While 68 teams get ready to compete in the NCAA Tournament this spring, plenty of others are cleaning up other postseason tournaments while simultaneously getting ready for next season. That distinction goes for both coaches and players, and plenty of stars have hopped in the transfer portal since the conclusion of the conference tournaments on Sunday. On Tuesday, Virginia basketball lost its first player to the portal this offseason.
Forward Blake Buchanan will be looking for a new home this offseason after opting to jump in the portal following a disappointing season for the Cavaliers, according to Joe Tipton of On3 Sports.
The sophomore is an interesting prospect, but his stats struggled to get off the ground while paying on a Virginia squad that really struggles to space the floor. He is a non-shooter and averaged just 5.4 points and 5.3 rebounds per game. However, he is a former four-star recruit, so there will be some teams calling to see if they can bring in a guy who made 22 starts this season.
As a whole, Virginia just came out the other side of a very tumultuous season that was set back by the sudden retirement of longtime head coach Tony Bennett just before the season. The Cavaliers handed the reins to Ron Sanchez as the interim coach and is now going through a full coaching search to find the next leader of the program.
Virginia finished in the middle of the pack in the ACC this season with an 8-12 record in league play and a 15-17 mark overall. It was clear that the identity of the team had been lost without Bennett, and what was once one of the elite programs in college basketball is now struggling to get back off the ground.
Losing Buchanan is another bad sign for Virginia basketball, but it will still be a fairly attractive job this offseason. After all the Cavaliers did win a national championship in 2019, so maybe they can land a home run hire and start moving back toward the elite in the ACC.
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