Tony Bennett's Complete UVA Recruiting History Stats

Men's Basketball
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Hi Everyone,
I have complied these stats from Coach Tony Bennett’s recruiting history during his tenure at UVA starting on March 31, 2009. Im hoping to generate even more recruiting chatter by posting this data. What surprises you about the past? What could we predict for the future? Which recruits were the greatest diamonds in the rough? Etc. Looking forward to more conversations!

The data I pulled from 247sports.com. I dont know if this is actually the best place for recruiting data but it was the most accessible. For our purposes, Im sure it will suffice and give us a clear enough history of our recruiting past under Coach Tony Bennett. One caveat, The 2009 recruits are probably not credited as being Coach Bennett’s since he started that year, but I added them just in case.

247sports.com Recruiting Stats for Tony Bennetts UVA

2009 - .9305 average recruit rating
Tristan Spurlock - #82 - 4 Star - .9675
Jontel Evans - #212 3 Star - .8934

2010 - .9110 average recruit rating
KT Harrell - #46 - 4 Star - .9815
James Johnson - #72 - 4 Star - .9707
Joe Harris - #132 - 3 Star - .9120
Will Regan - #152 - 3 Star - .8998
Akil Mitchell - #236 - 3 Star - .8574
Billy Barton - #289 - 3 Star - .8444

2011 - .9066 average recruit rating
Malcom Brogdon #98 - 4 Star - .9503
Paul Jesperson #112 - 4 Star - .9251
Darion Atkins #320 - 3 Star - .8444

2012 - .9297 average recruit rating
Justin Anderson #50 - 4 Star - .9810
Evan Nolte #76 - 4 Star - .9712
Mike Tobey #78 - 4 Star - .9709
Taylor Barnette #240 - 3 Star .8444
Teven Jonas #267 - 3 Star .8444

2013 - .9057 average recruit rating
Devon Hall #122 - 3 Star .9135
London Perrentes#147 3 Star .8978

2014 - .9024 average recruit rating
BJ Stith #98 - 4 Star - .9407
Isaiah Wilkins #146 - 3 Star - .9012
Marial Shayok #166 - 3 Star - .8822
Jack Salt #356 - 3 Star - .8328

2015 - .9427 average recruit rating
Mamadi Diakite #32 - 4 Star - .9871
Jarred Reuter #160 - 4 Star- .8989

2016 - .9745 average recruit rating
Kyle Guy #37 - 4 Star - .9853
Ty Jerome #44 - 4 Star - .9830
Jay Huff #57 - 4 Star - .9772
De’Andre Hunter#91 -4 Star - .9526

2017 - .8668 average recruit ranking
Marco Anthony #244 - 3 Star - .8707
Francesco Badocchi #283 - 3 Star - .8628

2018 - .9109 average recruit rating (with Key)
Francisco Carfaro #120 - 4 Star - .9410
Kody Stattman #334 - 3 Star - .8678
Kihei Clark #397 - 3 Star - .8573
Braxton Key (Transfer) #59 4 Star- .9769

2019 - .9307 average recruit ranking(including 2 transfers)
Casey Morsell #56 - 4 Star - .9789
Kadin Shedrik #68 - 4 Star - .9737
Justin McCoy #229 - 4 Star -.8848
Tomas Wodetensae (Transfer) #NA - 3 Star - .8556
Sam Houser (Transfer) #83 - 4 Star - .9607

2020 - .9679 average recruit rating
Jabri Abdur-Rahim #41 - 4 Star - .9848
Reece Beekman #55 - 4 Star - .9790
Carson McCorkle #134 - 3 Star - .9310

2021 - Recruiting Targets
Group A - All In
Efton Reid #27 - 4 Star - .9883
Trevor Keels #35 - 4 Star - .9860
DaRon Holmes #116 - 4 Star - .9537 (ranked #39 when averaging all 4 recruiting services)
Group B - Light Pressure
Caleb Furst #29 - 4 Star - .9873
Max Christy #13 - 5 Star - .9949

Recruiting Years Ranked by Average Recruit Rating
1st 2016 .9745
2nd 2020 .9649
3rd 2015 .9427
4th 2009 .9305
5th 2019 .9233
6th 2012 .9227
7th 2010 .9110
8th 2011 .9066
9th 2013 .9057
10th 2014 .9024
11th 2018 .8887
12th 2017 .8668

Recruits Ranked
1st Mamadi Diakite .9871 2015 #32
2nd Kyle Guy .9853 2016 #37
3rd Jabri Abdur Rahim .9848 2020 #41
4th Ty Jerome .9830 2016 #44
5th KT Harrell .9815 2010 #46
6th Justin Anderson .9810 2012 #50
7th Reece Beekman .9790 2020 #55
8th Casey Morsell .9789 2019 #56
9th Jay Huff .9772 2016 #57
10th Braxton Key .9769 2018 #59
11th Kadin Shedrick .9737 2019 #68
12th Evan Nolte .9712 2012 #76
13th Mike Tobey .9709 2012 #78
14th James Johnson .9707 2010 #72
15th Tristan Spurlock .9675 2009 #82
16th Sam Houser .9607 2019 #83
17th De’Andre Hunter.9526 2016 #91
18th Malcolm Brogdon .9503 2011 #98
19th Francisco Carfaro .9410 2018 #120
20th BJ Styth .9407 2014 #98
21st Carson McCorkle .9310 2020 #134
22th Paul Jesperson .9251 2011 #112
23nd Devon Hall .9135 2013 #122
24rd Joe Harris .9120 2010 #132
25th Isaiah Wilkins .9012 2014 #146
26th Will Regan .8998 2010 #152
27th Jarred Reuter .8989 2015 #160
28th London Perrentes .8978 2013 #147
29th Jontel Evans .8934 2009 #212
30th Justin McCoy .8848 2019 #229
31st Marial Shayok .8822 2014 #166
32nd Marco Anthony .8707 2017 #244
33rd Kody Stattmann .8678 2018 #334
34th Francesco Badocchi .8628 2017 #283
35th Akil Mitchell .8574 2010 #236
36th Kihei Clark .8573 2018 #397
37th Tomas Woldetensae .8556 2019 #NA JUCO Transfer
37th Billy Barton .8444 2010 #289
37th Darion Atkins .8444 2011 #320
37th Taylor Barnette .8444 2012 #240
37th Teven Jonas .8444 2012 #267
42nd Jack Salt .8328 2014 #356

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As someone who lives in this world, I appreciate the time it took to put that together. It’s a lot of numbers. Kind of overwhelming.

Another way of looking at it is when they were offered scholarships. I won’t include the overseas guys and transfers because that’s such a pick your spot different process. Ditto for the first two classes. '09 was Leitao’s and he didn’t have a full cycle to work with in '10.

11 were offered early, before Jan of their junior year. Anderson Nolte Tobey Hall Stith Diakite Guy Jerome Morsell McCorkle Beekman. Notes Only one transfer. But 8 of the 11 came in the easier to recruit reload classes of '12, '16, and '20.

2 were “spring” offers, before June. Huff Abdur-Rahim. Notes It’s a short list, another of those unique Bennett patterns. And again, both in reload classes.

9 were summer offers, mostly during or immediately following July’s live periods. Brogdon Jesperson Atkins Perrantes Wilkins Reuter Hunter Anthony Shedrick Notes A few transfers, but a lot of homeruns. Nobody took more advantage of July than TB. it’s a shame the NCAA has taken most of it away.

2 were offered Fall of their senior year. Teven Kihei Notes Same situation due to different circumstances. Required settles.

4 were late signings. Barnette Shayok Badocchi McKoy. Notes Not much success late. Some unnecessary settles that wouldn’t happen today. McKoy could be the first that doesn’t transfer.

Some conclusions

Rankings get lower as you go, as you’d expect. But I think you’ll find the summer recruits have had every bit if not more success than the early ones. Especially if you remove Reuter and Anthony who were kind of special cases, pre-mature settles due to impossible circumstances of uneven classes. As long as TB gets his guys in any of the first 3 stages, the results are pretty damn good.

Recruiting has historically been hard under Bennett outside of those reload years. In his other 7 recruiting classes, he’s only gotten 3 recruits offered before summer. There’s reason to be hopeful about a couple early '21 targets, but overall I’d buckle up in case things get rocky.

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Pls forgive my ignorance but could you define “reload” as used above? Thanks

@HoozGotNext

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That’s crazy insane work by you. I would never be able to crunch all of those numbers. Interesting how Diakite was our number one recruit of all time. Weird. I would think it was Hunter or freaking Mr. Indiana. If we land anyone in that 2021 Group A Class, they will be our highest. It’s weird how our recruits correlate with our success.

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Well it really started with the mass exodus of Tony’s first class in 2010. That opened up lots of room just in time for 2012 to kick into gear. So they got 3 top targets early. Then the 2012 class came to include Brogdon (redshirt) and Anthony Gill (transfer), again when they left it was another open opportunity for 2016. And again in 2020 when they were scheduled to leave.

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Oh… that makes sense. I thought we could swim with the sharks in 2021 because we won the championship and ya know…

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Yeah 2021 is a good test of what’s changed for sure. But another thing to keep in mind is classes were very uneven for most of that time. We got most of our players in those reload years! lol

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That ranking is a little deceiving. It’s a composite, only in this case an average of only 2, ESPN (37) and 247 (27). Rivals never re-ranked him when he changed classes late and I think they were a lot lower on him. I actually remember why 247 had him so high. Back then it was just Jerry Meyer doing things for them. He happened to be at Mamadi’s best AAU game ever when he scored 20+ on Jarrett Allen. Maybe Mamadi’s only double digit scoring game of the summer and probably the only time Jerry saw him. :laughing:

I loved Jerry’s rankings by the way. He didn’t follow the herd. They were often very different. The old Scout team do things at 247 now. Evan Daniels and a couple regional guys.

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some questions for the professionals recruiting experts on this website

Do the various assistant coaches play significantly different roles in recruiting? And, one more particular question… is there a particular assistant that is tasked with scouting the potential recruit who are closest to being offered. The final assistant before Bennett so to speak.

For anyone Hoo follows up with recruits as a UVA sports blogger,…have you been able tell as part of your discussions with a recruit if they are going to commit shortly ? (other then when the recruit expressly tells you that he is going to commit)

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All the assistants do some of all the above. They have to. Evaluating at various stages and recruiting. Soderberg handles all the opponent scouting during the season to allow Williford and Vandross to go out recruiting. Usually one of them is out somewhere every week. That’s been a change up these last 2 years. Of the three, Williford does more actual recruiting with offered players.

They’re all out there evaluating, especially during the live periods. It’s just whoever finds a guy and recommends him. I will say back when we had the 3 weeks of July, and they could afford to double up at games, you’d see Tony with a wing man on final evals. Always Ron Sanchez until he left then became Soderberg.

On the commitment thing. I guess there are usually signs without anyone telling. I can’t really remember knowing hey this guy is going to commit next week without him or someone else telling me though.

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Thats some unreal work man. Can you explain the .9521 part or whatever the number is? Just curious

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Grew up with Jerry and going to his dads basketball camps. He was a great great basketball player and I always looked up to him. Complete basketball mind.

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How does CTB et al identify and evaluate international players? Are they already playing in the US or are they recommended by someone the coaches know?

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I never did hear the story on Jack Salt. Obviously Kirk Penney recommended him, but I don’t know if anyone went to see in person. With Kody, Ron Sanchez did make the trip during the July live periods that year. It’s actually a long funny story how I found that out, starting with an Australian blog incorrectly reporting a VT coach being there. lol They discovered Caffaro while watching Kody online. They found out he was coming over to take other visits, and just jumped to action. Went down fast.

Ron Sanchez had a lot of contacts in Europe. Never paid off, but I think he checked out several guys over the years. Everybody remembers Svi Mykhailiuk. Luka Samanic was another they never got anywhere with.

One of these days I’m gonna do a tell all. From my little perch, Caffaro’s visit was the craziest time. Tony was at a VAF dinner and announced that he had to leave early to host a recruit, and it spread like wildfire. We had everybody with any sort of connections working together reaching out to solve the puzzle. Competing media figures included. Finally got the name that night, which led to finding a local Nebraska story mentioning his plan to visit UVA.

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Awesome work! This is fun to see all laid out and has given me a lot to think about. I also appreciate @HoozGotNext for the additional insight. I’ve never been much on the recruiting process so all of this is like a new world to me, but it certainly helps me get more insight into the mindset and makeup of the program.

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I personally dont know how different recruiting agencies come up with this numerical scores (.9521) etc. But its pretty easy to find each recruits 4 digit score on 247 Sports and they do a pretty good job of correlating to that recruits current skill at the time of their recruitment. Top recruits are scored close to 1.000. RJ Barrett the #1 in 2018 was a prefect 1.0000 and James Wiseman the #1 in 2019 was .9999.

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Thanks DG. Makes sense

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Great work!

Seven of the top 20 recruits Bennett has ever landed will be on the roster next year: Abdur-Rahim (3rd), Reece Beekman (7th), Casey Morsell (8th), Jay Huff (9th), Kadin Shedrick (11th), Sam Hauser (16th), Francisco Caffaro (19th).

Last year, when we won it all, we had seven of the top 20 recruits (Diakite, Guy, Jerome, Huff, Key, Hunter, Caffaro) he’s ever landed.

So there’s that.

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So of course the big question on everybody’s mind is what will 2021 bring us. For me, I’d like to define what success would be for 2021. As HGN has described, 2012, 2016 and 2020 were reloading years for recruiting and it was easier to bring in higher level talent since the year these recruits were to become eligible to play, our top skilled players were scheduled to leave. So historically speaking 2021 should be a bad recruiting year. In 2013 it was our 9th worst recruiting year, and 2017 was dead last. However, 2021 could be the year we break the pattern! Of course last year we won the national championship. Secondly perhaps there were some recruits who were turned off by our underwhelming post season history. That perception no longer exist. Our recent success could be the catalyst that gives our recruiting program a boost to the next level.
Something else Ive noticed is that we have probably invested our time in Efton Reid more than any other recruit. Something to consider is while 2021 historically should be a down year, for UVA bigs it may be a perfect year to convince top talent to join. Jay Huff was part of our top 2016 recruiting class, and because he was a redshirt, it pushes his eligibility back a year. Therefor 2021 could be the perfect year to land a top big guy target.
So for me, I feel fairly confident that we are going to change history and beat our previous down years in 2013 of .9057 and in 2017 of .8668. If we land a recruit in the top 100 I will be satisfied. If we land one of our top targets I will be more than satisfied. If we land multiple top targets than something has drastically changed! And if we dont get a single top 100 recruit like in 2013 and 2017 then I will be angry at the world.

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I’m not sure I agree. In 2021, we’ll have a loaded, balanced roster with no easy minutes available. We’ve already got Caffaro and Shedrick up front, Abdur-Rahim, McKoy, and Stattmann as wing/forwards, and Clark, Beekman, Morsell, and McCorkle in the backcourt.

That’s stacked. That’s nine-deep of experienced, talented players.

So if 2021 recruiting is a bust, Virginia is still a Top 10 team. There’s no “need”. And in 2022, barring attrition, you still have seven of them.

That’s why shooting for the stars makes sense. Land just one Efton Reid or Trevor Keels or DaRon Holmes and the class is a ridiculous success. But if Bennett fails? Well, picking up a transfer or a developmental prospect who can redshirt isn’t that bad, either.

It feels like 2021 recruiting is playing with house money.

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