UVA’s ‘Uncanny’ Senior Night Tradition: Walk-Off Shots From Walk-On Players

Editor’s Note: And it happened again. With less than a minute to go in Saturday’s game and the crowd chanting his name, senior walk on Tristan How stepped on the court and prepared to put his name on the stat sheet. With 14.6 seconds to go, he did just that. Check out all the highlights from the Hoos’ big 72-54 win over Georgia Tech.

A memory that will last forever!

🔶⚔️🔷#GoHoos | @ccoleman__ pic.twitter.com/YqvLNCcvHQ

— Virginia Men's Basketball (@UVAMensHoops) March 6, 2023

It’s happened three times in the last decade: a Cavalier who entered coach Tony Bennett’s program as a walk-on leaves his final home game on a made shot. Thomas Rogers did it against Syracuse University in 2014. Kirven did it against the University of Louisville in 2016. And Coleman did it against Louisville last season. 

“Uncanny” is how Bennett describes the rare chain of events. 

The home finale to UVA’s 2023-24 regular season is Saturday at 8 p.m. against Georgia Tech. Four seniors will be honored before the game, ranging from Reece Beekman, the well-known, four-year starter and the program’s all-time leader in steals, to Tristan How, a walk-on from Virginia Beach who has scored seven points in his Wahoo career. 

Dating back to the middle of the 2021-22 season, Beekman has scored in 75 consecutive games he’s entered. A bucket from the All-Atlantic Coast Conference guard on Saturday won’t likely trigger a string of text messages sent Kirven’s way. 

That changes, though, if How gets in the game and makes a shot. Like Coleman’s play last year, these are the enduring moments for Kirven’s close family and friends. 

“My parents watch all the Virginia games, but they love watching the Senior Nights,” Kirven said. “My wife, too – she and her friends. It’s so fun to have that and hear from them this time of year.”

UVA has won 10 of its last 11 Senior Night games, but three of those victories are especially near and dear to Bennett’s heart because of how they ended. They’ve followed the ideal Senior Night script – the oft-used players get a big enough lead over the opponent to allow the Kirven-types to enter in the game’s final stages. 

And then, with the crowd egging them on to shoot, they score. 

“The program’s so much about the unheard and the unseen,” Bennett said. “And I love it that they can get their moment.”

Walk-on players at UVA form the heart of what Bennett, in his 15th season, has long called the “Green Machine,” a term for the green pinnie-wearing scout team that prepares the rotation players in practice for their next opponent.

Of Bennett’s famed Five Pillars, members of the Green Machine embody “servanthood.” 

“Everybody wants to play, but sometimes you’ve got to sacrifice to make the team better,” Coleman said, “and these are the sacrifices that we made. And Senior Nights and games like that where we do get a chance, it’s like a little payoff for the things that we’ve done.”

Their lives haven’t drastically changed because they hit their final shot at JPJ, but Coleman, Kirven and Rogers all admit to times when they’ve been pleasantly reminded of their experience. 

For Rogers, who nailed a 3-pointer from the right wing to close out UVA’s epic, ACC-title clinching rout of Syracuse 10 years ago, it was when he later worked summer camp at his alma mater and was introduced by Bennett as “one of the greatest shooters I’ve ever coached.”

“He was serious,” Rogers said. 

For Kirven, whose late corner 3-pointer against Louisville was part of a 68-46 win in March 2016, it’s whenever he calls his father. Calvin Kirven is so proud of his son that he took the UVA radio broadcast call of Caid’s shot and made it his ringtone. 

“I can’t call him for anything urgent,” Kirven said, “because I know I’m going to have to wait. He always waits until I hit the 3 and then picks up the phone.”

For Coleman, now a graduate assistant on Bennett’s staff, he gets to relay what he learned from his successful approach to last year’s Senior Day – a 75-60 UVA win – directly to How. 

“I’d tell him to get to his favorite move and put the ball in the basket,” Coleman said. “That’s all that people want to see. At that time of the year, it’s time to give people a show. So, you give them what they want to see.”

Rogers, the founding member of this exclusive club who graduated from the Darden School of Business and now works as a value manager for Workday, has this advice for How: “If you get out there, just let loose because it’s the last time.” 

“And be ready to fire away,” Kirven added. “We’ll be watching.”