UVA Basketball coach Ryan Odom landed another big-time scoring guard off the transfer portal on Saturday, in the form of former four-star prep recruit Malik Thomas, who averaged 19.9 points per game at San Francisco this past season.
Thomas, a big (6’5”, 205) shooting guard, is a three-level scorer.
According to CBB Analytics, he was 82-of-127 (64.6%) on shots at the rim and 116-of-212 ( 54.7%) overall on shots in the paint last season.
Maybe too many mid-range jumpers – 24-of-72 (33.3%).
He was elite from three – 69-of-175 (39.4%).
Thomas joins a loaded backcourt that includes two other big-guard scorers – 6’6” Toledo guard Sam Lewis (16.2 ppg, 47.0% FG, 44.4% 3FG in 2024-2025) and 6’3” North Dakota State sharpshooter Jacari White (17.1 ppg, 45.2% FG, 39.8% 3FG in 2024-2025) – along with 6’4” BYU transfer point guard Dallin Hall (6.8 points, 4.2 assists, 40.2% FG, 35.3% 3FG in 2024-2025), 6’4” redshirt sophomore Elijah Gertrude, who missed the 2024-2025 season with an injury, and incoming four-star prep recruit Chance Mallory, who tops out at 5’9”, but was one of the top point-guard recruits in the Class of 2025.
This is easily the most talent we’ve had in the backcourt since the 2019 national-title team, which had two future NBA first-round picks (De’Andre Hunter, Ty Jerome) and a second-round pick (Kyle Guy), along with five-year starter Kihei Clark, and maybe back all the way to 2014 (future NBA Rookie of the Year Malcolm Brogdon, future first-round pick Justin Anderson, future three-point champ Joe Harris, four-year starter London Perrantes).
Those were two pretty good squads, if you remember.
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Chris Graham
