OK, so this recruiting beat stuff is getting ridiculous. Tony Bennett has picked up another guy off the transfer portal, another big, Class of 2023 three-star Carter Lang, a St. Anne’s-Belfield grad who spent one year in the SEC at Vanderbilt.
Lang, who checks in at 6’9”, 235, didn’t get an offer from Virginia out of high school, where he was a McDonald’s nominee who averaged 18.3 points, 14.9 rebounds and 1.5 blocks as a senior.
At the moment, word is that Lang will join the UVA program as a walk-on, which would leave Bennett with one scholarship to still try to use, perhaps in the backcourt, though, as I’ve analyzed there, there are already five guys back from last year’s roster with experience in Bennett’s system, and another transfer, former FSU guard Jalen Warley, all competing for playing time.
Personally, I think we’re good there, but I also thought we were good before this news about Lang, so, shows how much I know.
Lang will join a suddenly stacked frontcourt group at Virginia, which includes one returner from 2023-2024, 6’11” rising sophomore Blake Buchanan, a four-star recruit in the Class of 2023, and two high-profile transfers, Class of 2023 five-star TJ Power, who was barely used as a one-and-done at Duke, and Elijah Saunders, who was a key rotation guy the past two years at San Diego State.
Bennett also has Anthony Robinson, a 6’10” kid who redshirted this past season, and incoming four-star prep recruit Jacob Cofie.
I’ll be honest here, I feel kinda bad, especially, for Robinson.
The deadline to enter the portal closed on May 1, so at this point, you are where you are.
The summer scrimmages should be intense, if nothing else.
As far as Lang is concerned, we just don’t know much from his freshman season at Vanderbilt.
His minutes were sporadic even when he was getting them. After Jan. 1, he got just 101 minutes of floor time, with seven DNP-Coach’s Decisions in that 19-game stretch, and the bulk of the minutes that he did get came in garbage time.
The scouting reports on him as a prep suggest that he’s a project – not exactly athletic, not a good perimeter shooter, good passer, good rebounder, good basketball IQ on the defensive end.
That speaks to me as: maybe second-big-off-the-bench guy.
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Chris Graham
