Virginia Basketball: Preview of Cavaliers 2020-21 depth chart

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA - APRIL 08: Kihei Clark #0 of the Virginia Cavaliers handles the ball on offense against the Texas Tech Red Raiders in the second half during the 2019 NCAA men's Final Four National Championship game at U.S. Bank Stadium on April 08, 2019 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /

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CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA – MARCH 07: Tomas Woldetensae #53 of the Virginia Cavaliers (Photo by Ryan M. Kelly/Getty Images) /

Small Forwards

Starter – Jabri Abdur-Rahim (20 mins/game)

Other SFs – Thomas Woldetensae (12 mins/game) and Kody Stattmann (8 mins/game)

Tony Bennett doesn’t love to throw freshmen into the starting lineup regardless of how high they are rated, but he did demonstrate that he is willing to do so last year with Morsell because he didn’t have a ton of depth.

In this case, however, Abdur-Rahim is just the best option. One of the reasons Bennett doesn’t like leaning too heavily on freshmen is that they don’t typically live up to Virginia expectations on the defensive end. Not to worry here as Abdur-Rahim enters college as a lauded defender to go along with his prowess as a scorer. He scored 32 points a game his senior season at Blair Academy in New Jersey.

Woldetensae and Stattman (3.6 Pts, 2.4 Reb, 0.7 Ast) got a lot of run last year, averaging 27 and 21 minutes a contest respectively, but again those minutes were really out of necessity due to a depth issue. The 2020-21 Cavaliers are loaded, and unfortunately for these two, that means they are in line for a minute decrease.

Abdur-Rahim’s readiness to be in the starting lineup is not in question and he’s set up for a big freshman season. You can’t ask for much more as a newcomer than playing next to one of the best point guards in college basketball in Kihei Clark and that will only further contribute to his chances of being the ACC Freshman on the Year.

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