He’s a Justin Anderson athlete. If he can be a 35% catch and shoot three its a good pair with two play making guards and Cofie/skilled forward at the 4. Also a lockdown defender, was the only defender on team takeover to really make Kon struggle when he dropped 30 on them. Every team needs that Braxton Key/sophomore year Justin Anderson type on the roster. That and being a Virginia kid will be more willing to buy into the development close to home while getting paid solid NIL.
Hodge will fill in that skilled forward role after Cofie goes to the NBA in year 2 of the Ronchez Era. With Saunders and Cofie (and Power hopefully) we need wing forwards willing to develop behind them.
edit: also I disagree with the “droves of”. We literally have no wing on this roster.
Which I think we will have. And you still need a Braxton key type. You need both and we don’t have a Braxton key on the roster at all. Not everyone can be a ball dominant player.
That’s the point though lol, how many ball dominant players do we even have. Do we any outside of potentially Cofie? Or Gertrude if he gets back fully healthy? We hope IMac eventually makes the jump to being good off the dribble but who knows if it ever actually comes.
Assuming we’re somehow able to keep this roster intact (which is a big assumption) and we hit the portal I want it to be someone who can go and get a bucket off the dribble at the top of the key, because that is the missing puzzle piece for this roster. If we have to rebuild everything from the ground up then maybe I’d be more receptive to a player like Abraham, but admittedly he didn’t impress me in AAU play outside of his defense being solid. His complete lack of aggressiveness on offense really threw me off.
Im assuming Dai Dai Gertrude Bliss (if healthy) Mallory (if we do well to keep Sanchez we probably get Mallory back) Saunders Cofie all as guys that can get their own. And then you have Buchanan Robinson Power Sharma who can thrive off that play making and gravity off the dribble penetration/post up
Nah there’s no shot we get Mallory to recommit, Chris Arvin has assured the VT fanbase that they finished 2nd for him last time and are thus in the driver’s seat now (this is sarcasm).
Hitting Virginia-Villanova at 5, then getting dropped off at Maryland Marquette with some friends in College Park at 8. Double header sicko mode. Hoping to scope a young upstart coaching candidate, Shaka Smart.