Thirty wins, great, but the 2025-2026 UVA Basketball season didn’t end the way anybody wanted it to, with a second-round loss in the NCAA Tournament.
That’s one reason that everybody who could be back is.
“I think, you know, part of them, I’m sure, I can’t speak for them, but part of them, I think, they wanted to come back to give it another go together and didn’t want to see it end. That’s when you know you’re having a good experience,” Virginia coach Ryan Odom told reporters at the ACC Tipoff in Charlotte on Wednesday.
This time last year, Odom was practically still learning everybody’s names; heading into the 2026-2027 season, he has seven returning guys:
- 5’10” PG Chance Mallory: 9.3 ppg, 3.4 assists/g, 3:1 assist:turnover ratio, 49.6% 2FG, 34.5% 3FG
- 6’4” PG Elijah Gertrude, a former four-star recruit in 2023 who has seen limited action at Virginia (medical redshirt in 2024-2025)
- 6’7” SG Sam Lewis: 10.6 ppg, 51.0% 2FG, 40.3% 3FG
- 6’8” SG Martin Carrere: redshirted at VCU in 2024-2025; limited minutes at Virginia last season
- 6’9” PF Silas Barksdale: four-star recruit in 2025; redshirted last season
- 6’9” PF Thijs de Ridder: 15.6 ppg, 6.2 rebounds/g, 56.8% 2FG, 35.7% 3FG
- 7’0” C Johann Grunloh: 7.1 ppg, 5.2 rebounds/g, 2.2 blocked shots/g, 62.1% 2FG, 35.0% 3FG
“No question about it, there’s a benefit to having retention from a practice perspective, just an overall standards perspective. These guys understand, you know, what it means to be a Virginia Basketball player, what it means to put that jersey on, the history of the program,” Odom said.
“There’s a lot of stuff that we did a year ago, you know, in terms of putting it together, an entirely new collection of players that had never played together,” Odom said. “And now we have guys that are back that have been through some pressure situations, they’ve been through some tough games, some disappointing endings, so they have a working knowledge and can help the new guys. That allowed us to be able to go out and find guys that fit, you know, with the returning players.”
Odom and Co. added to the nucleus of returning players with some gems from the transfer portal and the prep ranks:
- 6’4” SG Jurian Dixon: 15.9 ppg, 45.9% 2FG, 38.5% 3FG (Cal-Irvine)
- 6’6” PG Jan Vide: 12.1 ppg, 4.0 assists/g, 46.9% 2FG, 32.3% 3FG (Loyola-Marymount)
- 6’6” SG Christian Harmon: 12.8 ppg, 53.2% 2FG, 34.6% 3FG (Arkansas State)
- 6’6” SG Nolan Adekunle: 8.4 ppg, 70.7% 2FG, 42.3% 3FG (Gladiators Trier)
- 6’8″ PF Kalu Anya: 6.5 ppg, 7.5 rebounds/g, 65.8% 2FG (Saint Louis)
- 7’1” C Favour Ibe: incoming freshman, four-star prep recruit in 2026
Odom obviously feels good about his team’s prospects, given how aggressively he scheduled.
In addition to the ACC slate, which includes a home-and-home with Duke, Virginia gets non-conference games with Arkansas (Nov. 8), Maryland (Nov. 13), Marquette (Nov. 25), Xavier (Nov. 27), Kentucky (Dec. 2) and UConn (Dec. 20).
“I think the biggest thing was we wanted to challenge ourselves in the nonconference to get us ready for what we know is going to be a really tough ACC this year. I think all players want to play in big games, and all coaches want to coach in big games, and we’ve certainly provided these guys with that opportunity this year,” Odom said.
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Chris Graham
