Virginia basketball head coach Ryan Odom brings back a bulk of his key contributors from a team that won 30 games in 2025-26, primed for a further breakthrough.
The tradition continues! It’s another year of our countdown of the top 100 preseason teams in college basketball until the start of the season. Each day, we will reveal the next team until we reach the team slotted at number one. Up next: Virginia basketball
When Ryan Odom took over the UVA program during the 2025 offseason, he was given the seemingly impossible task of building on the legendary Tony Bennett’s legacy. With a completely new roster to fill in, and a less-than-elite roster budget, Odom succeeded in not only bringing the Cavaliers back to national relevance, but also vastly exceeding expectations, earning a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Fast forward one calendar year and suddenly Odom’s April was much less stressful. While coaches around the country were scrambling to piece together a roster of their own, Odom had the luxury of returning every possible eligible player at that point, which included four of his top six scorers.
The core of Thijs De Ridder, Chance Mallory, Johann Grünloh, and Sam Lewis is well established, and could very well improve going into a new season. Meanwhile, the transfer portal was simply used to fill specific roles and round out the team. For example, UC Irvine transfer Jurian Dixon helps support the offensive flow in the backcourt, while Christian Harmon comes in from Arkansas State to showcase his electric shot-making ability off the bench. All the while, Nolan Adekunle is yet another grown man from the international ranks who may be the true x-factor that has been underestimated by the national media.
Virginia is deep, experienced, and has vast positional size. Even if they do not have NBA lottery-level athletes, they are one of the safest bets to be successful in college basketball this season.
Head coach: Ryan Odom (12th season overall, 2nd at Virginia)
2025-26 record: 30-6 (15-3)
2026 postseason finish: Lost to Tennessee (79-72) in second round of NCAA Tournament
Notable departures:
- Malik Thomas (12.4 PPG, 3.8 RPG, 1.5 APG)
- Ugonna Onyenso (6.5 PPG, 4.9 RPG, 0.6 APG, 2.9 BPG)
- Dallin Hall (5.9 PPG, 4.4 APG, 3.6 RPG)
Notable non-conference games:
- vs. Arkansas (Nov. 8) – Washington, D.C.
- at Maryland (Nov. 13)
- vs. Marquette (Nov. 25) – Battle 4 Atlantis
- vs. Xavier (Nov. 27) – Battle 4 Atlantis
- vs. Kentucky (Dec. 2)
- vs. UConn (Dec. 20) – New York, N.Y.
Projected Rotation
PG: Chance Mallory (5-10, 170, So.)
2025-26 stats: 9.3 PPG, 3.7 RPG, 3.4 APG
SG: Sam Lewis (6-7, 216, Sr.)
2025-26 stats: 10.6 PPG, 3.6 RPG, 1.4 APG, 40.3 3P%
SF: Nolan Adekunle (6-7, 225, Fr.)
2025-26 stats: 8.4 PPG, 3.5 RPG, 1.1 APG, 55.2 FG%, 42.3 3P% (German BBL)
PF: Thijs De Ridder (6-9, 246, So.)
2025-26 stats: 15.6 PPG, 6.2 RPG, 1.6 APG, 50.8 FG%
C: Johann Grünloh (7-0, 250, So.)
2025-26 stats: 7.1 PPG, 5.2 RPG, 0.6 APG, 2.2 BPG
6: Jurian Dixon (6-4, 205, Jr.)
2025-26 stats: 15.9 PPG, 3.6 RPG, 2.5 APG, 1.1 SPG, 38.5 3P% (UC Irvine)
7: Christian Harmon (6-6, 215, Sr.)
2025-26 stats: 12.8 PPG, 3.7 RPG, 2.5 APG, 84 3PT (Arkansas State)
8: Kalu Anya (6-8, 225, Rs.-Sr.)
2025-26: Did not play (Redshirt)
2024-25: 6.5 PPG, 7.5 RPG, 2.5 APG, 1.1 SPG, 1.0 BPG, 60.5 FG% (Saint Louis)
9: Jan Vide (6-6, 205, Sr.)
2025-26 stats: 12.1 PPG, 4.0 APG, 3.0 RPG (Loyola Marymount)
10: Favour Ibe (7-1, 248, Fr.)
247Sports Composite No. 151 overall recruit
Virginia basketball team MVP: Thijs De Ridder
Between a Sixth Man of the Year award and a FIBA Europe Cup Championship trophy back in Belgium, and first-team All-ACC recognition at the NCAA ranks last season, De Ridder is one of the most accomplished players across all of college basketball as we stand right now. He ended up running away as the 2026-27 ACC Preseason Player of the Year on media day, and for good reason.
In De Ridder’s age-22 season, his first of two years of college eligibility, he averaged a team-leading 15.6 points and 6.2 rebounds. The name of the game with De Ridder is bully ball on the block. He is a bruiser with his back to the basket and finished at an efficient 56.8% ontwo-point shots. Hacking De Ridder is not advisable either, as he shot over 70% from the charity stripe.
De Ridder is not just a one-trick pony, though. He has a quality outside shot for a big man, having connected on 35.7% of his triples in 2025-26. He also provides immense value as a defender, with good lateral movement at 6-foot-9, 246 pounds, and having immensely improved his ability to stay in front of his man without fouling.
The next gear for De Ridder will be stepping up and becoming the alpha scorer in big moments. He was absolutely that in the NCAA Tournament loss to Tennessee, scoring 22 points, including several huge buckets down the stretch, and that will be something to build on heading into the new season.
Virginia basketball make-or-break player: Chance Mallory
A native of Charlottesville and lifelong UVA fan, Mallory decided to recommit to the program in the spring of 2025, even after the coaching transition. He displayed tons of promise in his freshman season, averaging 24.1 minutes per game, alongside (and sometimes in lieu of) the veteran point guard Dallin Hall. Headed into 2026-27, Mallory was unsurprisingly the first to announce his return to Virginia, and is poised to take the keys of the offense.
Mallory has drawn plenty of comparisons to Christian Anderson, who had an equally enticing freshman season at Texas Tech, before fully breaking out as a sophomore. Just like Anderson, Mallory is undersized and not a freak athlete, yet extraordinarily quick, crafty, and a skilled scorer at all three levels. It is fair to expect an uptick in Mallory’s three-point percentage especially, as he shot 34.5% in his first season, after a 15-for-31 (48.4%) mark in his first ten games.
Overall, the question is not whether Mallory becomes an impact player, but how much he progresses into national stardom.
Key statistic: Defensive block rate
Last season, Virginia trailed only Michigan in terms of the percentage of opponents’ two-point shots that they blocked on the defensive end. On the ACC leaderboard, Ugonna Onyenso finished first with 2.9 blocks per game, and Grünloh finished third at 2.2.
In the new season, expect the Cavaliers to maintain their identity as elite rim protectors, but perhaps not quite to the same extent. Onyenso and Grünloh had essentially split times at the center spot with 20 minutes each, utilizing heavy drop coverage with the ability to deter any drive to the lane.
With Onyenso graduating, Grünloh will have to take on an even larger responsibility, but there will inevitably be minutes where he will need to be spelled. Kalu Anya, who is not a seven-footer like the aforementioned duo, and Favour Ibe, who is another freak athlete but very raw, are the two candidates to fill that void as the backup center. This is a hidden storyline to monitor for the ‘Hoos.
Virginia basketball 2026-27 projections
Projected conference finish: 2nd in the ACC
Projected postseason ceiling: NCAA Tournament Final Four appearance