NCAA Basketball: Impact of game cancellation between Virginia vs Florida

Number of Cavaliers needed to replace Diakite

When joining the Cavaliers for the 2016-17 season out of Blue Ridge High School, the 6’9 forward came off the bench for an average of 14 minutes a game. Coming from a freshman class that featured No.2, Harry Giles, as the top ACC recruit, and future 24th overall selection in the NBA Draft Ty Jerome as the top Virginia prospect, Diakite’s stats, and importance would increase each of his seasons. Now Tony Bennett is saddled with how to replace him.

Replace him they will, but how many players will be needed to fill the void, and how successful will they be would have come to light versus a defense-first team like Florida. As it stands, Virginia will face St.Francis and Kent State prior to their match-up on Dec. 9, 2020, versus Michigan State.

Michigan State is not the ideal inaugural ‘big match-up’ for Coach Bennet who will look to Jay Huff who should be considered one of the favorites to win ACC Defensive Player of the Year. Huff grabbed fewer than one rebound less than Diakite last season while being less than a percentage point from Diakite’s Defensive Win Share, as he topped Diakite in blocks.

Offensively Kihei Clark will continue to be Kihei Clark, but with Braxton Key and Mamadi Diakite gone, Marquette transfer Sam Hauser (12.7 ppg) will be expected to contribute more so than he did at Marquette and will have fewer tune-up games prior to facing his brother and Michigan State in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.

While the Cavaliers will continue to have the lowest-scoring offense in the ACC, they should be expected to improve upon their 57.7 points per game. The point total of the Cavaliers versus the Gators would have been a good indication of how Coach Bennett was going to conduct this season. A game in the sixties versus a Gators’ team that is difficult to total up points against, would indicate there is life after Diakite and a great sign for the rest of the season.