Updated 2021 Recruiting Rundown

Men's Basketball
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Virginia has three scholarships available for 2021. Rankings per Rivals.

Note: The COVID-19 pandemic has meant a lot of changes to the recruiting process. All in-person activity is banned until at least August. At that point, prospects could potentially visit colleges again. There are rumblings that evaluation periods could be rescheduled but nothing concrete so far.

Guards: The big versatile Brogdon style guard is what they’re after.

Trevor Keels 6’5 SG from Paul VI (VA) Ranked #15
Offered 2/19, last visited 9/19. Favorite: Virginia

Basics: Keels has been the clear top guard target from day one. Bennett made trips to see him starting in the Fall throughout the season, at least four times. He was on an official visit for banner raising weekend in September. He’s taken unofficial visits to Villanova, Maryland, and Duke, along with an official to Ohio State. North Carolina and Michigan are also involved.

Details: He wants to finish his process, wait out the dead period to take more visits. There are others still alive but it looks like a three team race between UVA Villanova and Duke. Hoos with the edge. All fine for now. We really don’t want this getting into the Fall though.

Jordan Longino 6’5 SG from Germantown ¶ Ranked #77
Offered 4/20, visited 6/18 Favorite: Villanova

Basics: Offered in April, but UVA has been involved with Longino for a long time. He visited for an underclassmen day back in June of '18. The coaches have monitored him regularly since. Football keeps him busy in the Fall, so he hasn’t done much of the recruiting stuff. No official visits so far. He’s been to Villanova and Penn State. Indiana, Ohio State, and Maryland are others involved.

Details: Villanova is the clear favorite. If he ends up anywhere else, that decision won’t be made for a while. That sets UVA up in position to have a chance. Roster competition will make him a hard pull though.

Max Christie 6’6 SG from Rolling Meadows (IL) Ranked #16
Offered 6/19, hasn’t visited. Favorite: Duke

Basics: Virginia offered him after Top 100 camp last summer. Bennett made a trip to see him in the Fall. Williford did again later. He had a delayed recruitment of sorts, didn’t participate much until the Spring. His only official visit so far was a late season trip to Michigan State. He’s done some unofficials to Northwestern, Purdue, and Wisconsin. Also a sophomore year trip to Duke.

Details: He did do a virtual tour with UVA in April, along with several other schools. There are seven teams in the running. Duke and Michigan State are the favorites. UVA probably needs chips to fall just right to have a realistic chance.

Kendall Brown 6’7 SG from Sunrise Christian (KS) Ranked #14
Offered 2/20, hasn’t visited. Favorite: Kansas

Basics: They tossed out an offer during after the coaches spent the bye week recruiting. I don’t think Bennett has been to see him, although he has watched him play last summer. Brown has done officials to Ohio State and Marquette, along with an unofficial to Kansas. In May, he included UVA in his top 10 list.

Details: Honestly there hasn’t been much sign of Virginia involvement. He’s open about hopes to be one and done, which usually doesn’t bode well.

Peyton Watson 6’7 SF from Long Peach Poly (CA) Ranked #19
No offer, hasn’t visited. Favorite: None

Basics: He canceled a planned official visit in November. They’ve continued to recruit him. Williford made the trip out west during the season, Soderberg back in the Fall… He’s taken official visits to Arizona, Washington, and Gonzaga, along with unofficials to UCLA and USC.

Details: He’s a supremely talented player that was overlooked early on. He appreciates U’VA’s track record of developing similar guys. That’s why they’ve somewhat kept his interest while others on the east coast haven’t. I expect he’ll stay out west unless tempted by the likes of Kentucky or Duke.

Big man. UVA will only have two traditional bigs returning in '21. They’ll need to add one.

Efton Reid 7’0 C from Steward (VA) Ranked #27
Offered 6/19, last visited 3/20. Favorite: Virginia

Basics: Efton has visited three times since the Fall, including an official in November. Bennett has been a regular at the Steward School, Williford too. They’ve left no doubt that he’s the priority. He’s taken other officials to Ohio State and Louisville along with unofficials to Georgetown, NC State, and North Carolina. Kansas offered in April. Kentucky and UNC continue to lurk.

Details: There are a lot of programs involved here. He’s stayed open to hearing from them all. It looks like this will go on a while. So far, UVA seems very confident about their standing. Still no other serious big man targets which is very unlike Bennett. Ohio State is a serious threat. UNC could be if they want.

Others: They’re flexible about what type of player a potential third recruit in the class could be. A modern forward seems to be the preference for now.

Trey Kaufman 6’8 PF from Silver Creek (IN) Ranked #97
Offered 4/20, hasn’t visited. Favorite: Indiana

Basics: Coach Bennett has stopped by to see him twice since September, before offering in April. He’s taken official visits to Indiana and Purdue. And an unofficial to nearby Louisville.

Details: This is essentially now a two team race between Indiana and Virginia. Granted Indiana is the favorite. UVA might get the last at-bat though. He wants to get down for a visit when things reopen. Bennett has masterfully played this, recruiting him personally all along yet managing to stay somewhat under the radar.

DaRon Holmes 6’8 PF from Montverde (FL) Ranked #33
Offered 10/19, visited 11/19. Favorite: None

Basics: Holmes came to Charlottesville on an official visit for home opener weekend in November along with Efton Reid. Assistants have been to see him multiple times, and Bennett once in Dec… His only other official visit so far was to Marquette. He’s done several unofficials to Kansas, Arizona, USC, and more.

Details: This looked promising early on. The window isn’t closed entirely, but UVA seems to have backed off. His recruitment is wide open and isn’t likely end anytime soon.

Patrick Baldwin Jr. 6’9 SF from Hamilton (WI) Ranked #3
Has offer, hasn’t visited. Favorite: Duke

Basics: Baldwin included UVA in his top 10 list released in early May. He played last summer with Reece Beekman, so they’re very familiar with him. He’s the son of Wis-Milwaukee head coach Pat Baldwin Sr. Likely a one and done. He’s taken unofficial visits to Duke, UNC, and Northwestern.

Details: Virginia is probably more in the top 5 than 10, but it’s a considerable gap to finishing first.
Duke has heavily recruited him. His parents went to Northwestern, they’re a serious contender. Kentucky too. It’s a bit like Cade Cunningham last year. Cool to be in the running anyway.

Jeremy Sochan 6’8 SF from La Lumiere (IN) Ranked #72
No offer, hasn’t visited. Favorite: None

Basics: Sochan has a complicated background. American born to Polish parents, moved to the UK at a young age. He played for the Polish National Team, and turned college heads at the Euro Championships last summer. This is was his first year playing in the US. Virginia assistants have been to see him play several times. He’s taken unofficial visits to Michigan State, Marquette, and DePaul. Offers from Florida State, Vanderbilt, Geogetown and a few others. Michigan State has now offered in May.

Details: His recruitment hasn’t really started yet. Everyone was waiting to see him play against top competition in AAU, which might not happen now. He’s back home in Europe for the summer. So this probably isn’t going to move forward in any meaningful way for a while. Virginia has been in contact with him as long or longer than any other major program.

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Figured it was time to do another of these. The old thread was getting a bit long.

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We’ve been nationally relevant since the 13-14 season and pretty good 11-12. Basically we’ve been really good since these guys were 10 years old. There’s a lot more guys who are growing up as fans, especially local guys, than the past 2 decades. Gotta help at least a little bit.

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A big guard would join a roster that includes Morsell, McCorkle, Abdur-Rahim, and Murphy.

If the 2014 UVA team is a useful template for thinking about roster construction, then something like:
Brogdon = new big guard
Perrantes = Beekman
Harris = Abdur-Rahim … or McCorkle/Murphy?
Anderson = ???

I’m curious to see how the pieces fit together.

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Fair to say if we haven’t closed both Keels and Reid by June it’s time to get sweaty palms, especially w Keels?

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Yeah I think that’s on the money. September is like a reset, can’t let it get there. And June gets hairy for Keels.

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Rivals Q&A with Max Christie

Tony Bennett is a great guy and they are technically the defending national champions and Coach Bennett is just a great coach. He is also a great person outside of basketball; he is very holistic and knows how to coach basketball programs and basketball players. Virginia is definitely intriguing to me, especially with Coach Bennett being there.

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Really interesting insights from Max Christie on his recruitment and opinion on various programs. I found it interesting comparing his personal perceptions of CTB and UVA with Coach K and Duke. They sound like polar opposites when it comes to their focus and what is important to them.

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Great update HGN! Ive been wanting one recently. Read my mind. Thanks

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For Keels, you wrote that he attended the banner ceremony, but did he attend any games last year?

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The football game against Florida State. He had a good time

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We’re swinging for the fences, as we should be. Obviously, not hoping for a repeat of the 2018 recruiting cycle (although we did land one of the best PGs in school history in that class). We’re a different program than we were a few years ago. Obviously, the natty helps, but so does the performance (and pay) of our guys in the NBA. 8 guys that played for Tony have been drafted in the 10 NBA drafts that have happened since he arrived at Virginia. All of the negative recruiting about our style of play simply shouldn’t be effective anymore. No we’re not going to suddenly land 2-3 McD All Americans every year, but I think we will finally start to see us close on guys we haven’t been able to in the past. My guess/hope is that starts with Trevor Keels, in the next month or so. If that happens, open the floodgates…

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No Keels didn’t come to a game this season. He’s been before though. Was offered at the Duke game the prior year.

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Hmmmm, moving the process along…

Btw, pretty much all the other team he’s highly considering are polar opposites of UVA. Maryland, Louisville, State gross

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Honestly reminds me a lot of Jay Wright at Villanova, just a few years behind on the calendar. Proves he has a winning program that sends guys to the pros, starts to nail down his higher level targets with regularity. Still though he’s not really landing those Duke/Kentucky OAD’s but has an obviously very successful program. I’d expect recruiting battles between these two for years to come targeting similar tier players

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Indiana article on Jordan Longino. Turns out his mom went there.

This is about the only relevant part for us.

“Before I was looking at September so I could get my visits and commitment done so I could go into my senior year and have my decision made and take some pressure off myself,” Longino said. “But it is probably going to get pushed back a little bit because I haven’t been able to take any actual physical visits to any schools yet.”

The main programs recruiting Longino right now are Villanova, Ohio State, Penn State, Virginia, St. Joseph’s, Notre Dame and Indiana. He hasn’t decided yet which schools he will visit this summer.

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This is a new one, another big guard. Dallan “Deebo” Coleman

Here’s the article. This is the only UVA mention.

“Virginia, they called today,” Coleman said. “It was just introducing themselves and saying they’re going to be recruiting me.”

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Are you reading anything into this and Longino w/ Keels? It’s tough not to, but this also could essentially be the same type of due diligence that would otherwise be done during the live periods.

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Only that he’s not about to commit just as he said. Pretty normal April behavior. Longino or Coleman make perfect Spring targets when you’re still hoping to land an earlier one. There’s no chance they would commit to UVA any time soon. My biggest takeaway from the last week, more from others actions than UVA’s, is that the NCAA can change schedules but the coaches do not. You’d think there was a live period this past weekend from all the offers flying.

Should also add this for people that haven’t followed recruiting under Bennett long. We rarely get Spring targets because most of them fit that profile. Jabri & Huff have been the only two since TB’s first class.

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