Perrantes and Hall Could Have Major Impact in 2013-14

Last offseason, Tony Bennett and his staff added five freshmen to the UVa program, and all of them played significant minutes. The Cavaliers bring everyone back from their regular rotation except for starting point guard Jontel Evans, who leaves the program after four seasons. Virginia's two signees, Devon Hall and London Perrantes, are both point guards, and figure to compete for early playing time in Charlottesville.

There are several players on the roster who could end up playing significant minutes at the point as well. Taylor Barnette played some point guard early in the season when Evans was out of the lineup, and achieved mixed results. Barnette, who showed his ability to get hot from three late in the year, is probably a bigger asset to the program as an off-the-ball guard. Teven Jones could end up being Virginia's starting point guard, but he struggled with consistency, and was left out of the rotation for stretches of the season. His role on the team going forward will probably be determined in the offseason leading into November. There's also Malcolm Brogdon, who projects to return after sitting out the entire 2012-13 season with a foot injury. Brogdon can play either point or shooting guard, and if other options don't work out, he could end up playing significant minutes at the "1" spot next year.

Perrantes and Hall, although both point guards, have significant differences in their games. Perrantes, a Southern California native, is a pretty good shooter and a solid distributor as well. The 3-star guard can do a lot of what Jontel Evans could not do on the offensive end, in keeping defenders from from sagging off of him when he has the ball. Hall, who is a tall point guard at 6'4", is more of a floor general type. He sees the game really well, and reminds me a lot of former North Carolina guard Kendall Marshall. Because of the differences in their games, if they both develop quickly, Bennett could play both of them at the same time.

Of course, as always with Tony Bennett's teams, playing time will be determined by how quickly the two first-years pick up the pack-line defense concepts. In the UVa program, if you don't play defense, then you just don't play. If one of Perrantes or Hall comes in right away and is better defensively than the other, then that guy will almost certainly get a lot more minutes. Hall's length could really be an asset on the defensive end, but Jontel Evans showed in his time in Charlottesville that a quick, aggressive guard, like Perrantes, can make the system work as well.

There is also the possibility that one of the freshmen could redshirt, with the amount of depth the Cavaliers bring back for next season. That depends a lot on how the freshmen do in practice compared to the returning guards. If both freshmen start off on the bench behind Jones and Brogdon, then with limited minutes to go around, one of them could sit for a year and improve their game. If the newcomers are ready, then obviously they should play. A solid point guard could make next years' Virginia team a really impressive squad with an opportunity to make a run in the NCAA Tournament. Two talented guards coming in and competing for playing time is a great problem to have, and both players project as great additions to the Cavalier program going forward.