In September 2015, UVa was trying to put the finishing touches on a 2016 recruiting class that Tony Bennett and Co. knew had the potential to be special. With Ty Jerome, Kyle Guy, and Jay Huff already in the fold, they were looking for one more vital piece.
As fate would have it, two of the players the Cavaliers had targeted for that final spot would eventually end up playing for Virginia and help fuel a run to the national title.
It was September 12th of that year when UVa basketball began its trajectory toward Minneapolis, the day that De'Andre Hunter chose to become a Wahoo.
A week after cutting down the nets, yesterday was another seminal moment in UVa basketball history, as Jerome and then Hunter each announced their decisions to make themselves available for the upcoming NBA Draft.
"De'Andre and Ty leave Virginia with tremendous legacies," Bennett said in a statement. "They were outstanding players and role models, and I'm so proud of the men they have become. We won a lot of games and championships with De'Andre and Ty, and they are ready to realize their life-long dreams of playing in the NBA."
Jerome exits Charlottesville following three of the best games of his life. He scored 24 in the Elite Eight win over Purdue and then 21 in the Final Four victory over Auburn before going for 16 points, eight assists, and six boards in the title game. He had career highs in points (13.6), rebounds (4.2), and assists (5.5) during this past season, including a trio of double-doubles and a career-high 14 dimes against Syracuse (tying the school record). He totaled 1,011 points, 317 rebounds, and 384 assists in his 105 career games at UVa.
Hunter, meanwhile, leaves following just two seasons on the court but finished this past year not only as an All-ACC first teamer but also the league's Defensive Player of the Year as well as the NABC's national Defensive Player of the Year as well. Though he had a quiet tournament relative to his NBA Draft lottery potential, he went out with arguably the best game of his career: His 27-point outburst against the Red Raiders, including a 6-for-7 shooting performance in the second half, will go down as legendary in Wahoo lore.
A consensus second-team All-American, he put up 15.2 points and 5.1 rebounds per game during his redshirt sophomore season while shooting 52 percent from the field and 43.8 percent from 3-point range. Hunter tallied 10 20-point games in his career.
To this point, Virginia has produced five NBA Draft selections since 2012, including Mike Scott (Atlanta in 2012), Joe Harris (Cleveland in 2014), Justin Anderson (Dallas in 2015), Malcolm Brogdon (Milwaukee in 2016) and Devon Hall (Oklahoma City in 2016). Jerome and Hunter become the first underclassmen to declare since Anderson was selected 21st overall in four years ago.
While UVa has built a rep in recent years as a school that prepares its guys for the league, the potential for these two and what it could mean for the program going forward—especially on the heels of a national title—is brand new territory for the Hoos. Though the staff will likely not target players they otherwise wouldn't have, they are likely to get more attention from higher-rated recruits now and Bennett has shown what he can do when his system pairs with the best of the best.
All told, Jerome and Hunter leave the program in much better shape than they found it. With some other pro decisions yet to be made, it remains to be seen what the roster will look like once Virginia takes the court again at John Paul Jones Arena.
But there will be a national championship banner hanging over the court when they do and much of that was because of what became of that same roster once Hunter chose the Cavaliers.
The rest, as they say, is history.
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