Virginia added its second 2023 verbal last week when 6-foot-4 shooting guard Elijah Gertrude announced his commitment. The Jersey City (NJ) is a big pickup for Tony Bennett and the Wahoos, giving them a building block for the future on the wing.

“Coach Bennett is an amazing coach,” Gertrude told CavsCorner. “The guys he has around him are an amazing group. When I went there for both of my visits, I was welcomed and that felt really good. Virginia is a big time program and academically they are one of the top schools in the country and academics are very important for me.”

Former Virginia legend DeAndre Hunter had a similar route in getting to Charlottesville as Gertrude was a little under the radar at first during his high school school career before really raising his stock during his final summer of AAU basketball. Playing with the City Rocks on the EYBL circuit, Gertrude really showed he belonged and turned a lot of heads.

“Coach Bennett has kind of compared me to DeAndre Hunter,” Gertrude explained. “He has not compared me to him basketball wise but more so of where I was in my recruitment. Hunter was an underrated recruit going into his senior season of high school and then kind of blew up. He really took advantage of the great development program that Virginia has and Coach Bennett thinks I will develop nicely there.”

Currently No. 121 overall in the Rivals150 for 2023, Gertrude has been a player that has known the importance of defense ever since he started playing basketball. That also obviously really attracted the Wahoos to his game.

“Coach Bennett prides himself on defense and that is something I do as well,” he explained. “Since I have been growing up, I just did not like to get scored on. So I have always worked on my defense and pride myself on it and eventually it just all started clicking.”

On the other end of the floor, Gertrude believes there is a lot of upside to his game and thinks he will be able to create some offense from his defense once he arrives on Grounds.

“On the offensive side of the ball there is a lot of upside and I feel like I can adapt to that offense,” he said. “I think I will be able to create a lot of offense from my defense too.”

Gertrude wants to send a very important message to Virginia fans about what they will see from him once he gets to JPJ next year.

“They are getting a guy that just leaves everything on the floor,” he said. “I have been working all my life for this opportunity so I want to make the most of it, show people what I do, and just leave it all out there.”