UVA Basketball: I thought you said Thijs de Ridder was already good to go?

I’ve been getting questions about the status of UVA Basketball recruit Thijs de Ridder, because as it seems that the basketball program, which hyped his commitment last week, thinks the 22-year-old Belgian import is good to go, yeah, no, that’s not exactly the case.

UVA Athletics had a rare mid-summer basketball media day this week – helpful, because we have an almost entirely new roster to learn, in addition to the new coaching staff.

The new head coach, Ryan Odom, talked about the 6’8” de Ridder, first, in the context of discussing his options in the frontcourt, with seven-footer Johann Grunloh, a German teen, another seven-footer, Ugonna Onyenso, from Nigeria, by way of Kansas State, and Devin Tillis, a 6’7” power forward, who is merely from across the continent, in Los Angeles.

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ICYMI

• UVA Basketball: Thijs de Ridder, finally, is on board, completing 2025-2026 roster

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Answering a direct question on the status of de Ridder, we found out that we’re still somewhat in wait-and-see mode.

“I don’t know what I’m at liberty to discuss, quite honestly, but, you know, I think we’re still going through the process, you know, of, you know, finishing that,” Odom said.

“We’re at a point where we were able to tell the world, but you know, this is where we’re connected on this. He wants to come, we want him to come, and now we just got to finish the job. And so, some of that’s not on us, it’s not our timeline, it’s, the NCAA has to go through that finishing process,” Odom said.

So, yes, it may have premature to pop the cork on the champagne last week, but I understand.

The numbers that de Ridder put up in his five seasons of club ball in Europe suggest that he’ll be a dude in the ACC – playing in Liga ACB in Spain last year, against the likes of Real Madrid, Valencia Basket and Barcelona, de Ridder averaged 10.1 points and 5.0 rebounds in 21.9 minutes per game, shooting 53.3 percent from the field and 36.4 percent from three.

De Ridder is worth a dousing of the bubbly.

If you drank the whole bottle of the good stuff in celebration last week, I don’t know what to tell you.

Maybe get a six-pack of PBR ready when word comes down in the next couple of weeks that the last i- has been dotted and t- has been crossed.