Virginia Basketball Notes: Five-Star Johnny Juzang Includes UVA In Final Four

By: Chris Horne |

Less than a week removed from announcing his decision to reclassify from the class of 2020 to the class of 2019, Harvard-Westlake (Studio City, CA) 5-star wing Johnny Juzang revealed his four finalists on Sunday (April 28).

“My college decision will be made in the next few weeks,” Juzang wrote in his reclassification announcement on April 24.

Virginia has three scholarship spots available next season with a fourth possibly opening up should redshirt junior forward Mamadi Diakite remain in the 2019 NBA Draft. The Cavaliers’ “Big 3” of point guard Ty Jerome, guard Kyle Guy and guard/forward De’Andre Hunter have all declared and will not be returning to Charlottesville, creating a major need at the guard position next season. The 6’6”, 200-pound Juzang, a talented scorer and ballhandler, would seem to be a perfect fit to help fill the void. But will the Hoos land him?

Kentucky and Virginia are considered by most to be the top two schools here, with Kentucky the big favorite according to 247Sports. Juzang made an official visit to UVA last fall and was impressed with the coaches and the programimpressed with the coaches and the programimpressed with the coaches and the program in general. However, he is scheduled to begin an official in Lexington on Monday (April 29).

The “Big 3” Reportedly Receive NBA Draft Combine Invites

According to the “NBA Draft God” Twitter account, Ty Jerome, Kyle Guy and De’Andre Hunter have all received invites to the 2019 NBA Draft Combine, which will be held May 14-19 in Chicago. No word at this point on if Mamadi Diakite has secured an invite.

Two new mock drafts were released last week, from Bleacher Report (April 28) and NBADraft.net (April 26), respectively.

Bleacher Report’s first round mock projects Hunter to Atlanta with the fifth pick and Jerome to Boston at No. 22.

NBADraft.net projects the first and second rounds and has Hunter (First Round, No. 5 to Atlanta), Jerome (First Round, No. 30 to Milwaukee) and Guy (Second Round, No. 57 to New Orleans) being picked.

Clark Pegged As A “Rising Star” By Andy Katz

Andy Katz, formerly of ESPN and now with NCAA.com, picked Virginia freshman point guard Kihei Clark as one of his top 11 “rising stars” to watch for next season. Click here to read the entire report.

Clark shouldered heavy minutes in the 2019 NCAA Tournament, averaging around 33 minutes per game while playing less than 30 minutes just once (24 versus Purdue in the Elite Eight). The 5’9” freshman responded with clutch play throughout the Cavaliers’ national title run. He made a clutch 3-pointer to cut Gardner Webb’s lead to six at halftime in the opener, giving the Hoos momentum he helped keep going with outstanding second-half defense as UVA surged past the Runnin’ Bulldogs.

Clark tied a career-high with 12 points in Virginia’s Sweet 16 victory over Oregon, hitting a key game-tying 3 with 5:21 left as well as a free throw to give the Hoos a 4-point lead with less than a second remaining. Clark had zero turnovers in the Elite Eight and Final Four games, and in the Final Four versus Auburn he scored nine points and dished out three assists.

In six tournament games, the freshman made 40% of his field goals (12-of-30), 41.2% of his 3s (7-of-17), dished out 24 assists while committing nine turnovers, and had five steals. And he’ll forever be remembered for “The Pass” to Mamadi Diakite, who sank a game-tying jumper at the buzzer to send the Purdue game to overtime. Virginia would go on to defeat the Boilermakers, 80-75, to reach the Final Four. Clark sank two free throws with a second left to reach the final score.

Morsell Helps Capital All-Stars Crush U.S. All-Stars In 2019 Capital Classic

University of Virginia-bound shooting guard Casey Morsell finished with nine points (3-of-12 from the field, 2-of-9 from 3, 1-of-1 from the free throw line), five rebounds, one assist and one block as the Capital All-Stars defeated the United States All-Stars, 122-83, in the 2019 Capital Classic last week. The U.S. All-Stars featured the newest member of Virginia’s class of 2019, Panther Creek (Cary, N.C.) forward Justin McKoy, who went scoreless in the first half (0-of-5 from the field, 0-of-4 from 3) but finished with six points (2-of-9 from the field, 0-6 from 3, 2-2 from the free throw line), four rebounds and three assists.

Capitol Hoops, which tweeted the stats used in this article, caught up with Morsell, the DC Gatorade Player of the Year for 2018-19, following the event.

4 Responses You are logged in as Test

  1. With the hole left by Ty Jerome’s decision to go pro, Johnny J should get much more playing time at UVA than Ky. That alone should lead him to UVA.

  2. MAY BE THAT HIS PARENT IS A LIBERAL AND LOVES THE MOVE(HE REALLY OWNED IT DID HE NOT, JUST LIKE UMBC) BENNETT, THE ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT PROVIDED WITH THEIR SHORT STATEMENT AS TO WHY THEY ARE NOT VISITING THE WHITE HOUSE. BENNETT FIRST COWARDLY MOVE SINCE COMING TO UVA. THAT IS NOT CHRISTIAN, THAT IS MORE LIKE THE FREE MASON(SECRET SOCIETY). WATCH NATIVE VIRGINIANS STOP BUYING UVA MECHANDISE. I HAVE BEEN A UVA FAN SINCE 1975 AND MY FATHER SINCE THE EARLY 50’S. HE WOULD BE HIGHLY UPSET WITH THE AD AND THE COACHING STAFF. IF DEANDRA AND THE OTHER LIBERALS DO NOT WANT TO GO THEN YOU GO MR. BENNETT. I HOPE THE FEDS COMES AFTER ANYONE, INCLUDING VIRGINIA BASKETBALL PROGRAM, AFTER THE 2020 ELECTION. THE GLOVES WILL COME OFF THEN.

Comments are closed.