Dilione talks Virginia visit, his time with Bennett, and more

For the second time in the past two weeks, Tony Bennett and his staff have hosted a 2023 prospect for an official visit.

One the heels of bringing in three-star forward Blake Buchanan, this past weekend it was guard Freddie Dilione of Word Of God Christian Academy who got to spend some time in Charlottesville.

After the Wahoos extended an offer to Dilione last week, what did he think of his time on Grounds?

“I really enjoyed my visit to Virginia,” Dilione told CavsCorner. “Coach Bennett sat down with me and broke down a lot of my film and explained to me how I could fit in his program.”

Guard play has been a big reason why Virginia has had so much success under Bennett. The veteran head coach thinks Dilione could develop nicely like others in the program have in recent years.

“I watched a lot of film of former Virginia guards,” Dilione recalled, “and Coach Bennett thinks I am similar to some of his previous players. One guy in particular is Malcolm Brogdon, he showed me a lot of film on Brogdon and he thinks I could be very similar to him.”

If comparing him to a consensus All-American and the league’s Defensive Player of the Year wasn’t enough, facilities also stood out during Dilione’s official visit. He spoke highly on what Virginia has to offer in that regard as well and how much he and his family enjoyed their time.

“The gyms are really nice,” he said. “They had the music going so I could really see the entire atmosphere. The practice gym is nice. They had part of the floor from the national championship game when they won it a few years back so that was really cool to see.”

As is sometimes the case with official visits, it’s not just about what you expect to see. One of the new things Dilione said he was able to learn about were the pillars of the program and how close the players are to each other.

“Coach Bennett explained to me what his pillars meant, which was really cool to learn about,” he said. “I was also able to meet some of the current rosters and I was able to find out how close these guys are. It is really a close knit family.”

As for where things go from here, Dilione does not have any other visits scheduled as of now but that will certainly change as he mentioned previously he would like to visit VCU, Alabama, and Tennessee. He also added an offer from Texas on Monday.