B
Y NOW, HOOPHEADS
have seen, read and heard
about 6-7 wing/forward
De’Andre Hunter’s heroic
performance guiding Virginia
to the program’s first national
championship in April.
They’ve also heard all the jokes about
the Cavaliers being the first No. 1 seed
to get bounced in the first round of
the NCAA Tournament a year prior.
Hunter heard them, too, unable to help
his squad as a former redshirt freshman
who became the ACC’s Sixth Man of the
Year, because he was sidelined with an
injured wrist.“It taught me a lot,” Hunter says. “I
knew my role would increase. So I knew I
had to do everything I could to perfect my
game to be the best player my team
needed.”
Mission accomplished.
He averaged 15.2 points per game
and 5.1 boards, and locked up just about
any position on the floor defensively on
his way to First Team All-ACC and ACC
Defensive Player of the Year honors.
He capped the season with a career-
high 27 points in the national title
game—including big shot after big
shot—and put the cuffs on Texas Tech
star Jarrett Culver.The Cavaliers’ notoriously slow,
continuous pace on offense and defensive
connectedness and stinginess is
conducive to winning ball games and
titles, but not great for gaudy individual
numbers. So Dre sacrificed stats for a
’chip the last two seasons, but wound up
with both during his final collegiate game.
“I remember [Villanova’s] Donte
[DiVincenzo] going crazy in their champi-
onship, and it seemed so far away at the
time,” says Hunter, a native of Philadel-
phia, where he attended Friends’ Central
School. “I thought about how amazing
it would be to be on that stage with all
those people in the stadium.THE
FUTURE
ISSUEMADE YOU
+++++++++++++++++++
De’Andre Hunter was overlooked through
high school and overlooked as he began his
college career as a redshirt freshman. But
after leading Virginia to this year’s National
Championship and garnering Lottery hype as
the 2019 NBA Draft approaches, it’s safe to
say those days are long over.WORDS DANNY HAZAN56 SLAMONLINE.COM