Men's College Basketball 2021-2022 Season Preview: Virginia Cavaliers

The college basketball season is just over two weeks away — time is just flying by. To get you ready for the season, I’m previewing the season in men’s college basketball, team by team. In these previews I will highlight key departures, additions, returners and overall DFS viability for each team. These previews will be heavily focused on DFS and fantasy in general, so keep that in mind when I’m talking about the relevancy of a player or team rotations.

We kick things off with the ACC, a conference that severely underperformed in the pandemic-impacted season last year. While the conference will inevitably have a handful of DFS staples for us to use each slate, it still seems like the ACC lost more talent than it was able to gain. With the transfer rules changing after March Madness ended it ultimately led to what was essentially free agency in CBB. There were coaching changes as well which I will talk about throughout this breakdown because new philosophies will mean new strategies for our DFS builds.

In this one, Virginia.

(Check out our full college basketball season preview!)

Virginia Cavaliers 2021-2022 Season Preview

2020-2021 record: 18-7 (13-4 ACC), first in ACC
Postseason: Lost in NCAA Tournament first round

Key Departures | Virginia Cavaliers

Trey Murphy (NBA draftee)
Sam Hauser (left for NBA)
Jay Huff (left for NBA)
Tomas Woldentensae (playing overseas)
Casey Morsell (transferred to NC State)
Justin McKoy (transferred to UNC)
Jabri Abdur-Rahim (transferred to Georgia)

Key Additions | Virginia Cavaliers

Armaan Franklin (transferred from Indiana)
Jayden Gardner (transferred from ECU)
Taine Murray (top 100 recruit)
Igor Milicic Jr. (European recruit)

Returners | Virginia Cavaliers

Kihei Clark (9.5 PPG/2 RPG/4.5 APG)
Reece Beekman (4.7 PPG/2.8 RPG/3 APG)
Kadin Shedrick (2.5 PPG/2.2 RPG/0.4 BPG)
Kody Stattman (3.5 PPG/1.8 RPG/0.5 APG)
Francisco Caffaro (1.2 PPG/1.2 RPG)

Virginia Cavaliers Outlook for 2021-2022

For those who don’t know, the Virginia signature style is to grind out games via an elite pack line defense and a snail’s pace. This doesn’t make for very exciting games, and it certainly isn’t that appealing for DFS either. This roster isn’t particularly appealing but kudos to Tony Bennett for always finding a way to be competitive regardless of talent level.

Jayden Gardner was an excellent pull from the transfer portal as he averaged 18 and 8 with ECU last year. Gardner adds a level of toughness and physicality that the 2020 Cavs just didn’t have. His usage was over 26% and he had a shot rate over 27% last year. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to project similar rates with his new team. Armaan Franklin’s year with the Hoosier was marred by injuries but when healthy he was one of the best players on the floor during conference play. He averaged 11.4 PPG and 4.1 RPG while shooting 42% from distance. He was an above average defender as in his sophomore season and has the best steal rate on the team. Taine Murray and Igor Milicic will have to grow up quick as this Cavs team is lacking a deep bench, so they’ll be thrown into the fire almost immediately.

You need a quality PG at this level to make a serious run in March, and that is definitely something UVA has with Kihei Clark. He was a part of the championship-winning team in 2019, so while he is short in stature at 5-foot-9, he is not short in experience. He has career averages of 8 PPG/3 RPG/4 APG and is right around a 35% three-point shooter in three years. Reece Beekman is a prime candidate for a significant jump in his sophomore season and was playing almost 37 minutes per game over the last month of the season.

(Check out our rankings of the top 100 teams and top 100 players for men’s college basketball in 2021-2022.)

Summary

The personnel may change, but the Tony Bennett system remains. We will see steady performances from guys like Jayden Gardner and Armaan Franklin each slate, but the truly slate-breaking types of games will likely be few and far between. Targeting against the pack line defense hasn’t been very wise in years past either so you’ll want to tread carefully whenever Virginia is on the slate.