While Murray hustles and puts in a lot of effort when he's on the floor, he doesn't look to shoot unless it's a wide open 3 pointer. Bond also is very active on the floor, but he will hunt for a shot and get an occasional rebound due to his tenacity.

We need another shot maker on the floor. I think Bond should get all of the minutes Murray has been getting in future games.

Can’t hit the broad side of a barn tonight against Heels

Class of 2025 guard Aiden Argabright, who is now at John Marshall, talked to @HoustonWilson about his trip last week to #UVa and how things are shaping up in his recruitment.

The Hoos have picked up their second transfer commitment of the day from players who visited this past weekend. Kempton Shine, a grad transfer DB from Eastern Michigan announced his commitment on social media.

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We don’t normally post PWO commits, but this guy is from my area. 106 rushing touchdowns, 3 state titles in 1A and runner up this year in 2A for Riverheads High School in Augusta County. He played RB and LB in high school. Great student and kid.

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Do we think this is because of the recent signings or is there some more news to come?

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Just looking back on 2014 season v. this season. Both teams 10-4 at this point in season. In 2014 we lost by 35 to Tenn on the road, lost a home to Wisc by 20 and to VCU and Lost to Wisc- Green Bay. These were collectively worse losses than this season (all on road- UT and Wisc same as Memphis and Wisc, but WGB worse than ND and VCU worse than NCSU), Going into FSU game in Tallahassee there was real concern if Tony Bennett was the right coach and whether he could turn the program around.

Hoos won at FSU with Joe Harris hurt/ sick and only played 2 minutes. After FSU, there was hope that maybe CTB could right the ship and the Hoos could be good. Hoos proceeded to go 16-2 in ACC. We all know of Harris's truck trip to meet with CTB and the change to a more structured offense. Is there anything similar this season to turn things around?

Looking at roster, for the most part the starters in 2014 were Harris (SR) Mitchell (SR) Brogdon (RSSO), Tobey (SO) and Perrentes (FR), with Anderson and Gill (SO) both off bench. Atkins, Nolte barely played. Talent wise, I would say this year's team is as talented from HS ranking perspective, although 2014 had 3 solid NBA players and 2 NBA cup of coffee talent. Yet this year we have Beekman and Dunn slotted as NBA talent, and some real potential talent in Gertrude and Buchanan.

So is it talent? Is it system? What is the difference?

UVa has a need at DB and added Robert Morris transfer Jermarian Jackson on Saturday. Jackson played two years with the Colonials, and committed to Akron last month, but he’ll land in Charlottesville.

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Good Evening, hope everyone had a nice weekend (outside of the basketball result). Just a few end-of-weekend transfer portal updates:

Eastern Michigan DB Kempton Shine visited UVa over the weekend, after a trip to JMU on Friday. Shine played in 45 games for EMU, recording 136 total tackles and an interception. UVa picked up another DB commitment earlier this weekend in Jermerian Jackson , so we'll see if Shine comes on board. UVa has a need for defensive backs, and they've already taken a couple; Assuming Shine has a spot, UVa could land him, and soon, if he is to enroll this month.

UVa might be in line for another commit on the other side of the ball, too. Clemson transfer tight end Sage Ennis decommitted from Florida A&M after a recent visit to Virginia, and things look lined up to go UVa's way now. Ennis committed to FAMU, which would have been a return home for the Tallahassee area product, but FAMU coach Willie Simmons recently left for the RB coach job at Duke, and obviously UVa's staff has familiarity with Ennis from his time at Clemson. Ennis was a backup with the Tigers, and has six career catches. He had three catches for 52 yards this year. UVa already added Harvard transfer Tyler Neville , and Ennis is a solid athlete who should be able to come in and be a complimentary piece, should he choose UVa.

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It's early, but ODU DB Lamereon James is a name to watch for UVa, given their need at DB. James was a standout performer at ODU, and was a top-10 player in Virginia coming out of high school (he was initially committed to UNC but flipped to ODU). In 2023, James had 60 tackles and a pick six, and was named All Sun Belt.

James just jumped in the portal earlier today, and he'll have a list of suitors, and a quick turnaround time if he wants to switch schools this month. James played high school ball with current Cavalier Ben Smiley , and perhaps the UVa defensive lineman can do some recruiting here...

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With transfer portal season upon us, we will use this thread to post any news on UVa players entering the portal as well as any info on potential targets. I meant to lock this the first time so the relevant news is easily accessible.

RIVALS TRANSFER PORTAL HQ: https://n.rivals.com/transfer_tracker/football/2024

UVA TRANSFER COMMITS
WR Chris Tyree (ND)
DB/LB Corey Thomas, Jr (Akron)
TE Tyler Neville (Harvard)
DB Kendren Smith (Penn)
OL Drake Metcalf (UCF)
WR Andre Greene, Jr (UNC)
WR Trell Harris (Kent State)
QB Gavin Frakes (NM State)
DB Jermarian Jackson (Robert Morris)
TE Sage Ennis (Clemson)
DB Kempton Shine (Eastern Michigan)

UVA PLAYERS ENTERING THE TRANSFER PORTAL
WR Demick Starling
RB Cody Brown
DB Devin Clark
RB Amaad Foston
OL Jestus Johnson
LB Sam Brady
LB/DE Jonathan Horton
DB William Simpkins
LB Lex Long
QB Devin Sherwood
DB Carlo Thompson
TE Joshua Rawlings
DB Dave Herard
OL Snoop Amaama
DL Su Agunloye

Column: @justin ferber takes a look at UVa’s big losses of late and reasons that much of what ails the Wahoos comes down to issues with their roster that will be difficult to fix mid-stream.

I find it amazing that TB has gotten a much lesser level of talent since 2019. We have no one except RB that would have played much on the teams before 2019. Imac would have been a spot player and Gertrude might become good enough to have played but other than that TB has lowered the level of talent on this team. Why? Is it kids don't like his system any more and his reliance on playing D. I don't think so since NC state played very agressive and better D than us today. It just seems he has missed on upgrading the level of talent or even keeping it up since the 2019 and before teams.

He's had three TDs in the last two or three games.

Story should have videos of his two TDs: https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/39261222/packers-jordan-love-dontayvion-wicks-extend-lead-bears

New Mexico State QB, Gavin Frakes has announced his commitment to UVa. He plans to enroll for spring semester. He has 3 years of eligibility remaining.

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Tony doesn’t seem all that upset. It’s as if he knows he doesn’t have the horses. He alludes to “youth” but I think he knows he doesn’t have the scoring necessary to compete consistently

The women had it within 2 pts near the end and self sabotaged themselves again. Vaughn was a huge liability with bad passes for turnovers, then down the stretch dribbling around too much running the clock down when we were down by 8 points with 1:54 left, she is up at the top dribbling back and forth and at one point the announcer said just way too much dribbling and not enough shooting.

It reminded me of a guard we used to have that completely lost track of time left and points behind with continuing to run down the clock like we were in the lead.

In fairness to the team today, thought the last two minutes of ghost fouls on us and no calls on Duke players that clearly fouled. When vaughn is racing over to get the ball and dribble the defender came up on her back side and hacked her across the dribbling hand/arm and the ball went off Vaughn's knee. You could see it clearly on instant replay this Duke defender chopped down on her dribbling arm and hand to cause Vaughn to dribble it off her knew.

The other no call at the end of the game was when Kamara was racing in front of the offensive player she was shoved/bumped from behind to go down hard and no call. Both no calls led to Duke points.

Coach Mox waited to long to pull Vaughn that should have been pulled after several of her turnovers, bad shots and selections, and bad passes that were turnovers. The excessive dribbling around the last three or four trips at the end when we had points to make up was ridiculous. We've had close games this season we could of won but we seem to find a way to implode in the 4th Quarter.

Strep throat and a sinus infection unfortunately kept me away from PNC Arena today but I'll still have updates and notes at the top of the hour.

As always, have at it folks...

McKneely had 18 points to lead Virginia's scorers. Dunn added 16, and Beekman scored 12. These three tallied 46 of our 60 points.. Dunn led with 7 of our 31 rebounds, which was just 1 less than the Pack. In fact, every stat was fairly equal except shooting. Our top three were 17 for 29, and the rest of the team was 6 for 24.
Most fans, including me, were concerned about containing Burns, but he was not significant with just 6 points and 2 rebounds. The difference again was shooting, especially three-point shooting as State was 10 for 28 while Virginia was just 5 of 15. State had just 4 more shots but 13 more from deep.

Beginning to look like the JPJ crowd will be this year’s MVP. Not sure we can win a true road game.

Know a few here are down on him, but I think he’s pretty important. I hope UL was the end of his exam break slump.

https://x.com/dneckel19/status/1742995426599449078?s=46&t=AJA8CU2gRZTJ1C97Ccurkw
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Here is a link for anyone interested: https://hbosen.myportfolio.com/polar-bears-2023

In the portal. Originally a 4 star committed to Tennessee. I wonder if the staff will talk to him.

Lost 60-63. Kamara Johnson had a bad night scoring wise, Brunelle and several other served up goose eggs.

The big killer was missing 8 free throws and some were one and ones.

The ghost call was weak on Taylor that put GT on the line with a one point difference to force a 3pt shot to tie and the strategy was not good to have Vaughn dribbling to run the clock down to turn it into a hot potato pass around and a last 2 second desperation shot by Kamara Johnson that was a bad hope and prayer type shot that bounces off the back of the rim and the clock runs down.

Before anyone gets the idea I'm pinging on Kamara, her dad and her grandfather are my youngest brother's best friends that they have known each other for 30 years plus and played ball together through the years and they call my brother to all hook up at her games together and even ride together.

Gavin Frakes played at New Mexico State in 2022 and red shirted in 2023, but I did not learn the reason for the shirt. He is 6'4", 220# and played in 11 games in 2022. He completed 55 of 110 passes for 736 yards.

Preview: UVa hopes its results on the road tomorrow are very different than what happened to the Wahoos away from home last Saturday. @justin ferber has our breakdown of the matchup against NC State (2 p.m., ACC Network).