Virginia Freshman Guard Ishan Sharma Enters Transfer Portal

A 6'5" guard from Milton, Ontario, Sharma arrived on Grounds with Jacob Cofie as Tony Bennett's final high school recruiting class last summer. When Bennett announced his retirement a couple of weeks before the season began, Sharma stuck it out. The same can't be said for some of the other guards on the roster, as Florida State transfer Jalen Warley re-entered the portal and eventually transferred to Gonzaga and redshirt freshman Christian Bliss missed the entire season with a mysterious lower body injury.

As a result of that lack of guard depth, Sharma was pressed into service early in his freshman year, with the Cavaliers relying heavily on him to handle the ball. For a 15-game stretch from late November to early February, Sharma played double-digit minutes in all but two of those games. Included in that stretch was a 12-point, five-rebound, three-assist performance in a win over Bethune-Cookman and his first and only start of the season at Stanford in which he logged 32 minutes on the floor.

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Sharma's minutes went down late in the season, though, as he played double-digit minutes just once in the last eight games of the regular season and did not play in Virginia's ACC Tournament loss to Georgia Tech to end the season. For the season, Sharma averaged 3.4 points, 1.3 rebounds, and 0.8 assists in 12.8 minutes per game and shot 33.3% from beyond the arc on 2.5 attempts per game. Sharma got a lot of experience as a freshman, but rarely had enough time on the floor to get into a rhythm as a shooter. He had eight games with multiple three-pointers made, but none in the last month of the season.

Sharma was not among the first wave of Virginia players to hit the portal this week, as six Cavaliers entered their names into the transfer portal when the window opened on Monday and Jacob Cofie joined that group on Tuesday. New head coach Ryan Odom said he was planning to have meetings with each player this week, so it could be the case that Sharma's entrance into the portal comes following his meeting with Odom.

Ishan Sharma is the eighth Virginia player to enter the transfer portal this offseason, joining junior guard Isaac McKneely, junior guard Andrew Rohde, sophomore guard Dai Dai Ames, freshman forward Jacob Cofie, redshirt freshman center Anthony Robinson, sophomore center Blake Buchanan, and sophomore forward TJ Power.

Stay up to date on all the latest Virginia basketball transfer portal activity, including outbound transfers from the current roster and UVA's effort to pursue players in the portal, here: Virginia Basketball Transfer Portal: Latest News and Updates