Virginia picked up their first transfer portal commitment on Saturday, with former Toledo guard Sam Lewis making the call for the Hoos. Lewis joins a pretty empty Cavalier roster, and at the time of his commitment, is the only player projected to be on the roster that played in a college basketball game this season.

Virginia reached out to Lewis during the recruiting process, but his recruitment was both quick and under-the-radar. Other schools involved, according to Lewis and his representation, were Gonzaga, Villanova, Xavier and Texas A&M. Lewis now joins UVa with two years of eligibility remaining.

Lewis comes to UVa after two years with Toledo. Lewis is a Chicago native who played at Simeon Academy, one of the Second City’s top basketball programs. Lewis played as a reserve in his freshman season, playing in 31 of Toledo’s 32 games but averaging just 11.8 minutes per game with one start. As a sophomore, Lewis took a major step forward and became the Rockets’ top scorer. Lewis started all 33 games this year, averaging 16.2 points per game, along with 4.7 rebounds and 1.2 assists. Lewis was also a prolific shooter, making 44.4 percent of his threes, attempting four per game. Lewis went over 20 points in his final four games with the Rockets, and had 11 20+ point games on the season. For his efforts, Lewis was named Second-Team All-MAC at the end of the season.

Starting with the obvious, it works because UVa doesn’t really have other players yet. Lewis was a highly sought-after transfer for a bunch of good programs, and selling him on coming to a UVa program that doesn’t really have a roster yet is a win. Lewis’ addition should kickstart a busy few weeks of portal activity as Ryan Odom and has staff look to reset the roster.

Lewis is a fit for what Odom wants to do offensively. A bigger wing/guard, Lewis demonstrated great shooting ability this season with Toledo, and the hope is that it will translate to Virginia. Even if his percentage goes down a few points against better competition, and he ends up around 39-40 percent, that’s a quality addition for an offense that should be three-point attempt heavy. In 2024-25, Lewis was 100th percentile on catch-and-shoot attempts, which, if continued, would offset the loss of Isaac McKneely to Louisville.

Lewis’ ability to drive to the rim, especially against ACC-level competition is a bit more TBD, but he has the physicality to get his own shot around the rim. Lewis is also a solid rebounding wing, a trait that was huge for Odom’s 2024-25 VCU team; the Rams shot a ton of threes and had a lot of offensive rebounding opportunities, and cashed in on many of them with second-chance points. Toledo was a terrible defensive team, and Lewis’ defensive metrics are not going to stand out positively, but its hard to know how much of that is him, or if Toledo was simply so focused on the offensive end, where they were quite good, that the team defense suffered. Still, Lewis has the physical ability to defend as a small forward or big guard in the ACC.

Lewis had a monster sophomore season with Toledo, and now he’s cashing in, both figuratively and literally. With UVa’s roster so depleted, the entire program is virtually a blank slate, both from a playing time perspective and an NIL and revenue sharing resource perspective. Lewis’ addition should be the first of many in the next month or so, and the Chicago native has a great opportunity to come in and be a key contributor right away. He’ll also, obviously, have more of an opportunity to capitalize on his quality play financially at Virginia, and get himself more visibility to potentially launch a future pro career if things really work out in Charlottesville. Odom’s schemes also seem to be a fit for Lewis, too. Surely playing in a wide open offense that is heavy on the three ball was intriguing for a player like Lewis.

With the obvious caveat that transfers don’t always work out and sometimes can be difficult to project regardless of background, Lewis seems pretty likely to have a major impact on the 2025-26 team. Lewis can play at the ‘2’ spot in a bigger lineup, or the ‘3’ in a more typical five. As of now, Lewis is the only projected small forward on the roster. And given his prolific shooting this year, Lewis should be a good fit for Odom’s three-point heavy offense. Lewis’ impact may be determined more by who else UVa brings in, and how those players compliment each other. Because Lewis has two years of eligibility remaining, this addition has a bit more upside and if Odom’s track record of having a major uptick in year two of his tenure continues, then Lewis would probably be a big part of that success.