CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Entering his final season as a member of the Virginia basketball team, center Jack Salt is excited to get back on the court — this time as a senior captain.

Losing Isaiah Wilkins to graduation has left somewhat of a void on the team in terms of his vocal leadership, but Salt is ready to step up and embrace his new role.

“Isaiah was a guy I looked up to and tried to learn as much as I could from him,” Salt told reporters at ACC Operation Basketball Wednesday in Charlotte.

Salt says he will be passing as much of that knowledge as he can on to his teammates, and Coach Tony Bennett believes that the big man is ready for the opportunity to lead by example on and off the court.

“That’s gonna be a great opportunity and challenge for Jack to kinda not let that [vocal leadership] slide,” Bennett said. “I think Jack’s voice and his heart and mind for it will be a real important piece for our defense.”

The 6-foot-10, 250-pound redshirt senior has been a fixture in Bennett’s starting five over the past two seasons, and the New Zealand native should be even more of a factor and physical presence in the paint than in previous years.

Salt is known as a stingy rim protector and solid rebounder who can set a mean screen to free up space for his teammates to get open looks.

“We’ve got great shooters,” he said. “If I get them open, they’re probably going to get a bucket, so that’s what I’m thinking when I set a screen. If I get a guy wide open, he’s going to hopefully have an open shot and a great opportunity of making it, so that’s my mentality for setting screens.”

He hasn’t necessarily been regarded as much of an offensive threat during his Cavalier career, but he’s been working hard to improve his offensive ability in the offseason.

“We’ve got great perimeter scorers and something we lack is the inside scoring,” Salt pointed out, “so I’ve tried my best to work hard and get better at that so I can provide my team with a little bit of help, when they’re trying to score the whole time I can help out on the inside, get a few points on the board. That’s definitely going to help us out.”

Salt has steadily improved his game over the course of his time with UVa. After sitting out his first year, Salt averaged just under seven minutes a game as a redshirt freshman during the 2015-16 season.

Over his last two seasons, he has started every game, averaging closer to 20 minutes per contest. Although Salt didn’t shoot the ball often, his field-goal percentage has increased each season. He made 52 of his 81 attempts from the field last year for a career-best percentage of .642, and his personal foul count went down from 88 as a sophomore to just 62 in 2017-18.

Defensively, Salt has been consistent with 22 blocked shots and 11 steals in each of the last two years. He averages 3.1 points and 3.3 rebounds for his career, but don’t be surprised to see those numbers shoot up after this season.

Being able to represent his country and play on New Zealand’s national team over the summer was a thrill for Salt. Although it was only two games, Salt helped the team to a pair of FIBA World Cup qualifying victories, and he relished every moment of the opportunity.

“To be able to go out and play with grown men who are professionals, just to see how they deal with certain things was huge,” said Salt. “And some of the guys I looked up to when I used to play when I was younger, I got to play with, so that was an awesome experience for me.”

With Mamadi Diakite, Jay Huff, DeAndre Hunter and Braxton Key all expected to see significant minutes, the Cavaliers will have a little more depth in the post.

“We’ve got some great talent on the big side of things,” admitted Salt. “Mamadi’s a great player. He can come in this year and defensively he’s so quick and agile and he brings the same agility on the offensive end, so he’ll be big. And then Jay coming in to be able to stretch the floor as the 5-man, he’s got good touch, and then Braxton and Dre both play that [small forward/power forward position], so that just adds another dimension to our game.”

Salt has also been impressed with the incoming first-year players, guards Kihei Clark and Kody Stattmann, and what they bring to the table as well.

“Kihei’s a dog,” Salt said. “He’s like a little dog that’s always going after you, so I respect that mentality. And then Kody’s a good shooter, he’s got a really good outside shot and he’s definitely worked on his defense since his first practice to now, there’s definitely been improvement.”

As the team’s lone senior, Salt is eager to assist his younger teammates in any way he can.

“I’ve been here for a while, I’ve seen a lot,” he said. “I didn’t play when I first got here but I’ve gotten to play more later on, so just any experience I can give and wisdom I can give for the younger guys to help them out is what I’m going to do this season.”