Jayden Gardner makes decision on plans for 2022-2023 college basketball season

The Virginia Cavaliers basketball team received some massive news on Friday night. Their third team All-ACC power forward Jayden Gardner officially announced he will be coming back to the Cavaliers and utilize his extra season of eligibility. He relayed the news to college basketball expert, Jon Rothstein, but Gardner also made the announcement official in an Instagram highlight video that he posted. He wrote the words, “Run it back” at the top of the video.

Last year, Gardner was the best inside scorer the Cavaliers’ program has seen since Anthony Gill. Not only that, he developed into one of the top defenders in the ACC by the end of the 2021-2022 college basketball season. It takes plenty of time to learn head coach Tony Bennett’s vaunted pack line defense and Gardner was clearly adjusting early on this year. Then later on in the season, things started to click for him and in a big way.

Gardner made a drastic improvement on defense in the second half of the 2021-2022 season for the Cavaliers

Gardner gave Duke power forward Paolo Banchero problems in Durham, limiting him to a season-low nine points on 3-of-9 shooting from the field. The Cavaliers’ defense also caused him to turn the ball over four times in their 69-68 upset victory. In Charlottesville against Virginia (Feb. 23), the former five-star prospect once again struggled against Gardner and the Cavaliers’ pack-line defense, posting another season-low of eight points. He only connected on 2-of-13 shots from the field and also had three turnovers in that game.

With one year of experience in the pack line defense under his belt, expect Gardner to make even more improvements on the defensive end during the 2022-2023 season. Last year, he averaged 15.3 points per game and 6.4 rebounds per game in just his first year of playing in the ACC.

As of now, the Cavaliers will return at least four of their five top scorers from a team that won 21 games and made it to the NIT. If Kihei Clark returns for one more year, Virginia will return all five scorers from its 2021-2022 roster. Gardner spent his first three seasons of college basketball with the East Carolina Pirates. He was one of the most coveted big men in the transfer portal during the 2021 offseason when Tony Bennett lured him to Charlottesville.

As a high school prospect, the 6-foot-6 power forward was a nominee for the McDonald’s All-American Game in 2018. He had a historically good career for Heritage High School (Wake Forest, North Carolina). Gardner wrapped up his career there pouring in 2,282 points–which ranks 19th in the NCHSAA record books. He also corralled 1,319 rebounds in his career there, ranking fourth in NCHSAA history.