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It is a rare thing in today's college athletics landscape to be able to retain most of your roster, no matter the sport, but that is what Ryan Odom and Virginia have done this offseason.
While Virginia has been able to keep the players from this past season's team together, they still need to dip into the transfer portal to fill the holes of the players that are leaving and one of the players that the Cavaliers staff is showing interest in is UC Santa Barbara transfer Colin Smith, who began his career at Vanderbilt. According to 247Sports Dushawn London, Virginia is one of many programs showing interest in the 6'8 forward, along with Texas Tech, West Virginia, and Baylor, among others.
6'8 Wing Colin Smith from UC Santa Barbara has garnered interest from the following programs, per his representatives @Octagon
West Virginia
SMU
Baylor
Texas Tech
San Diego
UTEP
UNLV
Nevada
Virginia
George Washington
Tulsa
USC
Minnesota
UCF
Northwestern
Rutgers pic.twitter.com/8UaRsrB7AA
At 247Sports, Smith is ranked as the No. 253 overall transfer and the No. 39 small forward in the portal.
He appeared in 31 games and made 31 starts this past season and scored a season-high 24 points on 8-for-11 shooting, 4-for-6 on 3-pointers and 4-for-4 at the line vs. San Jose St. (Nov. 8). He averaged 11.9 PPG, 4.2 RPG, and 1.5 APG on 46% shooting from the field and 41% from three.
Last season, he appeared in all 34 games with three starts for the Gauchos and averaged 8.7 points and 2.8 rebounds per game. Smith recorded a season-high three steals against Cal Poly (Feb. 27) and dropped a career-high 18 points on UC Irvine with five momentum shifting three-pointers (Mar. 8).
Before UC Santa Barbara, Smith p layed two seasons at Vanderbilt and averaged 7.1 points and 6.6 rebounds in the first seven games of the 2023-24 season before it was cut short due to injury.
The Cavaliers could use a scorer from the wing and Smith would fit into that, even if he does not start. Keep an eye on this recruitment moving forward.
Virginia is going to have Sam Lewis, Thijs de Ridder, Johann Grunloh, Chance Mallory, Silas Barksdale, Elijah Gertrude, and Martin Carrere back, but they are losing Jacari White, Ugonna Onyenso, Dallin Hall, Malik Thomas, and Devins Tillis, who all brought something to the team and were huge in UVA winning 30 games and making the NCAA Tournament. This roster, while bringing back its own talent, still needs to make some additions and a player like Smtih is the exact kind of player that Ryan Odom could use.
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Jackson Caudell has been a publisher at the On SI network for four years and has extensive knowledge covering college athletics and the NBA. Jackson is also the co-host of the Bleav in Georgia Tech podcast, and he loves to bring thoughtful analysis and comprehensive coverage to everything that he does. Find him on X @jacksoncaudell
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