Virginia Basketball 2023-2024 Roster Preview: Reece Beekman

Beekman has designs to be a first round pick in next June's NBA Draft. What does he have to do in his final season at Virginia to make that happen?

Basketball season is upon us. As we march closer to another exciting Virginia men's basketball season, CavaliersNow is previewing UVA's roster player by player in preparation for the 2023-2024 season, which begins on Monday, November 6th against Tarleton State at John Paul Jones Arena.

Today, we analyze senior guard Reece Beekman. 

Click on the following links to read our player previews for the rest of the UVA men's basketball roster: Isaac McKneely | Taine Murray | Anthony Robinson | Leon Bond III | Dante Harris | Elijah Gertrude | Blake Buchanan | Jake Groves | Andrew Rohde | Jordan Minor | Ryan Dunn

Virginia encountered an almost unprecedented level of roster turnover this offseason, with seven scholarship players exiting the program due to graduation, the NBA Draft, or the transfer portal, and eight new scholarship players coming in, four from the portal and four freshmen. But by far the biggest event of the offseason was the return of Reece Beekman, who declared for the NBA Draft, participated in the Draft Combine and in a few private workouts with NBA teams, but ultimately decided to return to Virginia for his senior season. 

With Beekman returning, the Cavaliers got back their leader, their most experienced player, their best defender, and maybe, finally, a breakout superstar on both ends of the floor who has designs on hearing his name called in the first round of the NBA Draft next June. 

So, what does he have to do to make that happen? 

On the defensive end, Reece Beekman is already one of the best on-ball defenders in all of college basketball. Somehow, he's still underrated as he hasn't been a final contender for Naismith Defensive Player of the Year in either of the last two seasons (those awards are always biased towards centers with inflated blocked shots statistics). So I guess you could say there are still some things for him to conquer in terms of defensive recognition - maybe become the first player since North Carolina's John Henson in 2011 and 2012 to repeat as ACC Defensive Player of the Year? 

But in terms of his development as a basketball player, there isn't a whole Beekman can do to improve as a defender - he's just that good already. He has gone head-to-head with some of the best guards in the ACC over the last three seasons and routinely wins those battles. He has elite lateral quickness and lightning-fast hands to take the ball whenever there's an opportunity and he has great instincts to jump passing lanes for steals. Perhaps most impressive is his ability to anticipate when the opposing player is going to go up for a shot, quickly getting his hands on the ball or up in the air to give a strong contest. Simply put, it's extremely difficult to score on Reece Beekman. 

Having already refined his defensive game so much, most of Beekman's star potential this season comes from where he can improve on the offensive end. And there's a few different areas where he'll need to make strides. 

First, let's take about three-point shooting. Beekman got off to a blistering start from beyond the arc last season, shooting above 40%, but then a hamstring injury late in non-conference play caused a decline in both his percentage and his frequency of shooting. Beekman still finished with a career-best 35.1% from three on the season (up from 33.8%), but that just gives him more room to improve this year. Ideally, Beekman would get himself up near 40% and, perhaps more importantly, attempt more shots from the perimeter as well. He took 2.4 threes per game last season and could definitely stand to take a couple more, especially if he can knock them down with more consistency. Having Dante Harris and Andrew Rohde as secondary ball-handlers, but not necessarily as ball-dominant as Kihei Clark, should help Beekman get some more catch-and-shoot opportunities. 

Speaking of Kihei Clark, the absence of UVA's all-time leader in wins, starts, games played, and assists could be just what Beekman needs to finally experience an offensive renaissance. Last season, Beekman attempted eight shots per game, which was only a slight increase from the previous season (7.3) due to the ball only being in his hands half the time because of Kihei Clark. No disrespect to Clark, who was a great player all five years at Virginia and leaves a lasting legacy, but Beekman has had to share point guard duties for his entire career. It's time to see what he can do with the keys to the offense firmly and exclusively in his hands. 

Beekman's field goal attempts and overall scoring production should increase significantly - he has never averaged in double figures and that should change this season. Being aggressive and hunting his own shot more is only part of it, though. Beekman needs to improve his finishing around the rim (hopefully he's a little strong after another offseason with Mike Curtis) and he needs to more consistently get to his spot for mid-range jumpers. We've seen glimpses of that from him in the last couple of seasons, but it should be a core part of his game now. 

In terms of facilitating Virginia's offense, Beekman's assist numbers, which were already pretty good at 5.3 per game, should increase as well. But it's important that Beekman maintain one of the best aspects of his game which is assist to turnover ratio. His assist to turnover ratio of 3.36 led the Atlantic Coast Conference last season and was second in the entire country. Beekman turned the ball over just 1.6 times per game a year ago. If he can continue to make good decisions and take care of the ball even with his expected higher usage rate, that's something that will catch the eye of NBA scouts. 

There were a lot of reasons Reece Beekman gave for returning to Virginia for one final season: raising his draft stock by improving his game, completing his degree from the University of Virginia, and taking care of some unfinished business at the collegiate level as he's never once won an NCAA Tournament game in his career at UVA. There is a path Beekman can take through which he can accomplish all of those objectives. If Beekman has the breakout year offensively that all followers of UVA basketball are so desperately hoping he'll have, that could very well coincide with Virginia winning games in March Madness for the first time since 2019. 

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