Editor’s Note: This article was first published March 19 and will be updated throughout the men’s basketball offseason.
Virginia men’s basketball has, in the span of six months, seen a legend retire and his successor get fired. Now that saga has entered a new phase, full of coaching changes and transfer portal turnover and recruiting battles. The offseason is here.
And it is a mammoth one. Almost two decades have passed since uncertainty hovered around the program like this. But after a 15-17 season that included an 8-12 ACC mark, Virginia is searching for a new head coach, and that will only amplify the transfer portal’s usual vagaries.
This tracker will follow the offseason’s biggest updates.
March 19: Dai Dai Ames
The rising junior guard is entering the transfer portal, On3 reported March 19. He became the program’s second player in two days to make his plans clear.
Ames’s production dipped and rose early in the season. On the year, he averaged 8.7 points and delivered 1.9 assists per game in 25.7 minutes. But something clicked in his final 10 games of the regular season, in which he never failed to reach double-figures scoring.
As a shot creator, Ames often flashed his creativity, and his three-point shot snapped into place during that torrid stretch. He transferred to Virginia last offseason after his freshman season at Kansas State.
March 18: Blake Buchanan
The rising junior forward is entering the transfer portal, The Field of 68’s Jeff Goodman reported. He became the first member of the roster to do so.
This season, Buchanan, who is listed at 6-foot-11, averaged 5.4 points and 5.3 rebounds in 22 minutes per game. He manufactured a mid-season surge, including 16 points and nine rebounds at Miami and a double-double two games later at Pittsburgh. But despite newfound offensive aggression, he never achieved consistency.
Virginia’s other big man, Anthony Robinson, remains out of the portal for now.
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