2022 Recruiting

thats the thing about highlights ha. they are high lights by definition. But looked pretty legit to me

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Yea, I wasn’t sure about his athleticism but he’s only a sophomore and looks can be deceiving but if you are smart you can make up for a lot of that. I just hope things will open up soon so we can see how good these guys are. I just want to see a live game PERIOD. ACC is talking about football but no basketball as one of their options. If that happens I’m not gonna be a happy camper

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The state of Va, NC and maryland and the heart of the ACC, is LOADED with TOP 2022 PG. I mean the state of VA alone have 4 tu 5 top 100 players. It would be very irresponsible tu spend money and time recruiting a kid in Cali, when you have so many great players right here. That kid is not coming tu UVA. Im not saying we lead for the players instate qns in the border states. But I PERSONALLY know tu of them and one player I can get info about, that would love tu be recruited by UVA. Hey im just a fan sharing my opinion.

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Tu, I disagree with this. I would love to have kids from Virginia but am glad that our coaches don’t lose sleep over these kids from Virginia that are constantly steered away by people like Boo Williams. Virginia kids …too much drama!! I’m glad we don’t sell out and wait for those kids, like Holland, Jones, Gillen, Groh, London, and Leito. Recruit kids, no matter where their from just as long as they fit Virginia’s profile and needs.

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I disagree with Tu too. Nice that Tu has some ties to the local kids and loyalty there. But Irresponsible? We draw from a big area both national and international. Great to get great young men from VA. Equally great to get them from anywhere. Coach Bennett certainly covers the Virginia area young men. All recruits are blue and orange once they commit.

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Well stated, WorldTraveler. Tu, in time Virginia kids will jump on the train before it fills up. I do want local kids also. Currently, we are valued more nationally and are somewhat under appreciated by local prospects.

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I agree but hopefully that is changing. There is some great high school basketball being played here and/or DMV. 757 has some good ones coming up

Respectfully disagree and agree w Tu. It would be a much more valuable long term investment of resources to continue to ingrain ourselves w regional talent/AAU programs. Just look at what our growing ties to the Triangle has produced. Similar strengthen ties with Takeover and Loaded would set us up for many years to come. Lots of those kids fit our profile. Yes it is great to be a National power and recruit national but we’d continue to do just fine putting a wall around VA/DC/MD/N.C.

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The problem is that we have tried this all the way back to the Holland years only to fail unless we could promise playing time in some cases. Tony Bennett will never do that. Our programs have now thrived on having to earn opportunities and thus the on coast success against UNC and to a lesser extent Duke. All things being equal, we almost always were bridesmaids to Boo Williams and 757 kids. Just fact. Why?

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A lot of these kids grew up when it was all Duke and UNC .Times are changing as we now have several years being among the best and now with the National Championship our name and prominence has grown immensely. There are kids out there now dreaming of playing at UVA and we are the favorite of many of today’s kids. I’m all for getting the best player possible that’s a fit for us
Some of them will be local guys as in the case of the next recruiting class

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Yes, I agree but they will need to be a fit for Bennett’s program and will be filtered. In addition, we are playing at an elite level now and will be seeking those that will keep us there. We can afford to be selective to a degree and will. If that means those kids come from Virginia, great! If not, then we will continue to recruit an expanded footprint to find that player. Traditionally, those players who dream of playing somewhere local tend to commit yearly in the process, when they don’t you seek a target elsewhere. I feel we are not necessarily moving on but are expanding our opportunities and with the number of top twenty wings interested, if I were Keels, I would thing about making that commitment. However, I believe the tea leaves are indicating that something or somebody has gotten his ear or he would be committing soon. We saw this with Coleman’s recruitment and how we moved on.

Yes that’s what I said. Get the best player we can that’s a fit. . I’m hopeful Keels won’t drag this out much further but we have put a lot more time in with Keels than we did Coleman so I’m still hopeful. These are definitely different times and it affects the recruiting world too

Didn’t Mac McClung want a spot on the UVa.s bench the year CTB went out west for a recruit many attribute a national championship tu?

Recruiting the DC metro is has always been a priority for Tony. He pulled out Atkins, as well as Justin boarded and played high school ball in the metro. Morsell is on the roster now and Keels is considering. There’s always excellent talent around the Beltway, kids are interested in UVA and Tony/staff do a great job recruiting the DMV area. It’s downstate Virginia kids that seem to be more of the issue, in particular along I-64 corridor from RVA into 757. And I agree with previous posts, don’t waste time chasing after these guys like some past coaches.

UVA has a national/international brand, pursue the prospects that are the best fit for the program and the school. If that’s overseas, California, or wherever, it doesn’t matter. One of the historical strengths of UVA’s student body is that we have stayed true to Mr. Jefferson’s vision of wanting a school that is open to those well beyond the Virginia borders to bring expanded thoughts and ideas. A public school that has produced a $10B (and growing) endowment from its alumni shouldn’t be thinking narrowly in any category, including basketball recruiting.

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McClung is a bad fit for UVA. He struggles playing in an offense where the ball isn’t consistently in his hands. Plus, he doesn’t have the patience to play in UVA’s structured offense.

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I come out somewhere in the middle of the in state issue. On the one hand, I’m not losing a lot of sleep over the guys we didn’t get vs. the guys that fit, that Tony wanted, that we got, that built us into an elite program. On the other hand, it would be ideal if our emergence as elite paid us some dividends in local recruiting given the amount of talent nearby and a vague notion in my mind that a Virginia kid should want to go to UVA and not Duke, so theoretically it should be easier for us to land him. It’s not that I would be loyal to a Virginia kid over another, but that I think they should be more loyal to us. I will root for the guy that chooses wisely and chooses UVA no matter where he is from.

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The problem is we aren’t for various reasons.

I guess I don’t view it as a problem. Just one more thing in life that is less than ideal.

I don’t have as strong of feelings on these issues or the insight that many other posters do, and generally will just defer to Tony and the coaches on which players they feel they have the best chance with given individual relationships. That said, in reference to the post that started all this about Aidan Mahaney, if there is one position we can point to and say we have an excellent history with California kids, it’s PG, haha.

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