Virginia Men’s Basketball Christmas Wish List

See what’s on the wish list for Tony Bennett and the Cavaliers this holiday season

Matt Newton | Dec 25, 2021

‘Tis the season for wishful thinking.

The Virginia men’s basketball team certainly has a lot to wish for this holiday season. Let’s take a look at some of the items on the Cavaliers’ wish list:

An aggressive Reece Beekman

Beekman showed flashes of promise as a true freshman last season, but was able to sit back in a very reserved role on offense as Virginia had an abundance of scoring options. Coming into this season, the Cavaliers knew they would need more from Beekman on the offensive end both in terms of playmaking and shot-taking. One of UVA’s critical problems this season has been that the starting back court of Beekman and Kihei Clark have been unwilling to take shots, even open ones, from the perimeter. Clark has improved this year as a shooter, shooting 40.9% from three so far, but he still has a habit of passing up open looks when they come. Beekman, on the other hand, has attempted only 24 threes this season and has made just six of them. Wednesday night’s game against Clemson was the first time that Beekman showed his aggressive side on the offensive end, as the sophomore guard scored 20 points on 7/10 shooting and three three-pointers, doubling his season three-point total. Virginia is leaning too heavily on Jayden Gardner to carry the offense and it is still unclear how the 6’6” transfer will fare against the big men of the ACC. UVA desperately needs more scorers to step up and take some of the offensive load off of Gardner and a more aggressive version of Reece Beekman could be a crucial first step towards fixing the Cavalier offense.

Armaan Franklin shakes his shooting slump

Faced with the departures of their best three-point shooters from a season ago in Sam Hauser, Trey Murphy, Jay Huff, and Tomas Woldetensae, the Cavaliers expected a drop-off in three-point production this season. Securing the commitment of Indiana transfer Armaan Franklin was intended to directly address this expected area of weakness for Virginia, as Franklin shot 42.4% from three as a Hoosier last season. Through his first 12 games as a Wahoo, Franklin is shooting 20.3% from beyond the arc. Franklin did not suddenly forget how to shoot and he has shown his shooting ability on multiple occasions this season, including shooting 5/8 from three against Radford and 4/6 from three against Providence. However, the poor shooting performances have vastly outweighed the good shooting nights, especially lately. Franklin has made just two of his last 28 three-point attempts over the last six games. To his credit, Franklin has proven to be a capable scorer in other ways, relying on his mid-range jump shot, and he is second on the team in scoring at 11.5 points per game. But, Franklin has largely failed to deliver the three-point shooting boost the Hoos needed from him so far this season. Virginia’s offensive troubles do not fall on the shoulders of one player, but Franklin shaking his shooting slump will go a long way towards helping the Cavaliers overcome their scoring problems.

Reliable bench production

As expected, most of UVA’s wish list will be gifts intended to solve Virginia’s offensive woes, as the Cavaliers’s habit of long scoring droughts has become more frequent and more destructive than usual this season. Having another scorer step up from the starting five (like Beekman or Franklin) is an essential first step. The second step is to figure out a more effective way to get the bench involved in Virginia’s lineups. Right now, Francisco Caffaro and Kody Stattmann are getting the majority of the bench minutes and Tony Bennett has made it clear that those two players are the first off the bench due to their familiarity with the Pack-Line Defense. Neither Caffaro (3.2 ppg in 14 minutes) nor Stattmann (2.2 ppg in 12 minutes) have brought a whole lot of production on the offensive end and UVA’s general scoring difficulties have led many to call for more playing time for players like Taine Murray, Igor Milicic Jr., and Carson McCorkle, who have shown flashes of scoring potential. Of course, Tony Bennett’s golden rule is and always will be defense first and every Cavalier, no matter how offensively talented, will need to be solid defensively before seeing extended playing time. Some of the better college basketball teams are capable of withstanding unproductive bench units by leaning more heavily on the offensive firepower of the starting five. That is not the case with Virginia. On Wednesday night, Clemson’s bench outscored Virginia’s bench 17-0. Coincidentally, that 17-point margin was also the margin of defeat for the Cavaliers. It is imperative that Virginia figure out how to maximize the offensive contributions of its bench players by finding more effective lineup combinations. UVA needs to get something from the trio of Murray, Milicic Jr., and McCorkle, especially in terms of three-point shooting when they get their opportunities off the bench.

Kadin Shedrick stays out of foul trouble

Shedrick has impressed with his shot-blocking ability this season and he appears ready to carry on the mantle of UVA’s recent great rim protectors like Mamadi Diakite, Jay Huff, and Isaiah Wilkins. However, that will only be the case if he can stay on the floor. As solid as Shedrick has been as a shot-blocker, he has developed a disturbing habit of getting into foul trouble. Tony Bennett takes Shedrick out of the game and inserts Francisco Caffaro as soon as Shedrick picks up his first foul and usually does the same every time Shedrick picks up another foul in the game. Shedrick leads the team in personal fouls with 34 and he is only averaging 21 minutes played per game, despite being far and away Virginia’s best option at center, especially on the defensive end. On the other end of the floor, the redshirt sophomore appears to possess the tools to be an effective scorer in the low post, but he has not contributed much offensively so far this season, which may also have something to do with him not being able to stay on the floor and get into an offensive rhythm. Shedrick has been one of Virginia’s better defenders so far this year, but he needs to stay out of foul trouble if the Cavaliers want to play the best version of their defense.

Another miracle from Tony Bennett

This is far from the first time Tony Bennett has been tasked with working his magic in order to transform an offensively challenged team into a winning team. We all know better than to doubt the two-time national coach of the year, but this season definitely feels different. Most people, including many in the UVA fan base, have written off this year’s Cavalier squad as a team that will not make the NCAA Tournament, as the Hoos are 7-5 with the most difficult parts of the schedule still to come. There are some similarities between this year’s team and the 2019-2020 team that had to replace some stellar offensive talent, went through a rough patch in the middle of the season, but ended up winning eight straight games and 11 of 12 games to end the regular season. The recipe for that team’s turnaround involved a number of factors: Tomas Woldetensae emerging as a prolific sharpshooter, Kihei Clark being ultra-reliable in the clutch, Mamadi Diakite anchoring the nation’s best defense, and the “Cardiac Cavs” coming out on top in a number of very close games down the stretch. There is no question that Tony Bennett can get any UVA team to defend at an extremely high level to keep the Hoos in many games in ACC play. But, in order for Virginia to replicate the astonishing turnaround of the 2019-2020 season, the Cavaliers will have to find some sense of an offensive identity and find it soon, as they are quickly running out of time to turn this ship around.

Bonus: early enrollment for the recruiting class of 2022?

If all of this fails, UVA fans can at least find some comfort in looking forward to Isaac McKneely, Isaac Traudt, Leon Bond and Ryan Dunn in 2022. The loaded recruiting class of 2022 will, unfortunately, not be suiting up for the Cavaliers this season, but they stand as a sign that this fall from the level of success we have grown accustomed to in the Tony Bennett era will be short-lived.