Junior guard Malcolm Brogdon was taking names at the Nike Peach Jam in North Augusta, South Carolina back in the summer of 2010, when Virginia men’s basketball coach Tony Bennett watched the well-spoken Atlantan hoop for the first time. Bennett could already see what made Brogdon so good on the court — and since then, he has also come to know Georgia’s 2010-11 Mr. Basketball as a person.
“[Malcolm] just struck me — how physical he was as a guard and how complete he was as a player,” Bennett said. “He’s very mature for his age. You just talk to him and you can sense that maturity.”
As coach and standout player for Division I college basketball’s No. 2 squad, Bennett and Brogdon’s hardwood fates are intertwined. But that is nothing new — Brogdon has graced John Paul Jones Arena since 2011-12, Bennett’s third season in Charlottesville.
What is striking, perhaps, is how their fates have changed in the intervening years. After all, ESPN’s College GameDay — a weekly program hosted by Rece Davis and featuring analysts Seth Greenberg, Jay Williams and Jay Bilas, the latter two former Duke basketball stars — comes to town Saturday for Virginia’s date with the No. 4 Blue Devils.
The basketball edition of College GameDay began in 2005, rolling in for seven marquee matchups in seven weeks. Now in its 11th iteration, the show covers eight games a year. It has never featured Virginia — a team relatively new to the spotlight.
“That stuff’s fine — it just can’t distract you,” Bennett said. “It’s nice for the fans. It’s nice for everybody. There’s certainly some things that you can enjoy about it, but it’s still that idea of, ‘Will we be faithful to what has gotten us to this point?’”
Years before the GameDay crew decided to trundle up to Charlottesville, Brogdon was honing his game at Greater Atlanta Christian School under respected coach Eddie Martin. And long before Cavalier basketball became so excellent the Virginia faithful cried out against storming the court should their team beat Duke, Bennett was the coach of a just-OK team.
Bennett said Brogdon’s days at powerhouse GAC — winner of 174 games and loser of 19 in Martin’s six-plus seasons at the helm — weighed in his favor as a prospective collegiate player. Freshman forward Isaiah Wilkins also played for Martin at GAC.
“[Malcolm] was so well-coached, and he came prepared,” Bennett said.
As Brogdon torched his competition with 25.7 points, 12.9 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 2.3 steals his senior year of high school, Virginia — shepherded by Bennett, then in his second year with the program — posted its first winning season since 2007-08. The Cavaliers finished 2010-11 at 16-15 (7-9 ACC), flashing their potential by finishing with the ACC’s best scoring defense and defensive rebounding percentage in conference play.
Flash forward to Sunday, when undefeated Virginia survived 50-47 against in-state and conference rival Virginia Tech for its 19th win of the season. The Hokies became the 44th consecutive ACC team to make less than half its shots against the Cavaliers, who held an opponent to less than 50 points for the 46th time in Bennett’s 185 games on the Virginia bench.
Virginia also held Virginia Tech scoreless for more than five minutes in the second half for their 19th such stretch of 2014-15.
“We build on each stop we get, and then it builds our offense and gets our offense going,” Brogdon said. “I also think our fans get into it. They love the stops just as much as they love the scoring, so that's really tremendous for us.”
Now, Brogdon is unquestionably one of the Cavaliers’ leaders. He plays the most minutes on the team, shoulders nearly one-fifth of the scoring load and garnered Preseason All-ACC recognition after starting every game for Virginia in 2013-14, when the Cavaliers made the Sweet 16.
Fortunately for Virginia, Brogdon is not the complacent type. After the Cavaliers held Georgia Tech to 28 points last Thursday — the lowest point total in ACC regular-season history — Brogdon doled out some healthy perspective.
“Some games we really struggle to get three stops in a row,” Brogdon said. “We have to keep working on that. Sometimes it’s really tough. There are some nights when we can really improve on that.”
As Virginia gears up for 1,000-win coach Mike Krzyzewski and freshman phenom Jahlil Okafor, the GameDay quartet will likely gush about the Cavaliers’ pack-line defense and balanced, efficient offense. But Bennett said Virginia’s success must not affect how it approaches each day.
“It’s still the same mindset: will you still be faithful to the things that have gotten you there?” Bennett said. “It doesn’t change. Nothing changes. All the sudden you don’t become someone you’re not. That would be fool’s gold — that would be a big mistake.”
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