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Seth Towns chooses Ohio State: Analysis from a UVA perspective

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Harvard grad transfer guard Seth Towns is headed to Ohio State, picking the Buckeyes from a group of seven finalists that included reigning national champ Virginia.

Not the biggest loss, despite what you’d been led to believe.

Towns, a 6’7” sharpshooter, missed the past two seasons with knee injuries, after being named the Ivy League Player of the Year in 2018, upon averaging 16.0 points and 5.7 rebounds per game and shooting 44.1 percent from three-point range.

Towns is a Columbus, Ohio, native, and it had seemed from early in his re-recruitment that Ohio State would be the frontrunner.

Honestly, it’s hard to see where he would have fit in, in terms of the 2020-2021 rotation.

Virginia returns three starters – Kihei Clark, Tomas Woldetensae and Jay Huff – with reserves Casey Morsell, Kody Stattmann and Francisco Caffaro also expected back.

Sam Hauser, a 6’9” stretch four, almost certainly factors in as a starter next season, and then you have to throw into the equation the addition of the nation’s 12th-rated recruiting class, which features three four-star players – guards Jabri Abdur-Rahim, Reece Beekman and Carson McCorkle.

Oh, and there’s one other four-star, from the Class of 2019, 6’11” center Kadin Shedrick, who redshirted this past season.

So, that’s already 11 guys, and coach Tony Bennett usually goes with an eight-man rotation.

Towns, no doubt a talented player, though there is uncertainty over his knee issues.

The depth already in the pipeline would mean if he’d picked Virginia, he’d have to compete for minutes, likely with Hauser, Woldetensae, Stattmann and Abdur-Rahim.

At least he didn’t end up at Duke.

Story by Chris Graham

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