UVA Basketball coach Ryan Odom did a guest spot on “The Hoops HQ Show” with Seth Davis and Andy Katz that dropped on Friday, and at this writing, has been stuck on 989 views on YouTube for the past two hours.
Not that the media-relations folks at UVA Athletics would ever take me up on this, but I guarantee I could do more than 989 views in 24 hours on YouTube with Ryan Odom on my show.
And also: I don’t have a UMBC banner in my background, like that trolling a–hole Dookie Seth Davis.
I digress.
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The big revelation from Odom in the interview: he’s not done with his roster for 2026-2027.
Yes, this is the breaking news from this one.
I can’t believe that Seth Davis thought he had to ask that, not once, but twice (!).
The first effort:
“First of all, I assume you’re done acquiring any players for your roster. Just want to make sure that’s the case, or maybe if you’re looking maybe if you’re looking for someone to add through the portal.”
Seriously?
The second:
“Yeah, so just to confirm, you’re not going to be adding any, any players in the portal, you’re done.”
Does Seth Davis base what he thinks he knows about college basketball on what he reads on message boards or something?
The message from Odom, as if he needed to clear things up on this front: the focus, in terms of roster, was “on retention, first and foremost,” but, no, he’s not done.
“Last year, it was a lot different. You know, we had an entirely new roster that we had to put together. And this year, we’ve got basically four starters, you know, coming back. Chance Mallory didn’t start last year, but played starter’s minutes, and so we’ll move him, you know, right into that starting role,” Odom said.
“So, we’ve got four guys back that played a bunch of minutes for us, three guys that are returning that are young players with that have promising futures. And so really, we’re in a plug-and-play moment right now and just working through it,” Odom said.
I’ve written, consistently, since I was waiting for the train in the 30th Street station in Philly on my way back from the NCAA Tournament last month, that Odom, this time last year, had a backup point guard and a scout team.
The first commit in the 2025 spring cycle was Johann Grunloh, with that news dropping on April 28th of last year.
If he doesn’t sign anybody by Tuesday, I’ll have to come up with a new line.
Grunloh (7.1 ppg, 5.2 rebounds/g, 2.2 blocks/g, 62.1% 2FG, 35.0% 3FG) is one of the four starters coming back, if we count Mallory (9.3 ppg, 3.7 rebounds/g, 3.4 assists/g, 49.6% 2FG, 34.5% 3FG), which, I agree with Odom here, we should – because Mallory averaged 24.1 minutes per game last season, fourth-most on the team.
Also back:
- first-team All-ACC power forward Thijs de Ridder (15.6 ppg, 6.2 rebounds/g, 56.8% 2FG, 35.7% 3FG).
- shooting guard Sam Lewis (10.6 ppg, 3.6 rebounds/g, 51.0% FG, 40.3% 3FG).
Odom didn’t mention them by name, but he alluded to his expectations for 6’9” power forward Silas Barksdale, a four-star prep recruit who redshirted last year, 6’9” small forward Martin Carrere, who saw limited minutes (4.1 minutes/g, 16 appearances) in 2025-2026, and Elijah Gertrude, a 6’4” combo guard who also got limited minutes last season (6.4 minutes/g, 17 appearances).
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“We want to compete for an ACC championship again, and advance further in the NCAA Tournament. Those goals haven’t changed,” Odom said. “We’re working hard now, you know, in order to get these guys ready, and it’s been refreshing to be in the gym with these guys since the season ended. It’s a lot different than last year, when we lost every player, and we weren’t able to even do workouts. We were able to start working with these guys right away, and they’ve done a great job.”
Because the hosts were focused on, I mean, whatever – Davis, after showing off his UMBC banner, thinking he was going to get Odom to admit he isn’t looking to add from the portal; Katz throwing questions about Odom’s personal bio like the interview was for a feature story – we didn’t get anything from the coach on what he is targeting in the portal.
Sure, you can’t talk about specific recruits, but you can talk about types – and my assumption has been, since plopping down in the train station in Philly, that Odom will want to find a backup center to spell Grunloh, probably a couple of 6’4” to 6’6”-ish perimeter shooters, maybe a bigger point guard to team with Mallory.
All we know, because the celebrity interviewers aren’t good at their jobs, is that Odom isn’t done.
Which we knew before we clicked on.
I’ve been working on this story for about 45 minutes; this video is still stuck on 989 views on YouTube.
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Chris Graham
