Over a three day span, Chicago’s United Center was host to the past, present and future of Virginia Cavaliers basketball.
UVA suffered a heart-breaking defeat in the Elite 8 at the House that Michael Built on March 27th. That was the final collegiate game for Malcolm Brogdon, the reigning ACC Player of the Year and consensus All-American.
March 30th brought the McDonald’s All-American Game, and incoming Virginia freshman Kyle Guy, who scored seven points in 12 minutes. Yes, the UC, a building adorned by a statue of the greatest shooting guard in history, hosted the Wahoos’ changing of the shooting guard.
That Sunday night, we had an exclusive with Virginia Coach Tony Bennett, and we discussed Kyle Guy.
“He’s a real complete guard, passionate, play off the bounce, shoot the ball, and he’s so competitive,” Bennett said of guy.
For a few hours after this interview, Tony Bennett was a top five trending term nationally on Twitter. Hundreds of people confused the hoops coach with the singer, and they feared for the worse. Many believed that the crooner Tony Bennett had passed away. He’s ok folks, and so are the Cavs. They’ll put together another strong season next year.
ESPNU ranks the Hoos’ incoming class seventh nationally, and Kyle Guy, from Indianapolis, Indiana) is ranked the 24th best prospect nationally by ESPNU, #38 by 24/7 Sports. Projecting out to next year the Cavs depth chart shapes out like so. This is an excerpt from our very early 2016-17 top 25.
We’ve got UVA ranked #5 right now. (See the rest here)
5. VIRGINIA CAVALIERS
Tony Bennett keeps the UVA train rolling next year despite losing a terrific senior core. London Perrantes’ experience puts him in charge while Memphis transfer, Austin Nichols is a big addition inside. The Cavs have role players who should be ready to see an increased load and immediate impact freshmen making this team another Final Four contender.
Projected Depth Chart
F/C: Austin Nichols (Sr)/Jack Salt (So)/Jared Reuter (So)/Jay Huff (Fr)
F: Isaiah Wilkins (Jr)/DeAndre Hunter (Fr)
G/F: Darius Thompson (So)/Marial Shayok (Jr)
SG: Devon Hall (Jr)/Kyle Guy (Fr)
PG: London Perrantes (Sr)/Ty Jerome (Fr)
Gone: SG-Malcolm Brogdon, PF-Anthony Gill, C-Mike Tobey, F-Evan Nolte
That Wilkins you see on the depth chart is in fact related to the human highlight reel. Yes, we’re talking about Dominique Wilkins’ step son. Yesterday, we had an exclusive with the NBA Hall of Famer, and we talked a little bit of UVA hoops. Have a listen here at this link. The Cavs talk with Nique begins around the 7:00 mark). I agree with Wilkins that the Cavaliers got too relaxed in their final game and too much played not to lose instead of playing to win.
Our Kyle Guy exclusive is embedded below.
Enjoy:
https://soundcloud.com/p-m-banks/virginia-frosh-mcdaag-kyle-guy
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication and Bold Global.
He also consistently appears on numerous talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram