Virginia Basketball Officially Welcomes Abdur-Rahim, Beekman and McCorkle

By: Chris Horne |

It’s official. Consensus 4-star recruits Jabri Abdur-Rahim, Reece Beekman and Carson McCorkle have signed letters of intent with the University of Virginia men’s basketball program. The talented trio was officially announced by UVA head coach Tony Bennett on Thursday, November 14.

Below is the full official announcement (courtesy of VirginiaSports.com) of UVA’s class of 2020, which is rated among the top 10 classes in the nation by Rivals.com (no. 9) and 247Sports.com (no. 8).

Virginia men’s head basketball coach Tony Bennett has announced the signings of guards Jabri Abdur-Rahim (Short Hills, N.J./Blair Academy), Reece Beekman (Baton Rouge, La./Scotlandville High School) and Carson McCorkle (Greensboro, N.C./Greensboro Day School) to National Letters of Intent with the Cavaliers.

The 6-7, 205-pound Abdur-Rahim averaged 16.7 points and 8.7 rebounds during his junior season at Blair Academy in 2018-19. Abdur-Rahim was named New Jersey Gatorade Player of the Year after leading Blair Academy to the Prep A state championship. Abdur-Rahim was also named first-team all-state and second-team All-Mid-Atlantic Prep League. He averaged 17.7 points and 9.2 rebounds en route to third-team all-state honors during his sophomore season at Seton Hall Prep as the team finished 24-3.

Beekman, a 6-2, 165-pound point guard, averaged 21.9 points, 10.2 rebounds and 10.2 assists as a junior for Scotlandville in 2018-19. He was named first-team all-state from USA Today and the Louisiana Sports Writers Association. Beekman has earned back-to-back Most Outstanding Player honors at the Louisiana State Tournament and is a two-time All-District 4-5A selection. Beekman averaged 13.9 points, 4.3 rebounds and 5.1 assists as a sophomore in 2017-18.

The 6-3, 173-pound McCorkle tallied 15.9 points per game en route to AP and NCISAA 4A All-State during his junior season at Greensboro Day School. McCorkle shot 55 percent from the field, 49 percent from 3-point range and 89 percent from the free throw line. McCorkle guided Greensboro Day to the NCISAA 3A state championship and was named the News & Record Private School All-Area Player of the Year. McCorkle averaged 10.7 points, 4.0 rebounds and 1.9 assists during his sophomore season in 2017-18.

“We are excited to welcome Jabri, Reece and Carson into the Virginia men’s basketball family,” Bennett said. “These young men are talented, versatile and highly-competitive. They come from great families, who understand the value of a degree from the University of Virginia. We look forward to them joining our program next fall.”

Beginning with Abdur-Rahim and going in alphabetical order, below are tweets and photos of the future Hoos making their verbal commitments official. McCorkle was the first to commit, pledging to Coach Bennett in September of 2018, and was following by Beekman (June of 2019) and Abdur-Rahim (July of 2019) this year. UVA currently has one open scholarship available for the class of 2020.