The NBA Draft deadline came and went last night with Virginia’s Mamadi Diakite being the last of the early entrants to make his final decision on staying or returning to school. Luckily for Tony Bennett and the Wahoos, he’s going to come back to school for his senior year.

Given the loss of De’Andre Hunter, Ty Jerome, and Kyle Guy from the national title team, this is obviously a very fortunate turn of events. But what does it mean beyond the obvious?

We decided to toss our thoughts together in this 3-2-1 style breakdown of where things stand.

1. Diakite’s return is a big deal for the Hoos.

Okay, so this one is beyond obvious but still deserves a mention since it’s arguably the biggest positive about his decision, at least in terms of UVa’s 2019-2020 season. Without Diakite, the roster would’ve been in markedly worse shape this year. Having No. 25 back means Virginia returns a rim protector who has athletic versatility and an offensive skillset that is going to come in especially handy without Hunter, Jerome, and Guy demanding so much attention. Diakite may have arrived on Grounds before his fellow 2016 recruits but him playing a year after they leave is going to allow Virginia to turn the page a bit more gracefully following the loss of “The Big Three.”

2. Bennett will have an interesting team to mold.

A year ago, coming off the UMBC loss the picture was pretty clear for UVa: Find ways to provide some flexibility in the offense and lean hard on your returning pieces. Going into the preseason, the conversation in some ways centered on Hunter and Braxton Key, who had recently been granted immediate eligibility following his transfer from Alabama. Now, with some potential roster questions remaining (more on that in a minute), it’s clear that UVa has to find ways for the offense to do things differently going into next year. Diakite coming back gives them a big man with offensive chops that they simply wouldn’t have had if the Hoos had been forced to go without him. Granted, Jay Huff has a lot of potential especially on offense but pairing him with Diakite in the rotation makes him even better. That being said, UVa’s offense can’t rely on wings the way it did during its national championship run. Instead, there’s going to have to be more inside-outside and that’s the sort of world these guys are going to be preparing to live in during the rest of this offseason.

3. The numbers are in a good spot as of right now.

Adding guard Tomas Woldetensae and then combo forward Sam Hauser each for two years (Hauser can only play the second of those two, of course) means UVa now sits with one open spot for the coming season and then two more for the 2020 recruiting class beyond current commit Carson McCorkle. Having Diakite return (since it’s only for his senior year) doesn’t do much to help or hurt those numbers since only one of the Hauser brothers chose UVa. But his decision does make it so the workload/burden on the young post players is a bit easier to handle. Francisco Caffaro won’t be tasked with playing major minutes, which given our conversation with S&C coach Mike Curtis, might be a great thing for his development. What that part means for the roster going forward remains to be seen. And speaking of…

1. How does Diakite’s return impact Kadin Shedrick?