The bad day for the Virginia Cavaliers men’s basketball program has gotten significantly worse with 2025 point guard commit Chance Mallory’s de-committing from UVA and re-opening his commitment.
BREAKING: 4⭐️ Chance Mallory, a top-50 recruit in the 2025 class, has decommitted from Virginia, he tells @On3Recruits.
The 5-9 Point Guard and Charlottesville native has reopened his recruitment after Tony Bennett’s decision to retire, but says he will still consider Virginia.… pic.twitter.com/gKuMU0GhRM
— Joe Tipton (@TiptonEdits) October 29, 2024
This is brutal news for UVA and for interim head coach Ron Sanchez. Mallory was a shining star for Virginia whose de-commitment is indicative of the impact of Tony Bennett’s retirement less than two weeks ago.
Mallory, a Charlottesville native and a four star guard, is a special player with all the tools to be UVA’s next great point guard. He’s an offensive talent that the ‘Hoos have been lacking at the lead guard spot for years. Alas, he’s presumably looking elsewhere. There’s always a chance he gives Virginia another chance to re-recruit him as he’ll likely wait until the late signing period in the spring to make his decision. But that’s not much of a consolation right now.
The UVA program is fully in flux. With no high school commits and few recruits on the big board, a projected starter transferring out earlier on Tuesday, an interim head coach, and a team that has to coalesce in nine days with a new leader, things look awfully bleak for the future.
It also reflects just how much weight Bennett carried at the helm. All due respect to Sanchez, it was Bennett who acted as the biggest draw to Virginia. Now that he’s gone, the institution and the fragility of having an interim head coach mean that it’s difficult to keep operations progressing smoothly on the recruiting trail.
The timing of Bennett’s retirement, while justified, similarly hurts because it means UVA is fully behind the curve on high school recruiting for both 2025 and 2026. Even if Sanchez has a good year and is hired as the Bennett successor or if UVA finds its next great coach in the offseason, Bennett stepping down just 20 days before the season and not sooner means there is inherently more roster instability.
