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UVA Basketball Recruiting Target Cam Ward Commits to Michigan State

Matt Newton

The HoopBuzz/X
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Another Virginia basketball recruiting target has come off the board as four-star forward Cam Ward announced his commitment to Michigan State on Tuesday evening, choosing Tom Izzo and the Spartans over UVA, Kansas State, and Maryland.

While Tony Bennett's retirement last week essentially guaranteed that the Cavaliers were out of the running, it had been clear Ward wasn't going to end up at Virginia for some time despite him including UVA among his four finalists. There were two crystal balls registered on 247Sports - from a pair of recruiting insiders who rarely get these predictions wrong - in favor of the Spartans landing Ward's commitment.

That pretty much closes the book on almost all of Virginia's priority recruiting targets in the class of 2025. UVA is still in the running for five-star small forward Nate Ament, a Virginia native who is ranked among the top 10 overall prospects in the class of 2025 according to each of the major recruiting services, including a No. 4 spot in the most recent ESPN Top 100. With Bennett's retirement, though, we'll have to see if Ament will still consider the Cavaliers when he has many of the top Blue Bloods in college basketball pursuing him as well.

The Cavaliers have one scholarship spot remaining, but it's unlikely they'll do anything with that spot until next spring. For now, the most urgent recruiting objective for interim head coach Ron Sanchez and his staff - in addition to recruiting the current UVA locker room - is to keep four-star point guard and Charlottesville native Chance Mallory on board with his commitment to Virginia even with Bennett's surprising retirement.

It's been almost a week since the news broke that Tony Bennett was retiring, and we've yet to have any news come out about Chance Mallory possibly reopening his recruitment or about any of the current Virginia players taking advantage of the 30-day window to enter the transfer portal. In this instance, no news is good news, but there's still a long way to go. Mallory was a hot commodity in the class of 2025, choosing the Cavaliers over Virginia Tech, Clemson, Tennessee, and Miami. Those schools, and probably others, will certainly be interested in making another run at Mallory should he decommit from UVA. And even if no current Virginia player enters the portal now, that doesn't mean there won't be a mass exodus next spring if this season doesn't go according to plan.

Keeping Mallory in the fold and limiting transfer portal departures at the end of the season will be as important for Ron Sanchez as putting together a winning season in this interim year, though those three objectives are undeniably linked.

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Round Robin: Reacting to Tony Bennett's Retirement From Virginia

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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.