Just as the July evaluation periods were about to begin, Virginia has almost completed its 2020 class. Top-50 wing and one of the top scoring prospects in the rising senior class, Jabri Abdur-Rahim, gave his verbal commitment to Tony Bennett’s program on Wednesday evening.
A prolific scorer on the Nike EYBL circuit this summer, Abdur-Rahim discussed his decision to end his recruitment.
“I felt most comfortable with the staff and I just felt they’d best prepare to win on the college level and achieve my ultimate goal of playing in the NBA,” he told Rivals.com. “I felt really comfortable there. My parents really liked it and it just seemed like somewhere I could see myself.”
Choosing Virginia over Michigan and Villanova, Abdur-Rahim had no shortage of college suitors as he eclipsed over 30 high-major scholarship offers. However, it was Virginia’s track record of success, the comfort he felt when he visited Charlottesville, and Virginia's need for a scoring weapon that he felt he could fill that ultimately won out.
Abdur-Rahim is will bring a major pedigree to the ACC program. The son of former NBA star and the now the president of the G-League, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, the top-50 prospect should be a major contributor on the scoreboard in the coming years. While he will need to touch up on some of his defensive abilities, a facet of the game that any enrolling freshman does at Virginia, Abdur-Rahim is just the type of prospect that UVA has lacked in recent years.
Someone that can create his own offense, the 6-foot-6 wing is a tremendous isolation scorer that works well out of the 17-foot range and near the high post. This summer with the New Jersey Playaz program, he posted per-game averages of 25.2 points, eight rebounds and 1.8 assists. Expect for the four-star to give Bennett plenty of lineup diversity thanks to his ability to slide up or down a position.
Virginia now sits with three Rivals150 commitments from the 2020 class. Next fall, Abdur-Rahim will be joined by Reece Beekman and Carson McCorkle, two guards that bring playmaking and further scoring to its backcourt. The Cavaliers are likely to devote all of their attention onto the 2021 class, though they are in the final three for top-40 senior Keon Johnson.
