I wanted to backtrack a bit and hit on a couple of things I hadn't been able to get to yet over the past week, but are still noteworthy, for Virginia men's basketball, football, and baseball.
On Jan. 30, Tony Bennett and the hoops team landed their first commitment for the Class of 2022 in four-star shooting guard Isaac McKneely out of West Virginia. The 6-foot-4, 170-pound prospect hails from Poca, which is located along Interstate 64 about 40 miles east of Huntington in the western part of the state.
McKneely is rated the No. 62 overall player in his class by 247Sports, and No. 51 when averaging all of the recruiting services together. He chose the 'Hoos over Illinois, Indiana, Louisville, Iowa, Maryland, Purdue, Virginia Tech, and West Virginia, among others. Kentucky and North Carolina were showing interest as well, but had not offered him a scholarship.
McKneely (right) is being called a combo guard by some websites, meaning he has good ball handling ability and can probably act as a secondary point guard when on the floor with a guy like Reece Beekman. But his primary skill is shooting. Apparently he already is quite the sniper and has NBA-type range. My Hoos Place colleague and basketball recruiting guru St. Lou Hoo said the most obvious comparisons that will come up for recent Virginia players are Kyle Guy and Joe Harris, with a little bit more Harris in McKneely's game than Guy. St. Lou noted he sees Guy's range on McKneely's 3-pointer, but a little bit more of Harris' physicality.
McKneely has not even played his junior season of high school basketball yet due to the pandemic. His body looks to have good size to me already, and I'm sure he will develop even more as he gets older. Still, he will need the usual bulking up when he arrives at UVa in 2022 -- and the program has one of the best strength coaches in the business in Mike Curtis -- but I think he has a good start with his build.
As I noted, McKneely is the first Virginia pledge for the Class of 2022. It also has one so far for 2021 in New Zealand guard Taine Murray, who announced his commitment in September. For a complete write-up on McKneeley's game, check out St. Lou's article at Hoos Place.
UVa to host Pitt after schedule shuffling
Next up for the hoops team is a Saturday home game on ESPN at 4 p.m. against Pittsburgh, which beat Virginia Tech, 83-72, on Wednesday. The Hokies defeated the Wahoos by 14 last weekend, so this looks like a challenging matchup with the Panthers. Pitt's record isn't necessarily impressive at 9-5 and 5-4 in the ACC, but the team seems improved in coach Jeff Capel's third season. The Panthers have been inconsistent, sweeping Syracuse and defeating Duke, but losing to Wake Forest and Notre Dame. Sophomore star and ACC player of the year candidate Justin Champagnie is averaging a double-double in points and rebounds. Against the Hokies, Xavier Johnson came off the bench and scored 30 points on 11-for-17 shooting, including 4 for 7 from beyond the arc. Tech's Keve Aluma had another huge outing, tallying 30 points and 10 rebounds after going off for 29 and 11 versus Virginia.
Originally, Virginia was set to host Louisville on Saturday, but the Cardinals are on pause due to COVID. Pitt was supposed to face Florida State, which is also on pause. So UVa, Pitt, and the ACC got proactive and moved the 'Hoos-Panthers matchup from Feb. 24 to this Saturday. With Feb. 24 opened up, Virginia and N.C. State scheduled their rematch for then. The Wahoos, who just beat the Wolfpack on Wednesday, were supposed to have already hosted N.C. State on Jan. 20, but State was on pause then. So now, UVa will host the Pack on the 24th of this month. Got all that?
2021 football schedule released
On Jan. 28, Virginia released its 2021 football schedule (hopefully the only time it has to do this). Here's a look at the lineup:
- Sept. 4 vs. William & Mary
- Sept. 11 vs. Illinois
- Sept. 18 at North Carolina
- Sept. 24 vs. Wake Forest (Friday)
- Sept. 30 at Miami (Thursday)
- Oct. 9 at Louisville
- Oct. 16 vs. Duke
- Oct. 23 vs. Georgia Tech
- Oct. 30 at BYU
- Nov. 6 bye week
- Nov. 13 vs. Notre Dame
- Nov. 20 at Pittsburgh
- Nov. 27 vs. Virginia Tech
This looks like a tough, yet well-balanced schedule. It's nice to see a varied nonconference slate return after facing just Abilene Christian outside of the ACC in 2020. I mean, nothing says season opener quite like W&M at Scott Stadium in early September in what will likely be scorching heat, right? Now that sounds normal.
Illinois will be in rebuild mode (again?) after firing Lovie Smith, the former NFL coach, and hiring Bret Bielema. Smith led the Fighting Illini for four full seasons, with his best year coming in 2019 when they reached the Redbox Bowl and lost to Cal to finish the season 6-7. In 2020, Illinois was 2-5 when it let Smith go. Bielema, an Iowa alumnus, is back at home in the Big Ten where he experienced great success as Wisconsin's coach from 2006-12, compiling a record of 68-24, including a 12-win, Associated Press top-five finish in 2006, plus a pair of 11-victory seasons and one 10-win year.
In 2013, Bielema moved to Arkansas, but he didn't reach the same level in the rugged SEC West, where his best record was 8-5 in 2015. Bielema got fired after going 4-8 in 2017, then spent the past three seasons in the NFL as an assistant at New England for two years and then with the Giants in 2020. In the easier Big Ten West, I think Bielema has a chance to build a nice program, but 2021 will probably be rough, and that is a game Virginia should win. The last time UVa faced Illinois was rough, with the Illini destroying the Cavaliers 63-21 in the 1999 MicronPC.com Bowl. I remember watching that game as a youngster. Between that devastation and the tough 1998 Peach Bowl loss to Georgia, I was just getting used to the normal postseason pain of Virginia football.
BYU and Notre Dame back to back is obviously difficult, but at least there is a bye week in between the games. Bronco Mendenhall's old program went 11-1 last season, and Notre Dame was 10-2. Mendenhall said a few years ago he was not interested in facing the Cougars because he was still close to some of the players he recruited, but now that some time has passed, hopefully he is ready to defeat his former team.
Virginia last faced BYU in 2014 (Mendenhall's 10th year there), losing in Utah 41-33. In 2013, the 'Hoos surprised the Cougars in the season opener at Scott, winning 19-16. The most recent Notre Dame-Virginia matchup came in 2019. UVa was 4-0 and led the Fighting Irish in South Bend 17-14 at halftime, but Notre Dame dominated the second half to win, 35-20. The last time the Cavaliers hosted the Irish was in 2015, with Virginia just narrowly missing out on pulling off the massive upset, falling to No. 9 Notre Dame, 34-27. The 'Hoos led 27-26 with less than 30 seconds left before a long TD pass to Will Fuller broke our hearts.
In the ACC, why are we hosting Duke for a third year in a row and traveling to Miami for a third year in a row? Also, how have we snatched defeat from the jaws of victory two straight seasons against the Hurricanes, who have been only mediocre. (I don’t care if they were 8-3 last year, I don’t think they were that good.) Man, I hope we beat Miami this fall.
In this conference, almost every game can sort of feel like a toss-up. Clemson is not on the schedule, so that means UVa should have a decent-to-good chance to win all of these contests. In addition to the Tigers, Virginia does not face Florida State, N.C. State, Syracuse, or Boston College. For now, the easiest thing to do is to put the matchups into two categories, games I feel like the ‘Hoos should win, and games that are going to be tougher to win.
For me, I’d put Louisville, Duke, and Georgia Tech in the first category, and North Carolina, Wake Forest, Miami, Pitt, and VT in the second category. At this point, I am expecting a pretty good season from UVa, so the goal should be to sweep the first group or at least lose no more than one game, and then hopefully go at least 3-2 against the second group.
So if the Cavaliers defeat W&M and Illinois, lose to BYU and ND, and then go 5-3 or 6-2 in the conference, that would put my early win-loss guess at 7-5 or 8-4, and perhaps a top-two or top-three finish in the Coastal Division. That would be a solid step in the right direction after going 5-5 in 2020.
There may be some movement in and out of UVa and other programs for various reasons before the fall, and spring football is still a while away, so I’m sure we will get more educated in the coming months about the ‘Hoos and the rest of the ACC. I certainly could end up revising the prediction, but that’s where I am leaning for now.
Baseball set to get underway
On Thursday, the UVa baseball program unveiled its 2021 schedule. The season will (hopefully) open with a three-game series against Connecticut in Charlottesville the weekend of Feb. 19-21.
The regular-season slate is set at 50 games, a little shorter than normal. The Wahoos are scheduled to face 12 ACC teams in weekend series, six at home (Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Miami, Louisville, Duke, Wake Forest) and six on the road (North Carolina, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Clemson, Virginia Tech, Boston College). No games are scheduled against N.C. State, and Syracuse does not have a baseball program. Matchups against in-state nonconference teams (and also Towson and George Washington) dot the middle of weeks.
It feels like forever since the Cavaliers have been on the diamond. Virginia wrapped up the 2020 season at 14-4 and 2-1 in the ACC after beating UMass-Lowell 24-5 and 4-3 on March 10 and 11. Virginia took two of three from No. 7 N.C. State in the only conference series of the season. The campaign was promising when the plug was pulled. Just about every major contributor is back for 2021, so hopes are high that the Wahoos can return to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2017. UVa is ranked No. 16 by D1Baseball.com and No. 5 by Baseball America and is a popular pick to win the Coastal Division. For much more on the baseball team, check out
Karl Hess' and Kendall's coverage at HoosPlace.com.
Photo credit: Chuck Roberts
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