Could Trent Perry be the Solution to Virginia's Point Guard Problem?
The point guard position has been a luxury and a strength for the Virginia men's basketball program for the last decade. Tony Bennett and the Cavaliers have reaped the benefits of an effective succession plan, going from London Perrantes to Ty Jerome to Kihei Clark to Reece Beekman.
But with Beekman presumably gone to the NBA Draft this summer, UVA is left with a gigantic question mark at the most important position on the floor for the first time in many years. There's a few point guard options on the existing roster for next season, but none that really stand out as viable starting candidates.
Georgetown transfer Dante Harris has lots of experience, but didn't show nearly enough this season to suggest that Virginia would succeed with him as the starting point guard. Christian Bliss has a high ceiling, but isn't likely to be ready for the starting role in his first season of college basketball coming off of a redshirt year. Elijah Gertrude is ready for a lot of minutes, but he isn't a natural point guard.
With that said, it seems Virginia will have to look for a new addition to the roster this offseason to contend for the starting point guard spot. Naturally, the Cavaliers have targeted a few point guards in the transfer portal, but have yet to reach the advanced stages of the recruiting process with any of those players as of this writing.
Related: Virginia Basketball Transfer Portal Contact Live Tracker
The most intriguing potential solution to Virginia's point guard problem is actually a high school prospect. 2024 four-star guard Trent Perry (Studio City, CA) requested a release from his National Letter of Intent with USC last week and is reopening his recruitment after USC head coach Andy Enfield left to take the job at SMU.
Virginia was in the hunt for Perry's commitment last summer and the 6'4" point guard was initially expected to take a visit to UVA before Christian Bliss committed. Perry then trimmed his list to a final six of Gonzaga, Colorado, Oregon, Stanford, TCU, and USC and ultimately committed to the Trojans last October.
Since decommitting from USC and reopening his recruitment, Perry has unsurprisingly heard from many coaches, including Tony Bennett. Virginia, Alabama, UCLA, Oregon, Stanford, Villanova, and other major programs have all reportedly reached out to Perry.
It's too early to tell how much of a chance the Cavaliers have to land his commitment the second time around, but Perry does have a demonstrated respect for Tony Bennett, so it's worth keeping an eye on. Here's what Perry told On3 about Bennett last summer during his initial recruiting process:
"It's Tony Bennett. He's a legendary coach, honestly. He won a national championship and he played in the league. Coach Bennett knows how to develop guards, guys like Ty Jerome and Kyle Guy. He's also had West Coast guys like London Perrantes and Kihei Clark. I have a great relationship with the staff and it's pretty comfortable knowing that they want West Coast kids and they've been pretty successful there."
A consensus four-star recruit across each of the major recruiting services, Perry is the No. 26 overall recruit in the class of 2024 per the ESPN 100 rankings and a top five point guard in the country. Perry was named the Gatorade Player of the Year in California after a senior season that saw him average 18.7 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 6.0 assists per game. He played in the McDonald's All American Game and won the three-point shooting contest.
It's fairly safe to say that if Trent Perry did end up at Virginia, he'd have a solid chance of following in the footsteps of point guards like Perrantes, Jerome, Clark, and Beekman, who played significant minutes as freshmen and went on to have extremely successful careers. Virginia has a void at the point guard position and Perry could be just the guy to fill it, but only time will tell. Keep tabs on this one.
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