Virginia Basketball Quick Take: Grant Kersey

Virginia is 2-0 this season.
Grant Kersey played basketball at nearby Albemarle High School. ~ Kris Wright

Prior to last week’s Virginia basketball games at the John Paul Jones Arena, Grant Kersey likely was an anonymous manager to most Cavalier fans. Even local fans may not have known Kersey unless they followed Albemarle High School’s team and its run to the Virginia 5A State Semifinals back in 2016.

That all changed for Kersey thanks to a pair of blowout wins against Towson and George Washington last week. UVA coach Tony Bennett elected to give the manager a jersey for home games this season and then sent him into both contests with the lopsided lead on the scoreboard. That’s something Bennett has done before, including previously with another local high school standout in Covenant’s Maleek Frazier.

“Grant is a great story because he came in as a manager,” Bennett said. “Our managers are sometimes banging around with our guys as almost semi-practice players and he’s just worked. I thought it was time. Fortunately, we’ve had a couple of games where we’ve had a big enough lead where … [you can] reward a true servant. I always talk about how our managers are great. They just give, give, give.”

The decision to place Kersey on the roster for home games this season came late enough that his own jersey hadn’t even arrived yet. Instead, he donned an oversized No. 1 white jersey with ‘Virginia’ on the back as the nameplate. Still, Kersey made the most of the opportunity by earning a trip to the free throw line against GW where he calmly canned both shots to get into the scorebook. That delighted the Cavalier bench and the fans in the arena as well.

Prior to these two games and those two free throws, Kersey’s brightest time in the basketball spotlight came during Albemarle’s state tournament run in 2016. As a senior on that team, he helped players like his current Cavalier teammate Austin Katstra put together a great season. In a starting role against Charlottesville in January of that year, in fact, he poured in a career-high 23 points as the Patriots rolled to a 73-54 victory. That, in part, earned him Daily Progress Player of the Week recognition.

“First of all, off the court, he’s a great guy and he’s one of my closest friends,” UVA guard Ty Jerome said. “So seeing him score his first collegiate points or just seeing him suiting up in a game is amazing. He’s just a real hard worker and a real servant. He does whatever we need and for him to get rewarded like that is awesome.”

“He’s my roommate and we’ve known each other since freshman year and got really close,” Cavalier guard Kyle Guy said. “He does work really hard like Ty said and he deserves all of this.”

After the game, Kersey answered a few questions for a quick take.

TheSabre.com Quick Take

Sabre Editor Kris Wright: What’s going through your mind these last two games?

Virginia guard Grant Kersey: Just trying to not think too much of it to where I freak myself out a little bit. I’m just trying to take it all in and have fun.

Sabre Editor Kris Wright: Did you grow up watching this team?

Virginia guard Grant Kersey: I grew up in Charlottesville, grew up coming to games. That’s actually a big reason why I chose to go to school here along with academics, just to still be able to go to the games and try to be a manager. For this to happen, I couldn’t ask for anything more.

Sabre Editor Kris Wright: You played locally in high school, but when you were much younger were you a ball boy?

Virginia guard Grant Kersey: I did. A long time ago, I was a ball boy out there so I kind of just moved up. (smiles)

Sabre Editor Kris Wright: That’s kind of crazy isn’t it? There’s a lot of kids sitting in the stands wanting to do that.

Virginia guard Grant Kersey: I remember being a ball kid and just being able to shoot on the court like before the game and I though that was the coolest thing ever. So now to be under the lights with the team, coaches, and everything, I’m just trying take it in and enjoy it.

Sabre Editor Kris Wright: So what’s being a manager like? Coach Bennett always emphasizes servanthood.

Virginia guard Grant Kersey: That’s a big part. That’s the main part. We just try to do anything we can do to help the team and help the coaches. We set up for practice, rebound, help out with drills, just anything we can.

Sabre Editor Kris Wright: Do you put those blue cone arms on and play defense?

Virginia guard Grant Kersey: Yeah, it gives us a little bit more reach to play some defense and jump the passing lanes and all that.

Sabre Editor Kris Wright: Do they want you being aggressive with those things, like slapping down on their arms and stuff?

Virginia guard Grant Kersey: To an extent. Just try to put ball pressure on and it helps with the length and all of that. You’re watching out for the players, you’re not [hurting] them but they want us to go at them and make sure they take care of the ball.

Sabre Editor Kris Wright: Is there like a managers’ game? Jay Bilas seems to Tweet about it a lot. Did you play in those some too?

Virginia guard Grant Kersey: I did last year. We haven’t had any this year yet. There’s like a whole manager games league with rankings and there’s a postseason tournament and there’s rules. It’s actually pretty cool.

Sabre Editor Kris Wright: Does any memory jump out from those because those are not under the lights, those are closed door? (laughs)

Virginia guard Grant Kersey: Those are usually late night the night before once the road team has done everything they need to do. The managers are great here. I love them. So being able to play with them too, it’s always fun to just run and up down. To be able to play those games and meet other people and just play basketball really is fun.