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UVA Basketball Recruiting: Hoo is Getting the Last Scholarship Spot in 25-26?

Matt Newton

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With Chance Mallory's commitment to Virginia earlier this month, the Cavaliers have just one open scholarship spot remaining for the 2025-2026 roster. Of course, that could change if any players transfer out or, though less likely, if there are any players who depart early for the NBA Draft. But for now, Tony Bennett and company must operate as if they have only one open scholarship available to give out in this recruiting cycle.

So, who will be the recipient of that final scholarship spot?

There are a few notable targets left on the board for Virginia in the high school class of 2025. Four-star forward Tre Singleton (Jeffersonville, IN) is reportedly headed to UVA for an official visit starting Tuesday (October 1). That comes after Singleton took a visit to Notre Dame last weekend and he is also taking an official visit to Clemson this coming weekend after Virginia. Louisville, Purdue, and Xavier are currently considered the leaders in his recruitment.

Four-star forward Cam Ward (Washington, D.C.) took an official visit to Virginia earlier this month, but he has since taken additional visits to Kansas State and Maryland. He also previously took visits to Vanderbilt, Marquette, Notre Dame and Florida State. On3 considers the Terrapins the favorite in to land his commitment right now.

Then there's Nate Ament, a consensus five-star recruit and No. 4 overall in the ESPN Top 100. Ament hails from Manassas, Virginia and has visited UVA unofficially, but the Blue Bloods have come calling and it seems Ament is planning to take his time and draw out his recruitment through his senior season at Highland School.

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If none of Singleton, Ward, or Ament end up committing to Virginia, it could be someone not quite on our radar yet who ultimately claims UVA's final scholarship spot. That happened twice last year, with Anthony Robinson pledging to Virginia's class of 2023 late in the spring and then later that summer, Christian Bliss committed to the Hoos and reclassified from 2024 to 2023, so both Robinson and Bliss joined Blake Buchanan and Elijah Gertrude very late in the 2023 recruiting cycle.

Tony Bennett also has the option of keeping that scholarship spot open and looking to the transfer portal to fill it next offseason. Virginia's roster is very young, especially by Bennett's typical standards at UVA, so the Cavaliers aren't necessarily desperate to fill that last spot right now when they could go after an experienced transfer or wait for a late blooming high school recruit.

The reason Virginia only has one spot open for next season is because there are only two players on this year's roster who are graduating seniors - Taine Murray and Jalen Warley. All but one of UVA's incoming transfers this offseason came with two or three years of eligibility remaining, which entirely reshaped the team's recruiting strategy moving forward into the next two or three seasons.

So, even though Virginia has only one open scholarship spot to work with for next season, that's not necessarily a bad problem to have and the Cavaliers still have a lot of options at their disposal.

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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.