Ryan Odom’s first spring in charge of the UVa basketball program has been a busy one. As April rolls on, Odom and his new staff are trying to fill out a brand new UVa roster with so many new players set to make their way to Grounds this summer. With the first week of April in the rear view and the dead period set to end on Thursday, we’re taking a look at where UVa’s 2025-26 roster stands now, and what could be next for the staff on the talent acquisition front.

As of right now, it’s just Elijah Gertrude in this camp. Unless UVa gets a player back that entered the portal, and about half of them have already found new homes, the Hoos might just return one scholarship player from the 2024-25 roster, and one that didn’t play a second. Gertrude took a redshirt year after suffering a knee injury in the offseason and as of now, he remains on the roster for next season.

Gertrude will be joined by two in-state products signed in the 2025 class. Guard Chance Mallory and Silas Barksdale are set to join the program in the summer, both having committed to Virginia within the last month. As of now, this is the freshman class. Perhaps there’s room for Odom and his staff to go out and find another late addition, which can happen with coaches switching jobs and players getting out of their letters of intent. UVa was one school that reached out to former West Virginia signee Braydon Hawthorne, who opened his recruitment back up after his coach left for Indiana. Perhaps another name will pop up on the radar, or as they have done at other jobs, perhaps Odom’s staff works connections abroad and find a foreign player to join the roster as a freshman. For now though, it’s two incoming freshmen.

A week ago, UVa had no transfers inbound, but now, they have three. Guards Jacari White and Duke Miles, along with wing Sam Lewis are all in the fold now, having committed since Saturday. Miles and White have one year of eligibility remaining, and Lewis has two years left. All three should play somewhere between spots 1-3 in the lineup, and clearly, given the amount of scholarships remaining, UVa has a lot of work to do in the portal over the next few weeks, particularly in the frontcourt.

Virginia currently has seven open scholarships they can use for next year’s team. It doesn’t mean they have to fill every spot, but this is what they have to work with as the dead period ends and the sprint to the end of the transfer portal window begins. Of the scholarships allocated, only one is going to a frontcourt player, Barksdale. The rest are guards or wings, and UVa is nearly filled up in the backcourt. Virginia’s new staff could always decide to give one of their open scholarships to a walk-on, in particular Carter Lang, who was on scholarship at Vanderbilt.

For starters, we’re not locking anyone into any role here. Obviously a player like Chance Mallory will have the opportunity to win the starting job at point guard, for example. But for slotting purposes, the roster looks something like this. Miles can play point guard or off-ball. White could theoretically handle the ball in a more positionless system, but could slide up to the three spot as well, in a smaller lineup. Lewis is most likely going to be a three, but could play the two if UVa goes big. Mallory will be a point guard, and Gertrude should be an off-ball guard, but could slide to the three in a smaller lineup, coming off the bench. We’re slotting Silas Barksdale in the second bench column, as he seems relatively unlikely to have a huge role on this team as a true freshman, unless the Hoos really strike out in their search for forwards. Obviously he’ll have the opportunity to come in and surprise but for now, we’re not pencilling him into a larger role.

This chart underscores how much work UVa has to do in the front court. Even at the small forward spot, UVa either needs to add another bigger guard or wing player like Lewis, even if that player is in a bench role and doesn’t play a ton of minutes. UVa could take another guard, but don’t have to. But the frontcourt is wide open as of today, and UVa will probably need to allocate four of their seven open slots to big men, and another to a wing player. What they do with the rest of them is up for debate.

Obviously it didn’t quite work out as it looked like it might on paper, but this was the plan for UVa’s 2024-25 team. UVa filled their final roster spot in mid-May when they took Dai Dai Ames to play alongside Jalen Warley at point guard. Virginia’s top four in the frontcourt all had eligibility for this season, and even if Odom wanted to retain any of them, they’ve all left and three of them are already committed elsewhere. But really, this chart shows how much work is left to do for Odom’s first roster. UVa went two deep at every position, and were theoretically three deep at point guard and the two/three spots, with Ishan Sharma and Taine Murray coming off the bench. Christian Bliss didn’t end up playing and Warley transferred out, so their real depth was not as good as it looked on paper in the preseason. UVa is only really two-deep at two guard spots, but one of those reserves is a true freshman and the other is coming off of a second knee injury and operation. So there’s work to do to match the depth of last year’s team, though UVa could get away with having 11 or so scholarship players this year, or 11 players set to play with one or two redshirt candidates if they want to take a flyer.

There’s a lot to consider for the new staff as they round out the roster. The needs seem pretty clear but there can be a competition sometimes between need, player value and what’s available. For example, if UVa found a can’t miss wing player, they could add him and just have a lot of experience and depth at those positions, which are critical and drive a lot of team scoring. But they also need big men in a major way, and those positions aren’t as deep with good players, so the staff may need to “overpay” big men to get their signatures and fill out the roster.

With seven open scholarships, priority #1 should be to find players to start at the four and five slots. In Odom’s system, a pure rim protector and rebounder at the five would be a natural fit, and there are several of them out there in the portal. At the four spot, Virginia can go in a number of directions. If they find a really good guard and aren’t as high on the power forwards in the portal, they could try to get by playing a smaller lineup, which could work given how much shooting talent has been added to the roster. Then, at the four spot, UVa could sign an athletic, defense-first forward for when UVa needs to match up with bigger, more athletic frontcourts and simply can’t afford to have four guards out there at a time. In addition to a bonafide starter at center, and either a starter at power forward or a versatile bench piece that can play there, UVa will need a third big man to go along with them. This could be a veteran player who can come in and spell the starting center, possibly in a smaller lineup, or play at the four spot. Fouls add up and depth is critical, particularly for big men.

Assuming UVa adds three, maybe four bigs, they have a few more spots to play with. At least one more wing player, and probably two, would be useful. This staff loves shooters, so the more the merrier, potentially. But they could also use some athleticism to get downhill, and need to mix up the remaining eligibility on the roster as well, unless they’re comfortable being in a situation like Louisville was in last year, when they had 12 seniors on the roster.

That takes us to year two and beyond. As of now, UVa has six players for 2025-26, but two of them are out of eligibility after next season. Odds are at least one of the other four will transfer out, potentially more; that’s just how these things go. Mallory, Barksdale, Gertrude and Lewis would all be able to return for Odom’s second year, but the makeup of that team will also be determined, in part, by who else he adds in this portal window. If Odom wants to prioritize winning now, perhaps he doesn’t care about how many seniors he adds and has to replace next year, and some of those replacements can come from high school recruiting. But odds are they’ll find some semblance of balance, likely with half of the team or so down to their last year of eligibility, and about half of them eligible to return. If UVa can find the right pieces that have additional eligibility, they could form the core of a new team in 2026-27.

In the backcourt, UVa will have experience this year, but playing time will be available with White and Miles set to graduate. Could a backup role this year with the opportunity to become a starter the following year be enticing to an up-and-coming guard? And in the frontcourt, UVa is still a blank slate. If they have to take seniors to form a good roster this year, so be it, but it would be good if one of the three big men they’ll have to add, at least, has extra years left.