Forward graduate student and transfer from University of Virginia, Kadin Shedrick, is searching for a new beginning playing for Texas in the quickly approaching season.
“I just want a new style of play, wanted a new opportunity and pretty much a whole fresh start,” Shedrick said.
Shedrick played four previous seasons at UVA, averaging 6.2 points and 3.8 rebounds a game in his senior season. He also held a 79.4 free throw percentage. According to Ben Ivstan, former Virginia men’s basketball beat reporter for The Cavalier Daily, Shedrick can make the biggest impact defensively because of his “mix of size and athleticism.”
“He’s a nuisance in the paint for other teams,” Ivstan said.
The Texas team brings a number of new components that Shedrick is excited to come across this season such as the high tempo game and the Longhorn to NBA pipeline. Besides the positive elements of his new team, Shedrick did receive a significant cut in playing time in his final year in Charlottesville. Virginia head coach Tony Bennett made a choice early last season to move Shedrick, a usual Cavalier starter for the past two seasons, to the bench. Shedrick was replaced by then-graduate student and Ohio transfer Ben Vander Plas.
Ivstan believes that Shedrick’s drop in playing time stemmed from the Cavaliers’ decision to move to a short game approach. With Shedrick being 6 feet 11 inches tall, his height could have been seen as a deficit to their updated style of play.
“He didn’t think he was able to show a lot of what he can do on the court,” Ivstan said. “I think there may have been some butting of heads there.”
Upon entering the transfer portal and being sought out by Texas, Shedrick knew his style of game could be useful somewhere else. Shedrick was the first player that Texas took from the transfer portal for this season and was Rodney Terry’s first transfer recruit in his role as head coach.
“Coach Terry hit me up the day I entered the portal actually,” Shedrick said. “He hit me up while they were still in the tournament and all that, so I got to watch Texas play quite a bit to finish the season.”
In Shedrick’s decision to move to the Forty Acres, he is hopeful to show off skills on the court that he wasn’t able to in Virginia, like stretching the floor and shooting threes, which he knows he is capable of doing.
“It’s just a matter of having the confidence to go out there and do it because I know I can. I just haven’t done much the last four years,” Shedrick said.
As the season sneaks up, Shedrick, who wants to play his kind of game, is also a team player, with the ultimate goal of helping Texas in where they fell short last season — a championship.
“The season is getting closer, the first game is getting closer. So you know, we come out with the same intent every day, … to get better, to get where we need to get to to compete for a conference championship and a national championship,” Shedrick said.
