When at last the restrictions on travel and sports are lifted, three highly touted freshmen will be arriving in Charlottesville. They’ll be joined by Rice transfer Trey Murphy III, who completes what is one of the best recruiting classes for Virginia basketball in recent years.
On paper, it’s the best since the loaded class that was made up of De’Andre Hunter, Kyle Guy, Ty Jerome, and Jay Huff. In reality, making definitive judgments about how good a recruiting class is before its members have arrived on campus is not a good habit to fall into. Regardless, it certainly looks as if these players will grow to great things under the eye of Tony Bennett.
It’s not a given that all of them will see the floor in large quantities at first though. There’s enough returning players that have already been integrated into the system that their time might have to wait a little. That becomes even more notable taking into account that summer practices may be cut short, taking away from the opportunity to learn the packline.
And if you can’t play defense, you don’t play at all for Tony Bennett. But from what we can glean from their high school years, it seems as if all three of these incoming freshmen can play well on both sides of the ball. So here’s what to expect from the three of them in their inaugural college hoops season.
Jabri Abdur-Rahim – Forward
Abdur-Rahim is both the most talked about player of the three and the one with the highest expectations. After last year, fans may be a little bit wary of hyping up a freshman too much after what happened with Morsell. Hopefully that taught us all that placing too much store in any freshman coming to UVA isn’t the brightest idea.
Morsell was different though, in the sense that he already had a high understanding of what to do on defense and how to do it. That earned him immediate playing time. Abdur-Rahim isn’t as quick as Morsell, but he has more to bring on the offensive side of the ball.
His shot looks smooth and clean, and he can clearly hit it when he’s open from outside. He’s also very strong in the lane, and knows how to use his body to his advantage. Jabri can finish as well, clearly has a high basketball IQ, and despite not being so quick, moves very well.
The only glaring problem is also a potential upside. Jabri is 6 foot 7, but only 185 pounds. It’s not weak, but if he manages to put on some more weight before the season starts, it could be huge. Even 5-10 more pounds adds a whole different dimension to the game, and would give him more leverage and power to score in the lane.
Again, it takes time to learn the packline, and that learning time may be decreased. There’s also players that are well-deserving of playing time which will take away from Abdur-Rahim’s. Don’t raise the bar too high and risk being disappointed, but we should be reasonably sure that Jabri will make important contributions this year.
He’s of worth from behind the arc, and can also take it inside. If Woldetensae struggles at times, or if Bennett just wants to put in a player who can find his own shot better, here’s a good alternative. The range for freshmen is always so huge, but Jabri should contribute a lot of very valuable minutes even if he doesn’t start at first.
Reece Beekman – Guard
For all the hype over Abdur-Rahim, Beekman hasn’t been as talked about. Honestly, there is no reason for that. While Abdur-Rahim may be the more college-ready player, it’s not by much.
Like with Abdur-Rahim, there’s a lot to like about Reece Beekman. He has quick hands on defense, and will probably adjust a little faster than his counterpart. He also has great vision, constantly finding his teammates for assists while rarely turning the ball over himself.
The shot looks good though he doesn’t have the quickest release ever, and Reece has shown that he can get in the lane and finish. When he goes up against bigger and more skilled opposition, that may be a bit more difficult, but it’s a good sign all the same. There’s one glaring issue though.
If Abdur-Rahim needs to put on some weight, it’s nothing to what Beekman needs to do. He’s 6 foot 2, and fairly long for a point guard. But he only weighs 160 pounds. Just looking at him, you want to tell the kid to eat something.
For context, Kihei Clark weighs 163… And Kihei is 5 foot 9. Yikes. When you’re five inches taller than a guy and three pounds less than him there’s some work to be had. Granted, Kihei has a couple of years on Beekman, but all the same he needs to put on some weight.
There will undoubtedly be some struggles at the start, what with adjusting to the bigger, faster, more skillful college game. But Reece will be able to aid Casey Morsell in taking away some of Kihei’s load this year. His style is pretty comprable to Kihei actually, looking past the fact that he has the added edge of being five inches taller.
Just like Kihei, he might not blow the fans away at first. But by the end of the season, he’ll have an important role as a distributor and as a scorer himself.
Carson McCorkle – Guard
The first of the incoming class to commit, McCorkle has been a Wahoo since his sophomore year of high school. Sadly, he’s been kind of lost in the recent discussions surrounding his fellow, more highly ranked, recruits. He doesn’t appear to have the elite skill set or IQ of the other two at first glance.
On further inspection, however, his game is very similar to Kyle Guy’s. To start, he has a high release, able to let go of the ball when it’s basically on top of his head. For someone who’s not the tallest at 6 foot 2 for a shooting guard, that’s good. His release is quick as well. Both of these traits are ones that Guy also possessed. On top of that, he’s quick, and it’s easy to see him coming around screens for open looks just like Guy.
The first minute or so of the below video is fraught with Guy impressions. In fact, substitute the man himself for McCorkle in a few of them and you’d be hard-pressed to spot the difference.
McCorkle will be used as a shooting guard, and again, will play much the same role as Kyle Guy. Just don’t expect him to bring up the ball much, or have any ball-handling duties at all.
McCorkle’s issue is that there’s already guys on the team who can do essentially what he does, just better. Tony Bennett may be loath to take time away from other, more experienced players for him. But whatever his playing time this year, his time will definitely come one or two years down the road.
He’ll still get minutes this year, however. Expect something in the 15 minute range, and a couple of threes per game. Whether on or off the court, his difference will be felt. With all the talent, he may not get as much playing time as his fellow freshmen, but he’ll still get some, and undoubtedly make the best of it.
5 comments
Jabri tweeted last week that he is a strong 6-7. Don today know his weight but it may have increased also. I would be surprised if Clark weighs more than Beekman. With the team so deep next year it is possible that Carson could redshirt.
Found that tweet about Jabri’s height and updated it to match that. Thanks for that. As to his, Clark’s, and Beekman’s weight the most recent stats I could find suggested that they weighed what I noted in the article. Could be wrong, of course, but I have nothing to suggest otherwise. On top of that it’s hard to see Beekman as anything more than 160 by looking at him.
As to the Carson question, that’s a possibility for sure. It would give him an extra year to develop and would certainly help down the road. But with that said I think he would be of worth this year as an additional threat from deep.
Michael, I guess PG weight doesn’t matter. Most of our freshman come in pretty skinny and are in need of putting some muscle on. Everyone wants to play when they arrive but unlike this year and especially in 2021 (if we bring in a couple studs) there is going to be a lot of competition for playing time and redshirting a year to get stronger and polish your game will pay off on the back end like it did for Devon Hall. I really don’t feel scoring will be an issue next year as much as replacing Diakite & Key’s defense and rebounding.
As you said, there are people on this team who can play Carson’s role better than he can right now. I don’t agree that he will get 15 minutes a game. I think he’ll redshirt this season actually but when he plays after a year, he’ll be a key contributor for 4 years.
You could be right that 15 minutes is a little bit generous. And you’re definitely right that redshirting is an option worth considering. I think that redshirting would help him in the long run, and would give him an additional year, as you say, where he would be THE player. However, I think there’s also a whole lot of value in him playing this year. He adds depth as another elite three point shooter, and he’s pretty quick and fairly adept at creating his own shot (and those last two things are more than can be said for Woldo). If Tony can find the right niche for him, and Carson could come off of the bench for a couple threes a game, that goes a long way. So while redshirting might be worth considering, it’s also worth a mention what he would bring to this team immediately.
Comments are closed.