Kihei Clark announces he’ll return to UVA for a fifth season; Reneau commits to Hoosiers

By Jerry Ratcliffe

He’s b-a-a-c-c-k … Virginia’s starting point guard Kihei Clark announced Monday afternoon that he will be returning for a fifth year.

We reported prior to UVA’s Senior Day that Clark’s parents told our colleague Scott German that Tony Bennett had invited the senior guard back for another season and that Clark had agreed.

Clark’s official announcement means that Virginia will return its top five scorers from a team that won 21 games this past season. A starter in all 35 games for the Cavaliers this past season, he averaged 10 points, 4.4 assists and 2.9 rebounds per game, while shooting 38.7 percent from the floor, 34.6 percent from the 3-point arc and 78.2 percent from the free-throw line.

He was second in the ACC in minutes played, an average of 36.1 minutes per game, fifth in assists and sixth in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.99). Clark was All-ACC honorable mention.

Forever remembered for his assist of Mamadi Diakite’s basket that sent the 2019 Elite Eight game against Purdue into overtime (UVA went on to win the game and eventually the national championship), Clark is within range of breaking several program records according to Danny Neckel’s data:

Games Played: 138 (London Perrantes and Mike Tobey), Clark 128

Starts: 132 (Perrantes), Clark 108

Minutes: 4,425 (Perrantes), Clark 4,244

In other UVA basketball news, 5-star power forward Malik Reneau, who decommitted from Florida, committed to Indiana on Monday after a weekend visit to Bloomington. Reneau had listed Virginia as one of the five schools he planned to visit.