Virginia Eyes Prized Recruits As Visit Season Nears

It’s been a busy summer of recruiting for Tony Bennett and the Virginia coaching staff. They were on the road for four of the last five weekends taking part in live evaluation periods, checking on their top targets in the class of 2025 and identifying new ones along the way.  

Now that summer evaluations are in the rear view, the table is mostly if not all set.  It’ll soon be closing time.  September and October are the busiest months of the year for high school visitors and commitments, ahead of the fall signing period. 

Limited Space

Virginia’s 2025 recruiting class won’t be very big.  There’s only two open scholarships to work with for November’s early signing period.  The plan is simple.  They’d like to add one guard and one forward.  

With a young roster and limited space, it’s not an easy task.  Other teams have more of an obvious path to the court to sell.  UVA has been forced into a narrow search to find the type of players who could have an early opportunity.  It’s been a challenge.  But the coaching staff still managed to put themselves in position to have a shot at some really good players.  

We’re already in somewhat unfamiliar territory.  Bennett has typically gotten an early start.  It’s been a rarity for him not to have at least one recruit committed by now.   The last time this happened came during the class of 2021 cycle when the pandemic shut down all in-person activity.  High-stakes fall recruiting is the norm in college basketball,, but that hasn’t often been the case for Virginia.  

The good news is that, while it’s only been a small part of the past portfolio, Bennett has been pretty successful with fall visitors.  The majority of them committed to Virginia.  He doesn’t usually deal with prolonged fall battles though.  Every recruit who’s held an offer at this point either committed to UVA by the end of September or they went elsewhere.  

Going The Distance

As of last November, Virginia had already offered scholarships to 16 players in the 2025 class.  Four of those are still a realistic possibility.  That might seem like a poor ratio, but Virginia used to almost never stay involved in recruitments that stretched from one fall to the next.  By design.  They would make their push to close out early targets, then move on if unsuccessful.  But over the last couple years, Bennett has shown that he will pace himself to go the distance for the right recruit.  

The best examples this year are Gonzaga (DC) guard Derek Dixon and five-star prized forward Nate Ament out of Highland School (VA).  UVA had been a steady presence all along in both races, but Bennett didn’t really press the throttle until the last couple months.  Regardless of the result, and competition is fierce for both, the coaching staff has played those recruitments perfectly so that they have momentum at the right time.  

UVA is in line to get Nate Ament’s first official visit, tentatively set for the weekend of September 1st.  We’ll see what other visits he’ll schedule.  It’ll be a prestigious list.  UConn, Duke, and Kentucky are all coming hard.   Derek Dixon already visited in April.  We’re mostly just waiting for him to visit North Carolina in early September.  Never discount the Tar Heels, but Pitt still seems to be UVA’s main competition.  

The other two early targets still in play are St. Anne’s Belfield (VA) guard Chance Mallory and Largo (MD) forward Cam Ward.  Very different situations, more incidental than the product of some great strategy.  Mallory’s recruitment has been a roller coaster, but the Hoos are a finalist now with a real shot this fall.  And although UVA offered Ward in November, they weren’t that involved until this summer.  

Mallory has already named a final six of Virginia, VA Tech, Clemson, Miami, Tennessee, and Villanova.  He’s planning to visit all of them, with UVA’s turn set for the weekend of September 13th.  It seems to be an open contest, with a decision planned in late October.  As for Ward, UVA will need to get him back for an official visit to have a legit chance.  Marquette and Michigan State are among the serious contenders.

For a long time, I said Tony Benentt doesn’t do marathons.  Well, that’s no longer true.  Now, we’ll see if he’s capable of winning one.  Any of the four above would be a big prize, especially in Virginia’s position.  

Sprint to the Finish  

The other category is made up of the recruits who emerged over the spring and summer. Their races aren’t as solidified.  Most of them will probably name finalists soon, then schedule visits and decide on the same schedule in Sept/Oct.  But we don’t know for sure yet whether Virginia will be in contention.

New Hampton (NH) forward Mason Blackwood and Davidson Day (NC) guard Isaiah Denis were offered scholarships following the spring evaluation period.  Virginia coaches kept tabs the rest of the way.  There seemed to be a late uptick of involvement for Blackwood.  Bennett watched him multiple times at Peach Jam.  He’s taken an official to Rutgers with another scheduled to Penn State.  Denis may be out of reach, especially after his latest offer from North Carolina.  

Three new offers went out following last week’s AAU live period.  Bennett shadowed Utah Prep guard JJ Mandaquit at the Adidas Championships, usually an indication it will turn serious.  Sagemont Prep (FL) guard Matthew Able ended up being the breakout player of the summer, piling up new offers.  And maybe the most interesting of the group, Iowa City West forward Jack McCaffery, the son of Iowa coach Fran McCaffery.  

The main competition for Mandaquit seems to be Stanford and BYU.  McCaffery has said he won't play for his dad.  Butler is one to watch for him.  It’ll be fascinating to see how UVA handles those recruitments, the timing of any potential visits.   Able has really blown up.  It might prove hard for UVA to get their foot in the door with him, we’ll see.  

Pay attention to those last three.  Just about every class under Bennett has included at least one player who received their offer during or after summer.  Of course, there could be more in the weeks ahead.  

What’s Next

There should be a lot of list cuts, finalists named over the next few weeks.  We’ll probably get a few more visit dates as well.  August is a quiet recruiting month for the most part before we get into visit season.   

Despite the lack of a commitment, Virginia is positioned well heading into the fall.  The young roster, bolstered by the transfer additions, has made this a low stress recruiting cycle.  Bennett can afford to take his swings at some big targets coming up.  Should be a lot of fun seeing how it shakes out, knowing the roster is pretty well set for the next couple seasons either way. 

(Featured Image Credit: DMV Live)