Many pundits had already crowned LOLUVa as the team to beat in 2015-2016... pending Anderson's return. Well, last night those Hoo dreams were spoiled when he declared for the NBA Draft leaving the Hoos program scrambling. Yes, they went 7-1 down the stretch after he got hurt, but they didn't exactly go through a gauntlet in conference play, and never looked like a team worthy of their ranking during it. Yes, they have a good, even great defense, but if VT football has taught us anything the last couple years its that you need to be able to score yourself in order to have success, regardless of defensive prowess, and UVa just lost their best, and arguably only offensive threat.
With Shaka Smart bolting for Texas, and UVa now taking a hit like that, things are starting to line up for VT basketball to seriously make a name for itself in the commonwealth over the next few seasons. Should be fun.
Comments
With Tony Bennett's system, they still have a great chance to lose on the first weekend
This hurts their fans. My sis in law is a 'hoo and she absolutely gushed his praises...good with the kids in the camp, ambassador par excellence, on and on, and on with it. She will feel personally slighted by his departure. Me, I smirk and snicker at any 'hoos lose news, and this one's pretty sweet.
Shocker a kid tells everyone he is staying at 9 am and then leaves at noon. As for VCU they are taking a beating, losing recruits and current players fast.
UVA isn't having the best offseason so far.
-Justin Anderson declaring for the NBA.
-2 assistants leaving for Liberty.
-BJ Stith transferring to ODU. (Former 4 star recruit who could have possibly helped fill the void of Anderson)
Obviously they aren't going to all of the sudden shit the bed because of these but still.
Anderson actually seems like a pretty classy guy, even if he is a Hoo, so good luck to him down the road. He'll need it tho because this draft class is pretty deep, and I'd be surprised if he goes first round. And if you look at the players drafted outside the top 10 as of recently in NBA drafts, most of them don't stick around long.
I am not sure what he was thinking unless he has an absolute need for the minimum money he might get. This draft is so loaded that both the Harrison twins from Kentucky are projected to be in the second round right now. Anderson to me definitely falls behind both of the Harrison's at this point so I could see him falling outside the draft possibly. The problem for all three of them is that they are tweeners size wise. Their college games were more like small forwards, but their size makes them more shooting guards in the NBA and none of the three have the ball handling or deep shooting skills to make me seriously consider them as a 2 guard.
They'll still be tweeners next year. Staying another year isn't going to help their draft status. It'll only give scouts more time to find flaws.