Elijah Gertrude/Tipton Edits/On3
UVA Basketball: Four-Star Elijah Gertrude to Announce Decision Wednesday
Look out Virginia basketball fans. Another UVA recruiting target has set an announcement date for his college decision and this time, the Cavaliers are favored to land his commitment.
Elijah Gertrude, a class of 2023 four-star shooting guard from Jersey City, New Jersey, will announce his college choice on Wednesday from among five finalists: Kansas, Rutgers, Seton Hall, St. John's, and Virginia. Gertrude will make his decision live on the 247Sports YouTube channel on Wednesday at 4pm ET.
A 6'3" shooting guard, Gertrude is rated the No. 36 overall prospect in the class of 2023 by 247Sports, as well as the No. 3 shooting guard in the country and the No. 5 player in the state of New Jersey.
Gertrude announced a top five of Seton Hall, St. John's, Kansas, Virginia, and Rutgers in the first week of August. That announcement came just one week after taking an official visit to UVA.
“The Virginia visit was good, it was great actually,” Gertrude told Adam Zagoria of ZagsBlog after his visit. “Their message is Coach Bennett feels I’m a great defensive player and I can take take that defensive effort to another level... He feels I’m very skilled offensively and we can work on some things. Coach Bennett feels he can develop me offensively and defensively he can make me much better.”
UVA has made the final cuts for several targets in this recruiting cycle, but all but one of them - Blake Buchanan - ended up committing to other schools in the end. This time, however, it appears that the Cavaliers will come out on top.
On Friday, Virginia picked up a crystal ball prediction for Elijah Gertrude on 247Sports, which means that one of 247's recruiting experts has projected that Gertrude will commit to UVA. As of Monday, there are now five crystal ball predictions for Virginia to land Gertrude's commitment. Five 247Sports recruiting insiders, including Wahoos 247's Jacquie Franciulli, have projected Gertrude to pledge to the Cavaliers.
Other recruiting sites give Virginia similarly high chances of winning this recruiting battle. On3 has UVA's probability of landing Gertrude at 91.0%, with local schools Seton Hall (2.7%), St. John's (2.3%), and Rutgers (1.9%) each having minute chances. Rivals.com says that it's a lock with Virginia having a 100% chance of earning Gertrude's commitment.
If he does commit, Elijah Gertrude would be Virginia's second verbal commitment in the recruiting class of 2023, joining four-star center Blake Buchanan (Coeur D'Alene, Idaho), who announced his commitment to Virginia back on July 3rd.
Virginia is also in the mix for four other targets in the class of 2023, each of whom has the Cavaliers in his most recent cut list:
SG Taison Chatman (Minneapolis, MN)
SF Andrej Stojakovic (Carmichael, CA)
CG Elmarko Jackson (South Kent, CT)
SG Davin Cosby (Richmond, VA)
Stay updated on all the latest Virginia basketball recruiting news, including offers, visits, and commitments here: Latest Virginia Basketball Recruiting News and Updates
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