It will probably take UVa fans, and frankly, media, a little bit of time to have the new hoops roster memorized. Virginia has yet to announce their initial 2025-26 hoops roster, the first under new head coach Ryan Odom, but Cavalier fans that have followed the portal window closely know that there’s plenty to be excited about.
Virginia’s 2024-25 roster that played under Ron Sanchez had what could be described as a mass exodus following the end of the season. Only one scholarship player from last season’s roster, Elijah Gertrude, remains, along with walk-on forward Carter Lang. UVa doesn’t return a single minute of basketball played from the 2024-25 season for next year’s team.
So is that a good thing, or does it spell trouble for Odom in his first year in charge?
None of these things can be looked at in a vacuum. UVa’s roster shakeup didn’t happen for one specific reason, either. Some of UVa’s players knew they were gone during the regular season, as the coach they signed with Virginia to play for had retired some months earlier. Others played out the string and decided to enter the portal after the season, either because they were ready for a change, or felt they didn’t fit with the plans of the new UVa staff. Transfers happen annually, but it’s rare to see as much attrition in one offseason. But the coaching change, coupled with the current free-for-all transfer environment this offseason, allowed for a major shakeup.
On its own, having all of the minutes played from one season gone before the next year would typically be a bad thing. And it’s not like UVa’s players all had to go down a level in the transfer portal. Of the departures, all but TJ Power (Penn), Christian Bliss (Delaware) and Ishan Sharma (Saint Louis) landed at high-major programs, most of whom were either in the NCAA Tournament this year or typically competitive within their conferences. But, of course, those departing players aren’t expected to be the alpha dog at their new schools; most should be role players.
It’s also worth remembering that we all saw this group play together at Virginia, and the results weren’t good. UVa had their first losing season in a decade and a half, and looked out of their depth against the better teams they faced. It seems naive to assume that this group could run it back together next year and suddenly be much better, while also having to adjust to a new coach.
The idea of Odom coming in and trying to retain everyone and hoping to see a huge improvement with new schemes is frankly not realistic. They could, however, have tried to keep some of the talent in house, and then add top players around them, using the returnees in complimentary roles. That didn’t happen, but that doesn’t necessarily mean UVa is worse off for it. And these decisions are a two-way street, too. Odom probably had a few players from the 2024-25 roster that he would have been happy to keep, but they decided not to stay, for whatever reason. And there were a few that would not have been a fit for what Odom wants to do; It’s worth keeping in mind that Bennett’s schemes were an extreme outlier in a lot of ways. There are transferable skills of course, but Bennett’s roster construction probably wouldn’t work for most other coaches looking to play a different style of basketball.
And while UVa had their 2024-25 roster walk out the door and off to new homes, UVa’s new staff has done an exceptional job replacing them with new players in a short amount of time. Virginia has added seven transfers, one international player and two high schoolers since Odom got the job in mid-March, and with the two players retained, have 12 players with three potential spots remaining. UVa is in a good spot with another international player, Belgian forward Thijs De Ridder, who is a potential addition but must be cleared for competition by the NCAA first, something that remains TBD.
And frankly, it would be difficult to say that Odom’s roster isn’t more talented than UVa’s 2024-25 group. In the backcourt, UVa added BYU point guard Dallin Hall, an experienced ball handler who will fit well with shooters around him. Speaking of shooters around him, Odom has been intentional in adding quality three-point shooters across the roster, as his teams often spread the floor and shoot a lot of triples. Guards Jacari White and Sam Lewis, two of UVa’s earliest additions, are in the 40-percent range from beyond the arc and both were prolific scorers at the mid-major level, and were sought after by a good number of top high-major programs. UVa also added forward Devin Tillis from UC Irvine, another good outside shooter with an impressive rebounding record, and another sought-after mid-major addition. Virginia bolstered their frontcourt with the addition of Ugonna Onyenso, a shot-blocking center who should, if nothing else, provide solid rim protection. They also went to Germany to add 19-year old center Johann Grunloh, a player who was in the mix to be drafted into the NBA this year, but instead brings a ton of upside to Virginia, and could even be a one-and-done player for the Hoos. If Virginia is able to land De Ridder, they would have a formidable frontcourt with a ton of upside. Even without them, there’s a lot of potential.
And adding San Francisco guard Malik Thomas was the cherry on top. Thomas led the West Coast Conference in scoring last year with 19.9 points per game, and is another good shooter who can also get his shot going downhill to the rim. Thomas is a major addition to what UVa had already assembled, and could change the ceiling for Odom’s first UVa team.
And, of course, UVa added high schoolers Chance Mallory and Silas Barksdale, and brought over Martin Carrere, a French wing who redshirted last season at VCU.
Nothing is guaranteed, but this is an impressive first group for Odom, who finally got to play with high-major resources in this portal window. Regardless of how things go, Odom and his staff deserve credit for putting together a good group of players in their first portal cycle, while also adjusting to life in Charlottesville and recruiting to a program they just took over.
The amount of talent Odom added to the roster should give UVa a chance to compete in his first season in charge, a better chance than last year’s roster had anyway. And while there were certainly some hiccups and setbacks along the way to getting the roster completed, the end product seems pretty strong. Talent alone won’t win the day for UVa in 2025-26, as these players will all have to fit together and that task falls on Odom and his staff to figure out. But all of the ingredients are there for Virginia to be much improved this season, though it may take the staff a bit of time to figure out the roster and how the team can best work together.
It was certainly jarring for Cavalier fans to see all of the transfer portal departures, but Odom seemed well equipped to handle the turnover and restock the roster. Obviously this amount of turnover is not ideal and hopefully will be a one-off, but it can also be viewed as an opportunity for a new coach to get a blank slate to rebuild a team that can play the way he wants them to, rather than trying to make it work with a roster that might not fit the new way of doing things.
In 10 months or so, we can fully evaluate how this offseason played out for UVa and how good a job the staff did creating their first roster on the fly. But so far, at least on paper, it looks like the Hoos will be competing, rather than rebuilding, in year one of the Odom era.
