It’s been a bit of a whirlwind of late for Andrew Rohde, who on Tuesday became the second transfer to commit to Tony Bennett and Virginia this offseason.

Coming off a spectacular rookie year at St. Thomas, the Milwaukee product who averaged 17.1 points per game and was named Summit League Freshman of the Year will be a Wahoo next season. As soon as he entered his name in the transfer portal and received a call from Virginia, it did not take long for Rohde to decide that Charlottesville would be his next home.

“I had somewhat of a gut feeling I was going to commit to UVa after the first time they called me but as soon as I got onto campus I knew it,” he told CavsCorner. “I really love Coach Bennett and the whole staff and all of the players. They have an amazing culture and program going on there and I just knew it was the one.”

Rohde is a versatile player at 6-foot-6 who can do a lot of different things in Virginia’s system.

“They see me coming in and making an impact at the combo guard spot,” he explained. “I love the way they play defense and how they control the tempo during the game and they think I can come right in and be important for them.”

Bennett, given his background and connections in the state, has always done a great job recruiting Wisconsin with Rohde being just the latest native son to commit to play for Bennett.

“It is special we have so much Wisconsin talent at Virginia now,” he said. “It all starts with Coach Bennett playing under his dad at Green Bay and then I actually played AAU with Leon Bond and we started to become really good friends back in middle school, so it is nice to have ties to my hometown and some other people from the area too.”

Rohde is thankful that he is now able to play college basketball in the ACC.

“It is such a blessing to be going up against some of those powerhouse schools like Duke, North Carolina, and those other big brand schools,” he explained. “It is going to be a blessing to share the court with them and show them what we are about and play with them.”

UVa’s roster is going to look very different next year given the various departures and what the Wahoos are bringing in but even with that turnover Rohde has confidence the expectations are the same for the program.

“The expectations for this program don’t change, it is going to be the same every year,” he said. “We will go into every game expecting to win and play the Virginia style. I am going to be new coming in so it will be a little bit of an adjustment for me because I have to learn all of the stuff and learn how to play with the guys but I am really excited and I know all of the guys on the team right now are easy to play with and most importantly high character guys.”