With only the NCAA Tournament and NIT semifinalists still playing, the college basketball offseason is ramping up quickly. That, of course, means transfer portal news becomes part of the regular news cycle. That’s already true at Virginia.
The first scholarship player for UVA entered the portal Monday when Carson McCorkle announced his decision to seek other opportunities on Instagram. That made him the third Cavalier in the portal with Malachi Poindexter and Jayden Nixon, a pair of walk-ons that reportedly had scholarships this season since the Hoos carried a smaller number of scholarship players than the 13 allowed by NCAA rules.
Virginia listed Poindexter and McCorkle both as sophomores, but each have the bonus year of COVID eligibility that could give them three more years of college basketball. Nixon has been a member of the program for four years and will seek a chance to play as a graduate transfer with that extra year.
Nixon played mostly as a member of the green team scout squad while at Virginia. He did appear in 24 games and score 10 points in UVA career.
Poindexter carved out a role as the eighth player in the rotation this season, but that left him mostly as a spot sub as Tony Bennett settled on a 7-man rotation for most of the ACC portion of the schedule. Poindexter made appearances in 19 games for a total of 121 minutes and scored 19 points on 50% shooting (8-16). He provided an additional ballhandling option and offered solid defense as well.
McCorkle saw limited action in his two years with the program, seeing time in 8 games last season and 16 games this season for a total of 100 career minutes to date. He came to Virginia with a standout shooter reputation, but hit 6 of 20 attempts during his in-and-out appearances without much time to build rhythm. He had some defensive struggles when he did get game time.
With McCorkle opting to pursue portal opportunities, it does provide some scholarship flexibility for the program. Virginia had 11 scholarships committed for the upcoming 2022-23 season, but McCorkle’s depature adds a third open slot if the Hoos choose to use it.
That leaves open the possibility of bringing back Super Seniors due to the COVID eligibility year or adding more players via transfer or high school recruiting. Jayden Gardner has been expected to return as one of those seniors after he bypassed Senior Day recognition, while Kody Stattmann has been expected to move on after four years at UVA. Kihei Clark has an additional year available as well after already starting 108 games in Cavalier career. Clark’s intentions have not been as clear with rumors of him waffling between leaving and returning at different times.
Regardless of the final decisions for Gardner and Clark, if Stattmann does leave as expected, there is still one scholarship spot open with McCorkle’s move. London Johnson, a class of 2023 guard out of Norcross, Georgia, has scheduled his college choice announcement for Friday. The possibility of reclassifying into the class of 2022 had been mentioned previously, but the status of that route remains unclear.
Between the portal and the NIL craziness all they need to add is a college draft and 10 day contracts! College basketball as we remember it is dead. It is so sad.
Maybe in general, but this is the least surprising transfer in the Bennett era.
I agree. McCorkle really struggled when he got in. Hopefully everyone comes back as there is real promise for the rest of the underclass men. Also they may want to look at what happened with last years transfers that found the grass was no greener.