Under the new roster size guidelines, Virginia and everyone else can have up to 15 scholarship players on the roster. All players on the roster can be on scholarship, so a program can opt not to have walk-ons going forward. Previously, programs could have 13 scholarship players plus a few walk-ons to fill out the roster.

With the new roster rules, UVa’s roster is 60 percent filled out at this point. Virginia has nine players locked into the roster, including two holdovers, scholarship guard Elijah Gertrude and walk-on center Carter Lang, who the staff could put on scholarship if he sticks around. So that leaves up to six spots left to fill. Obviously there’s no rule that says that the staff has to fill every spot, and they could certainly end up with a 14-player roster, but it’s more likely they have a rotation and then a few developmental players plus Lang to fill out the roster.

As UVa fans surely know, Virginia’s current roster is very guard heavy. Six of UVa’s nine scholarship players are guards or wings, and all but one of those six are 6-foot-6 or smaller. The only players that could really be considered forwards are Lang, a walk-on who sat out last year after transferring from Vanderbilt, and is unlikely to have a big role, UC Irvine transfer Devin Tillis, and incoming freshman forward Silas Barksdale. Tillis played power forward at UC Irvine, but at a generous 6-foot-7, Tillis doesn’t quite have prototypical size for a player at the four at the high-major level.

Ryan Odom and his staff have a few different options to fill out the roster, but obviously their remaining efforts will need to be frontcourt heavy.

Forward/Center: This will probably be the biggest area of focus going forward in the portal. UVa doesn’t really have any big men that should be trusted to play a large role. Lang is a walk-on and probably a questionable system fit for Odom, and Barksdale is a freshman who wasn’t really recruited to play at this level initially, and will probably take some time to develop his game. With that, UVa has the 6-foot-7 Tillis, who does bring rebounding skills to the roster, but that’s about it. UVa will need bonafide rim protection, and other players 6-foot-7 or bigger that can guard athletic players at the four spot. Odom’s teams also run and gun more, which requires more rotation in the frontcourt; Odom’s VCU teams featured a bunch of big men splitting up minutes in various lineups. So UVa will need at least two players who can play the five, and another that can play the four. They might be able to get by with that, if they get the right guys. The problem is that this market is the most bare in the portal, so the staff may have to take a flyer on at least one of these spots, and hope a young player can develop, or an average older player can fill the need in the short term.

Wing Scorers: UVa has already added some talent here, but do they have more work to do? We think yes. UVa added guard Jacari White from North Dakota State and wing Sam Lewis from Toledo, two quality additions that should bring shooting, if nothing else, to the roster. UVa has Elijah Gertrude, too, whose ability is still a bit of an unknown given how little he’s played. But while Lewis and White could prove to be quality additions that provide a good amount of scoring, UVa shouldn’t count on two transfers, both moving up to the high-major level, to do all of the heavy lifting. UVa has the shooting they need, and while they could always use more, they could also use an athletic wing that can handle the ball and get to the rim. Unlike the forward market, there are a bunch of these types of players out there, at various price points depending on their success to this point. And more enter the portal every day. UVa is still waiting on the potential waiver of San Francisco guard Malik Thomas, who would fill this need perfectly. Thomas led the WCC in scoring and is both a good shooter and a player capable of going and getting his own shot. If that falls through, it would be prudent for UVa to try and find a replacement, as they’re unlikely at this point to find a ton of scoring from frontcourt additions.

Wing Defenders: UVa has added shooting which will obviously bring scoring, and quite a bit of experience through the portal. But in their additions to come, it would be great to get at least one player who could guard multiple positions, and will bring athleticism to UVa’s defense. White is known as a quality defender, but obviously moving from the Summit League to the ACC will be a big jump (ask Andrew Rohde). Lewis played on a terrible defensive team at Toledo, but he has the athletic profile to become a solid defender. Gertrude could also be a good defender given his athletic profile. But there’s some work to do here, we think, especially given UVa’s unknown rim protection situation at this point. A player like former Houston guard Terrence Arceneaux, who can play various spots on the floor at 6-foot-6 and can guard different positions and allow switching, would be a great addition to what UVa already has.

At this point, UVa has six players who can return and play beyond next year: Mallory, Barksdale, Martin Carrere, Gertrude, Lewis and Lang. Obviously the hope is that some of these players, particularly the younger ones, will be able to take on bigger roles in the second year of the Odom era. But based on what we’ve seen from the roster construction to this point, it’s possible if not likely that Odom’s second roster will also be built through the portal, around their existing pieces. Most of the transfer additions are one-year players, and while that could change with their additions to come, there’s a good chance they add at least another player or two that will take on a large role but only have one year of eligibility remaining. So in the next year, Odom can work the high school recruiting circuit to bolster the roster, but it looks like the wing and forward positions will need to be turned over again next offseason.