When Rutgers transfer Nigel Johnson announced his intention to join the Virginia basketball program last month, it provided an important timeline marker for the Tony Bennett era. There are two main reasons to put a tab by this player’s name.

First, this is the first time in Bennett’s tenure that he has taken a graduate transfer. While it has become common place around college hoops, it can be hard to find a player that still fits the overarching program culture at that point in a career. Bennett likes experience that has grown through the program, good times and bad. There can be exceptions and this clearly became that type of situation. More on that in a moment.

Second, Johnson’s decision represented a return to the coveted DMV region for the Cavaliers. The D.C.-Maryland-Virginia area is a hotbed of college basketball talent with a number of public and private schools cranking out highly rated players each year. Johnson attended Riverdale Baptist of the Capital Beltway League as a senior following the start of his career at Broad Run High School in northern Virginia.

Of course, Johnson’s path took a winding route back to Virginia. After playing his final year of high school ball in Maryland, he committed to Kansas State where he played for two years. As a sophomore, he ranked third on the team in 3-pointers with 20 and led the team in assists eight different times while playing double digit minutes in 26 games. After that season, he decided to transfer.

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