Cavaliers Now

Column: Why the Kyle Guy Hiring is Great for Virginia Basketball

Matt Newton

After five years, Kyle Guy is rejoining the Virginia men's basketball program, now as a member of the coaching staff.
After five years, Kyle Guy is rejoining the Virginia men's basketball program, now as a member of the coaching staff. / Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
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It may be the middle of the offseason, but Wednesday was a joyous day for Virginia basketball.

After five years, Kyle Guy is returning to the UVA men's basketball program, this time as a member of Tony Bennett's coaching staff. Guy , who has spent the last five years playing professional basketball, is being added to Virginia's supplemental basketball staff with the official title of Athlete Development Mentor/Special Assistant.

“We are thrilled to welcome Kyle and his family back to Charlottesville,” Tony Bennett said. “Kyle is not only one of the best players I’ve ever coached, but also one of the finest young men I’ve met. He will make an immediate impact on our program, working with our players and sharing the expertise and competitive fire he’s gained throughout his collegiate and professional career.”

Bennett was faced with the challenge of making some late changes to his coaching staff as it was reported last week that longtime staff member Johnny Carpenter, who had just been promoted to assistant coach last year, would be leaving the program for a job in the NBA with the Memphis Grizzlies. Guy isn't technically Carpenter's replacement, as Brad Soderberg has been named an assistant coach for UVA for the 2024-2025 season after previously serving as the director of scouting. Meanwhile, Guy will take Soderberg's spot on the supplemental staff in the new role of Athlete Development Mentor/Special Assistant.

With those administrative details out of the way, let's talk about some of the many reasons why Kyle Guy joining the Virginia men's basketball staff is great for the program.

1. Providing a much-needed spark

Don't get me wrong, I do not at all subscribe to the notion that Virginia has simply "fallen off" since winning the national title in 2019. The Cavaliers are 110-47 overall and 68-29 in ACC play over the last five seasons, winning two ACC regular season titles, and finishing second, third and sixth in the regular season conference standings the other three seasons.

But the lack of success in the NCAA Tournament cannot be denied and it's imperative that UVA find a way to win in March again. The injection into the program of someone like Kyle Guy who knows what it takes to win at that time of year could be a big step in the right direction. Guy's arrival could have a rejuvenating impact for a program that officially arrived as a premier basketball powerhouse in 2019, but hasn't done much since then to maintain that status.

2. Championship pedigree

Kyle Guy was as important as any player in Virginia winning its first-ever national title. No UVA fan will ever forget when he scored six points in the final 10 seconds in the Final Four against Auburn, including three incredibly clutch free throws with less than a second left on the clock. That performance came in between a pair of 20-point outings for Guy, 25 points against Purdue in the Elite Eight and 24 in the title game against Texas Tech. Unfortunately for the Cavaliers, Guy won't be able to bring that experience onto the court, but in working directly with the players, the hope is that some of that killer instinct that has been largely absent from Virginia's post-title teams will rub off on the Wahoos by learning directly from Guy.

3. Kyle Guy three-point shooting academy

Perhaps the most immediate benefit in adding Guy to the staff will be in helping to train the team in the art of three-point shooting. With the exception of the 2020-2021 Virginia team, which boasted bona fide sharpshooters like Trey Murphy III and Sam Hauser, UVA's three-point shooting post-title has been mediocre at best and horrendous at worst. We can assume that even with his preference for defense, Tony Bennett spends a good amount of time developing his players as three-point shooters, especially given the fact that he remains the NCAA's all-time leader in career three-point percentage at 49.7%. With that said, it can't hurt to bring in another proven three-point shooter in Guy, who holds the Virginia all-time three-point percentage record at 42.5% and continued to shoot the cover off the ball through his final season in the professional ranks overseas. We can expect that Guy will work with the entire team to try to help improve their shooting, but I'm particularly interested in seeing what he can do with players like Isaac McKneely, TJ Power, and Ishan Sharma, players who we know have the tools to be lethal sharpshooters and just need help reaching that potential.

4. Free-throw shooting under pressure

We alluded to this before, but Guy's three free throws against Auburn might be the clutchest, most cold-blooded free throws in the history of college basketball. For an individual who has publicly discussed the significant struggles he experienced with anxiety to step up to the foul line in the Final Four, with his team down two points, with less than a second on the clock, and with 72,000 people watching from the stands of a football stadium and millions more watching from home, to sink all three free throws to save the season and send his team to the national championship game? Nothing short of sensational.

Yes, that was five years ago and yes, Kyle Guy won't actually be suiting up or stepping to the charity stripe at the end of games for Virginia. But for a team that has struggled at times with free throw shooting and in particular has had issues making them at pressure moments (such as against NC State in the ACC semifinals last year), who better than Kyle Guy to help the Cavaliers develop their clutch gene.

5. It's a good story and a good fit

More than anything, this move just makes sense for all parties involved.

For Kyle Guy, it's the perfect place for him to start a new chapter of his professional career. After playing in 53 games over the course of three seasons in the NBA followed by two fairly successful seasons overseas, Guy made the difficult decision to retire from the sport and now seems ready to possibly pursue a coaching career.

He talked about that decision in a social media post on Thursday: "Sometimes you gotta give yourself permission to chase what people think is crazy. And most people won't understand walking away from big money or a great league. And while I'm grateful, I want to listen to my intuition this time. We only get this go around once. I'm going to spend it the way I want. I'm at peace with my career and all my accomplishments. I'm beyond proud to show my sons what we achieved."

What better spot for Guy to begin that process of evolving his relationship with the sport of basketball than at Virginia, a place that became a second home during his college days and will now serve as a community where he can settle down with his family.

And for UVA, there's a pretty good chance that someone like Kyle Guy might be able to help the Cavaliers out from a development standpoint in ways that we've already discussed. But at the very least, the Virginia men's basketball program and its fans can welcome back one of their most beloved players who helped deliver the program's pinnacle achievement.

As an honorable mention to this list, we have to make a note of how awesome Virginia's 'Green Machine' scout team is going to be moving forward. The Cavaliers will now have to practice against a scout team that features a former two-time All-American (and until very recently) professional basketball player in Kyle Guy, a former ACC Defensive Player of the Year in Isaiah Wilkins, and another exceptional basketball player in graduate assistant Chase Coleman, not to mention the several other current pros and former Wahoos and who make frequent stops in Charlottesville during the offseason and make an appearance or two at practice.

Given the immense legacy he already left on the Virginia men's basketball program as a player, It'll be intriguing to see what sort of an impact Kyle Guy will have on the program as a coach.

More Virginia Men's Basketball News and Content

Virginia Basketball Offers Four-Star Power Forward Marcus Jackson


Kyle Guy Joining Virginia Men's Basketball Staff as Special Assistant/Mentor

Four-Star Power Forward Tre Singleton Includes Virginia in Top Eight

Virginia Basketball Assistant Coach Johnny Carpenter Leaving the Program

Virginia Makes Top Six for D.C. Four-Star Combo Guard Derek Dixon

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Matt Newton
MATT NEWTON

Matt launched Virginia Cavaliers On SI in August of 2021 and has since served as the site's publisher and managing editor, covering all 23 NCAA Division I sports teams at the University of Virginia. He is from Downingtown, Pennsylvania and graduated from UVA in May of 2021.