A simple, but interesting question came up through the Preferred Walk-Ons Podcast this week. Does Virginia basketball need more shooting?

The starting guard trio of Armaan Franklin (37.3%), Kihei Clark (35.2%), and Reece Beekman (35.1%) each produced above 35% shooting from 3-point range this past season and the Cavaliers will be without two of those three for certain and potentially all three pending Beekman’s NBA Draft decision. Franklin led the team in total 3-pointers made and attempted and was second to only returning sophomore Isaac McKneely (39.0%) in percentage this past season.

That means Virginia may be returning only one of its top four 3-point percentage shooters this upcoming season, while the shooting potential of departing transfer Isaac Traudt is removed from the equation too. Dante Harris, who is projected to fill into at least one of those slots, shot 26.8% from 3 before transferring out of Georgetown.

UVA recently picked up St. Thomas transfer Andrew Rohde to help address this question. The incoming transfer shot 32.0% from 3-point range last season, but finished the back half of his freshman campaign at 36.1% over the last 16 games. Redshirt freshman Leon Bond III as well as incoming freshman Elijah Gertrude did not take volume 3’s in high school so there is curiosity around how that could translate to the college level. Throw Ryan Dunn into that discussion too as he attempted only 16 triples last season (31.3%).

...