This past fall, Tony Bennett and his staff landed one of their highest-ranked recruits in several years when four-star guard Elijah Gertrude chose the Wahoos.

Currently slotted at No. 53 in the Rivals150 for 2023, Gertrude is rated as the 11th-ranked shooting guard in the class. Unfortunately, he tore his ACL right before his senior season started but is on the way back.

“The recovery is going well,” the 6-foot-4 UVa signee told CavsCorner. “I have been going hard in therapy and have been doing well in workouts on my own time and the Hudson Catholic training staff have been great to me. I am moving well and I expect to feel great once I fully recover.”

There has been a lot of optimism that the Garden State product will make a full recovery by the time his freshman season starts next year but at this point Gertrude does not know when he’ll be able to be cleared.

“As of right now, I am not exactly sure the exact date of when I will officially return but I just started jump-shots and stuff like that,” he explained. “I am happy with how the recovery is going and we are getting close. The ultimate goal is to get back for the start of the season in November.”

During his rehab and recovery process this winter, Gertrude got to watch a lot of Virginia basketball and he said he’s liked what he saw when watching the Wahoos.

“The team played great,” he said. “They had stretches that were good but as all teams, they had stretches where they had some difficulty but overall they had a good season and you could tell they had a lot of good chemistry when they were on the court together.

“Isaac McKneely played a big part because of his ability to hit shots, Reece (Beekman) played a huge part on both sides of the ball, and Kihei (Clark) always manages the game so well. I enjoyed seeing all of the pieces play well together and it was not the way we all wanted it to end but again it was a really good season.”

Among the things that really stood out to him was watching Ryan Dunn in action this season and also watching the Cavaliers play with a little more fast pace at times.

“Watching them this year, I saw them getting up and down a little bit more than usual and I think Ryan played a big part in that,” Gertrude said. “Ryan is very athletic, he gets up and down and can block shots so I am really excited to play with him and all of those guys, it is going to be a lot of fun.

“On the defensive side of the ball, it is the same thing, they really lock down on defense,” he added. “I think I will mesh well with the guys when I get there.”

Even though Gertrude is not on Grounds yet, he has been in communication with the other 2023 pledge in Blake Buchanan and some of the first years.

“I talk with Blake every day and we are really excited to get there,” Gertrude said. “I talk with Ryan a lot and the other first-years call in and check on me a lot. One time earlier this year after one of their games, Ryan called me after a crazy dunk and it was so cool hearing how excited he was. Leon (Bond) and I text every once in a while and overall the communication has been really good.”

When asked what Virginia fans can expect from him when he is fully healthy and playing in a Virginia uniform, Gertrude didn’t hold back.

“UVa fans can expect an exciting player,” he said. “I am not going to let this injury slow me down. My goal is to get back to being the same player I was before and that is an exciting player that can really get up and down, it is going to be a lot of fun once I get going there.”