Around the Corner 9/21: Kurt Benkert and Mamadi Diakite sign contracts, football injury updates, basketball recruiting updates

Whoop whoop another day of UVA sports brought to you by Around the Corner. Everything you need to know about the Virginia Cavaliers on this slightly cooler Wednesday morning:

Notable news

Virginia WR Billy Kemp not expected to play against Syracuse, Antonio Clary day-to-day — Wahoos247

In Tony Elliott’s press conference yesterday, he noted that UVA’s two late scratches for Richmond’s game are still coming back from their ailments as WR Billy Kemp IV is still recovering from extreme dehydration and likely won’t play this Friday while safety Antonio Clary is day to day and should be a game time decision versus Syracuse. He was involved in hitting drills in practice yesterday.

Virginia Cruises to 2-0 Win Over American — Virginia Sports

Despite not scoring for the first 49 minutes of play, the UVA men’s soccer team broke through in the 50th minute and once again in the 83rd to beat American 2-0.

Said HC George Gelnovatch after the win:

“They’re not an easy team to play against. They were pretty organized offensively, and difficult to break down. I feel like we wore them down and I thought the second half was a good professional performance from our guys…I feel like the team’s confidence levels are high, we are scoring goals and creating good chances so there is real belief in ourselves as we prepare to go on the road.”

Mamadi Diakite Signs Training Camp Deal With Cleveland Cavaliers — Cavaliers Now

After spending time in the Oklahoma City Thunder organization over the last year, Diakite has now signed a camp deal with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Granted, his contract is not associated with the G League which essentially means that if he doesn’t earn a spot on the Thunder’s 15-man roster, he’ll be a free agent once more.

San Francisco 49ers Are Signing A Veteran Quarterback — Athlon Sports

Another former Wahoo who’d gone unsigned, Kurt Benkert has now signed a contract to join the 49ers’ practice squad after being with the Falcons and the Packers earlier in his career. Following the season-ending injury for starter Trey Lance, the 49ers needed to add another QB and Benkert was the right guy at the right time. Hopefully he can impress in practice and further prove his chops as an NFL backup.

Former Ohio State commit George Washington down to 5 schools — On3

As fall basketball recruiting picks up, 2023s continue to make their decisions as recent Ohio State de-commit George Washington III has now narrowed his new lsit to five with UVA, Michigan, Louisville, Wake Forest, and Dayton included.

Here’s what he had to say about Virginia in On3’s article:

“Coach (Tony) Bennett is a Hall-of-Fame coach. He’s one of the best to do it and they’re a top ACC school.”

Meh, pretty bland. Although having interviewed GWIII, he’s not the most long-winded of speakers. Take that and his comment with a grain of salt.

Social media dive

Speaking of basketball recruiting, UVA was listed in the top-five for 2023 point guard Taison Chatman before he committed to Ohio State yesterday — funnily enough filling the spot Washing III left. The writing had been on the wall for a while that UVA wasn’t gonna get Chatman, but that’s yet another 2023 PG officially off the board. Really only Elmarko Jackson is left.

As we inch closer and closer to basketball season, we’re starting to get some content out of the men’s program with team media day yesterday yielding this look at the guys having fun.

Student/author perspective

Not a ton to say about student life at the moment. Everybody is tired, everybody is cranky, nobody’s got time for anything much more than studying at the moment.

Personally, I’m starting to try and figure out housing for next year which is an annual stressor that is not a ton of fun. Hopefully I can get that sorted relatively soon because heading into October or November without some sort of plan can be a scary prospect...

As for STL, we’ll continue to have you covered on football content leading into Friday and have more analysis of the team coming out in a couple different stories later today. There will NOT be an Around the Corner tomorrow morning. Apologies, gotta put the school before the writing for once. But we’ll still have plenty of stories going up and I’ll see you back in this space Friday morning!

Be well, all!