Virginia Basketball: Commitment from JUCO Tomas Woldetensae is a solid fit
By Neil Adler
The Virginia basketball squad received a pledge from JUCO All-American Tomas Woldetensae, a strong pick-up for the Cavaliers.
The Virginia basketball team is fresh off capturing its first-ever national championship, but the Cavaliers are losing point guard Ty Jerome as well as guards De’Andre Hunter and Kyle Guy to the NBA Draft. UVA’s 2019-20 backcourt will certainly undergo a make-over due to these defections, although Kihei Clark and Braxton Key will return, and the Cavaliers’ 2019 recruiting class includes four-star guard Casey Morsell.
Virginia’s rotation of guards for the next term got a further boost with a commitment from junior-college All-American Tomas Woldetensae, according to reports by Stadium’s Jeff Goodman and other media outlets. Woldetensae, a 6-foot-5 sophomore out of Indian Hills Community College in Ottumwa, Iowa, is said to handle the ball well, which is a key attribute for UVA’s renovated roster.
More importantly, he shoots the rock at a stellar clip from beyond the arc, a pivotal facet for a Cavaliers line-up that is saying good-bye to a pair of 3-point specialists in Guy and Jerome. Plus, let’s not forget that Hunter hit the game-tying bucket from long-range to force overtime against Texas Tech in early April’s NCAA Tournament title tilt.
Per several media reports, Virginia recently welcomed Woldetensae, a 2019 shooting guard who is originally from Italy, on an official visit. For the 2018-19 stanza, Woldetensae made the NJCAA Division I All-American first unit, and he averaged better than 17 points per contest while connecting on about 48 percent from downtown.
Goodman tweeted that Woldetensae “is believed to be the first JUCO player [head coach] Tony Bennett has taken at Virginia.” Besides the Cavaliers, Woldetensae apparently had interest from programs such as Central Florida and Illinois.
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Because of the offensive firepower that Bennett is having to replace in 2019-20, and the fact that Woldetensae is both a competent ball-handler and a lethal shooter, it’s absolutely feasible that he could immediately earn legitimate minutes for a UVA outfit seeking to defend its crown.