The date for the first game in the UVA-Maryland hoops series was leaked on Monday – Saturday, Dec. 20, with the game being played in JPJ.
That one will tip off the four-year home-and-home series, which was announced last year when Tony Bennett was still the coach at Virginia, and Kevin Willard was at Maryland.
Ryan Odom and Buzz Williams are reaping the whirlwind here, though actually, you have to like this, if you’re Odom, in particular, given that the ACC just gave you two additional non-conference opportunities.
Word coming out of the behind the scenes is that Odom is working on inking a two-year series with Texas to begin this fall/winter, another cog in the effort to boost Virginia’s weak non-conference schedules of late.
On that point: Bennett’s last five non-conference schedules ranked an average of 193.0 nationally.
Which is, frankly, embarrassing for a program at the level of a Virginia.
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The Thijs de Ridder saga is nearing a happy ending for UVA Basketball.
The word getting out on Monday was that de Ridder, a 22-year-old Belgian power forward, is in the U.S., and is expected to be enrolled in the second summer session at the University of Virginia next week.
Remember that report from last month that de Ridder had decided to play professionally in France?
We threw water on that back then, reporting that de Ridder was just waiting for a thumbs-up from the admissions office at UVA.
Which I can understand, because the guy is 22, which would make him a late bloomer academically.
All should be fine, is the word.
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Chris Graham
