Veteran sportswriter Doug Doughty writes regularly for Cardinal News. Want to keep up? Sign up for our free email newsletter.
Kadin Shedrick, who played in 75 basketball games for Virginia over the past three seasons, reportedly visited Duke this past weekend and has scheduled visits to North Carolina and Texas.
Shedrick, a 6-foot-11, 235-pounder from Holly Springs, N.C., averaged 6.2 points and 3.8 rebounds as a redshirt junior at UVa this past season.
Duke as a possible destination might be up in the air as Kyle Filipowski, a potential first round pick according to ESPN, has announced he is staying for a second year at Duke. That drove top ten recruit Mackenzie Mgbako to ask for a release from his letter of intent. Shedrick played in 33 of 30 games, including 15 starts.
The Cavaliers already have lost a frontcourt player, Isaac Traudt, a 6-foot-10 freshman who transferred to Creighton after sitting out the 2022-23 season as a redshirt.
However, there should be ample room at Virginia for 6-11 signee Blake Buchanan, the Gatorade player of the year in Idaho this past season.
Another UVa big man who has picked up his roots and gone elsewhere is Francisco Caffaro, who played in 17 games this past season after averaging fewer than seven points per games.
Caffarro, one-time member of the Argentinian Olympic team, is transferring to Santa Clara, which is coming off a 26-8 season.
More from the portal
Matthew Cleveland, who scored a team-leading 13.8 points per game for Florida State as a sophomore, has entered the transfer portal. A teammate, Caleb Mills, is looking at Memphis after starting 31 games for the Seminoles.
Veteran Florida State head coach Leonard Hamilton also has taken a turn at the portal and has connected with Hofstra’s Aaron Estrada, the Colonial Athletic Association scoring leader this past season.
Alabama, Kansas State and Cincinnati are in that mix.
J.J. Starling, who entered the portal after the retirement of Notre Dame coach Mike Brey, has elected to transfer to Syracuse, where another ACC coach, Jim Boeheim, has retired.
El Ellis, who entered the transfer portal after scoring a team-leading 17.7 points per game for Louisville, grew up in the Durham, N.C., area and has been approached by the likes of N.C. State, Clemson and Florida State.
UVa has been mentioned in connection with 6-foot-8 Jordan Minor, who averaged 17.4 points and 9.4 rebounds in his fourth year at Merrimack. Minor, who is from Kingston, Mass., is listed at 6-8 and 240 pounds.
The UVa women’s basketball program has landed Paris Clark, a former New York state player of the year at Long Island Lutheran who played in 24 games last year at Arizona, where she was 10th of 11 in minutes played.
The Cavaliers were in need of help after finishing the 2022-23 season with 11 losses in their last 12 games.
Baseball
At 29-4, Virginia’s baseball team is ranked eighth in Division I, trailing only one other ACC team, second-ranked Wake Forest, which is 28-4. LSU is ranked No. 1 overall by D1 Baseball.
With his 13th home run of the season last week against Richmond, Virginia junior Jake Gelof broke the Cavaliers’ career scoring record on Tuesday against Richmond at 38 and hit another on Wednesday against Mount St Mary’s. The record is now 39 and counting.
Though unranked, Virginia Tech is one of the three teams to beat the Cavaliers, with two of those victories coming April 1-2 on English Field in Blacksburg.
Tennis
The UVa men’s tennis team is seventh and the Virginia women’s tennis team is ninth. North Carolina is tops among the women’s tennis programs nationally, according to the ITA rankings.
Softball
Even before an 11-0 loss to Tennessee. the Virginia Tech softball team had posted a 31-9 record and was 13th in the polls after beating Virginia 7-0 on an Emma Lenley two-hitter.