Breaking: Leon Bond III of UVA basketball logs onto the transfer portal
This offseason, the redshirt sophomore becomes the first Cavalier to put his name into the portal.
First big news of the offseason for the Virginia Cavaliers basketball team: according to his Instagram story, sophomore wing Leon Bond III appears to be heading into the transfer portal.After his redshirt season, Bond played in 24 games and averaged just 12.3 minutes. He showed promise early in the season, scoring ten points or more in four non-conference games, including a game against North Carolina A&T when he scored a career-high 16 points on 8 of 10 shots. Bond shot just 7 of 33 from the field in ACC play, and both his offensive output and playing time decreased.
Bond’s departure leaves a significant lack of athleticism on the current Virginia roster, especially with Ryan Dunn likely headed to the NBA Draft. He was slated to be a key rotational player next season, and potentially slide into Dunn’s previous role as a starter. Bond’s lack of playing time this past year could be exhibited to his poor shot making and overall selection, as well as being relatively raw on both ends of the court. Of course, it could be argued that, given the offensive woes of several rotational players, it was worth giving Bond more run to allow him to reach his upside more quickly. The bottom line is that the transfer portal is an inevitable facet of the offseason that virtually every Division-1
The basketball coach must handle. The portal has the capacity to give as much as it takes. Tony Bennett, on the other hand, has a crucial offseason ahead of him. Among his goals should be to increase his scoring and defensive versatility.
With three scholarship spots remaining after Bond’s departure, assuming Dunn does not return, the current roster for Virginia looks like this:
Senior Dante Harris; Senior Tean Murray
John Isaac McKinley, Jr.
Andrew Rohde, Jr.
Buchanan, Blake (So.)
Gertrude Elijah (So.)
Anthony Robinson, a Frenchman
Bliss, Christian (RS-Fr.)
Ishan Sharma (Fr.) Jacob Cofie (Fr.)
