ‘Hoos weren’t among the many schools to offer a scholarship.
I don’t know that I see a fit at Virginia for Nickel, who 247Sports is forecasting will end up at Vanderbilt, and its new coach, Mark Byington, who did offer Nickel when Byington was the head coach at JMU.
Nickel is described as a stretch four, but at 6’7”, 200, it’s probably a stretch to call him a four, a power forward.
For reference there, Andrew Rohde, who’s in the mix to be Bennett’s point guard next season, is listed at 6’6”, 202.
Let’s call Nickel, then, a big guard.
As a big guard, he’s a guy who rightly still projects as a Power 5 starter. Nickel’s selling point is that he is an elite jump shooter, connecting on 39.9 percent of his threes last season at Tech, on high volume (4.5 attempts per game).
Where he’d have trouble fitting at Virginia is, he hasn’t shown much of a midrange game – which most coaches are just fine with, because midrange jumpers are out of vogue pretty much everywhere else, but Bennett’s approach to his mover/blocker-sides offense produces a lot (i.e. too many) midrange jumpers.
You also don’t see much in his resume at the rim – Synergy Sports had him attempting just 35 shots at the rim in 2023-2024, and shooting a just-OK 54.3 percent on those.
The other issue with Nickel is on the defensive end, where he is, per Synergy Sports, below average, allowing opponents to shoot 40.9 percent and score 1.02 points per possession.
I can see Nickel being a great fit in schemes that are more up-tempo and get guys looks with good spacing on spot-ups.
Virginia is not such a place.
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Chris Graham
