Published May 18, 2022
Recent UVa trip really solidified Young's view of the Cavaliers
Houston Wilson
Staff Writer

As UVa’s recruiting efforts continue to take shape in 2023, the Wahoos are looking to a familiar high school program to once again be a pipeline of sorts to Charlottesville.

Greensboro Day, home to 2023 shooting guard Jaydon Young, is where former Virginia Cavalier and now Wofford Terrier Carson McCorckle went to high school. He’s one of several former players at the school who UVa has recruited hard in recent years.

The 6-foot-3 Young has not picked up an offer from Virginia yet but that could possibly come soon. He did, however, just take an unofficial visit on Grounds this past weekend.

“It really was a great visit,” he told CavsCorner. “They really went into deep detail about what they thought about my game and they let me know my flaws and they let me know what they really liked about me.”

The coaches have known about Young for quite some time so Tony Bennett and Co. have been able to observe what they really like about his game.

“Coach Bennett told me he really likes the way I can score the basketball and defend some of the better players I go up against,” Young explained. “They said they like how I can defend multiple positions and they think I really do everything right on the defensive end of the ball.”

All of those good attributes lead to Young being an ideal type of player for Bennett’s program.

“They see me fitting in their system because of my ability to take and make smart shots and then like I said earlier, the way I play defense,” Young added. “When they were breaking down my film with me they compared me to former Wahoo standout Malcolm Brogdon. They think I can score like him and guard the ball like did when he was at UVa.

“Overall they see me as a combo guard that can guard multiple positions and they think with my ability to score I could possibly have the green light to score,” he said. “Personally I think I would fit in perfectly there as a scorer and a defender.”

Though an offer has not been tossed out to Young yet, he is expecting Bennett to watch him closely in the June Live Period which could result in an offer.

“There are some things that the staff wants to see me work on and I think if I showed I can improve on those, I could land an offer from them,” he said. “Coach Bennett said he wants to see me play in June so I really think that could lead to an offer.”

A lot recruits tend to talk about how nice the facilities are at Virginia and Young was no different as he had nothing but praise.

“The strength and fitness room that they have really stood out,” Young said. “It is crazy in there and I literally have not seen a fitness center like that before. I really like how everything is all together too, like the gym, practice gym, and fitness center, it is a one-stop shop. You can go get ice, go get treatment and go get up shots whenever all in the same building, which is awesome.”

One thing that is important to both Bennett and Young is faith, so that was another topic the two could easily bond over.

“I did not realize how important faith was to Tony Bennett,” Young said. “He is a Christian and I am a Christian so we really matched up well with each other and we could talk about a lot of different stuff other than basketball.”

In recent years Virginia has had good success recruiting in the state of North Carolina and Young knows a lot of the players that have suited up for the Cavaliers. And even if some of those guys transferred out of Virginia, it has been all positive talk in terms of the university.

“I know Carson, him and I are actually pretty close,” Young said. “I know Trey Murphy and Justin McKoy pretty well. I talk to Carson a lot and he said he really liked Virginia. He told me the thing that was really just holding him back was the playing time but he said nothing but great things about the team and the school and gave me the thumbs up.”

As of right now Young does not have any other visits set up but there are a few schools that he would definitely like to visit.

“I do not have any other visits planned right now but I would like to visit Cincinnati for sure, Florida State and Tennessee,” he added.