UVA Basketball: What's Next for Virginia Following Chance Mallory's Commitment

Matt Newton | Sep 21, 2024

What's next for UVA basketball after snagging Chance Mallory's commitment? / Chance Mallory/IG

Virginia made its first splash in the recruiting class of 2025 by successfully keeping Charlottesville native point guard Chance Mallory at home. Mallory, a four-star point guard who plays for St. Anne's-Belfield School right down the street from John Paul Jones Arena, announced his commitment to UVA on Friday, choosing the Cavaliers over Villanova, Tennessee, Virginia Tech, Clemson, and Miami.

Mallory originally had official visits scheduled to each of his six finalist schools, but canceled the final four visits after taking his official to UVA last weekend. As it turns out, the prospect of playing for his hometown team was too appealing and he didn't need to take any more time coming to that decision.

"I'm just excited to have the opportunity to stay home and to be able to play the game I love in front of the city I love," Mallory said in his commitment post.

The fact that Mallory is a Virginia native makes him a rare breed as far as UVA men's basketball recruits go. Tony Bennett and company have not had much success recruiting the top-ranked recruits in the Commonwealth and most of Bennett's recruits at Virginia have come from outside of the state.

Mallory, who is one of top two or three overall recruits from Virginia in the class of 2025, will be UVA's first Virginia native scholarship commit out of high school since BJ Stith in 2014, as pointed out by Hooz Got Next. Of course, this excludes walk-ons and transfers, but the last time the Cavaliers had a Virginia native on their roster who they recruited out of high school was Devon Hall in 2018.

With Mallory in the fold and their future secure at the point guard position, what's next for the Cavaliers on the recruiting trail as they continue to shape their roster for the years to come?

Let's start by taking a look at Virginia's updated projected depth chart for the next three seasons:

2024-2025	2025-2026	2026-2027
Taine Murray (Sr.)	Isaac McKneely (Sr.)	Blake Buchanan (Sr.)
Jalen Warley (Sr.)	Andrew Rohde (Sr.)	Elijah Gertrude (RS-Jr.)
Isaac McKneely (Jr.)	Elijah Saunders (Sr.)	Dai Dai Ames (Sr.)
Andrew Rohde (Jr.)	Blake Buchanan (Jr.)	TJ Power (Sr.)
Elijah Saunders (Jr.)	Elijah Gertrude (RS-So.)	Christian Bliss (RS-Jr.)
Blake Buchanan (So.)	Dai Dai Ames (Jr.)	Anthony Robinson (RS-Jr.)
Elijah Gertrude (So.)	TJ Power (Jr.)	Jacob Cofie (Jr.)
Dai Dai Ames (So.)	Christian Bliss (RS-So.)	Ishan Sharma (Jr.)
TJ Power (So.)	Anthony Robinson (RS-So.)	Chance Mallory (So.)
Christian Bliss (RS-Fr.)	Jacob Cofie (So.)	-
Anthony Robinson (RS-Fr.)	Ishan Sharma (So.)	-
Jacob Cofie (Fr.)	Chance Mallory (Fr.)	-
Ishan Sharma (Fr.)	-	-

With Mallory's commitment, Virginia has filled 12 of its 13 scholarship spots for the 2025-2026 season. With that final open scholarship, the Cavaliers will likely look to fill that spot with a forward from the 2025 class to join Mallory.

Of the remaining targets on the board, the most probable candidate and the one most likely to announce his decision the earliest is four-star small forward Cam Ward (Washington, D.C.). Ward visited Virginia earlier this month and has also visited Notre Dame, Marquette, Vanderbilt, and Kansas State and is expected to take visits to Maryland and Michigan State.

Another name to know is Tre Singleton, a four-star power forward from Jeffersonville, Indiana. According to a report from Houston Wilson, Singleton is set to visit Virginia this weekend. He has a final eight of UVA, Clemson, Northwestern, Butler, Xavier, Louisville, Notre Dame, and Purdue.

Finally, the Cavaliers remain in the hunt 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. Ament has visited UVA unofficially and is still expected to come back for an official visit at some point, but it seems he intends to let his recruitment play out through his senior year. Virginia hasn't had much success recruiting players of Ament's caliber, and with more than 30 major conference programs in the mix, including Duke, UConn, North Carolina, Kansas, and Kentucky, the Cavaliers shouldn't hold their breath on this one.

We'll keep track of all of the UVA basketball recruiting developments on Virginia Cavaliers On SI.

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