UVA Basketball: Ryan Odom still getting a feel for what he has to work with

First-year UVA Basketball coach Ryan Odom has some sense of what he has to work with, three games into the season, but it’s “still too early,” he said, to come to any conclusions.

“We have guys like Elijah Gertrude who are still just coming back, right, and getting their feet wet. Martin Carrere hasn’t played a ton, but you could see out there he has skills, you know, he’s good, he’s a good player. (Devin) Tillis is not playing yet, but he’ll be back, you know, hopefully, you know, sooner than later. So, we do have some options. But you know, the guys that, you know, are out there playing the majority of the minutes right now are doing a nice job,” Odom said after his team’s 91-53 win over Hampton on Tuesday.

The four guys getting the most minutes to this point: point guard Dallin Hall (27.3 minutes/g), forward Thijs de Ridder (26.3 minutes/g), forward Johann Grunloh (23.7 minutes/g) and guard Malik Thomas (23.7 minutes/g).

After that, guard Sam Lewis has started all three games, but he’s getting less time on the floor (18.7 minutes/g) than freshman point guard Chance Mallory (22.3 minutes/g).

When Tillis, a 6’7” power forward, returns, I would expect him to eventually get in the area of 15-17 minutes a game, all in the frontcourt, I assume – so, splitting time with the 6’9” de Ridder and the pair of seven-footers, Grunloh and Ugonna Onyenso (17.3 minutes/g).

I’m looking to the Oct. 24 Villanova exhibition game as a guide here: in that one, de Ridder got 26 minutes, Grunloh 25, Onyenso 15 and Tillis 14.

That adds up, neatly, to 80 – 40 minutes times two at the two forward spots.

The odd man out here, when Tillis returns, is Carrere (7.7 minutes/g), the 6’8” redshirt freshman whose minutes will likely dry up once Tillis returns and gets back into game shape.

The backcourt rotation seems set at least with Hall at the point, who doesn’t score much (3.7 ppg), but triggers the offense (6.3 assists/g).

From there, it’s a competition.

Mallory is complicating things by playing so well – the 5’10” frosh is, for the moment, the team’s second-leading scorer (12.0 ppg), and he leads the team in effective field-goal percentage (85.7 percent).

But then, Lewis is third on the team in scoring (11.3 ppg) and second in EFG (85.3 percent).

Meanwhile, Thomas and White (both averaging 10.0 ppg) are guys who would start and get 30 minutes a game at a lot of places.

And then there’s Gertrude, who missed last season with an injury suffered in a scooter accident in the spring of 2024, and, as Odom mentioned, is still getting his legs under him.

Gertrude, in his limited minutes, looks to have the bouncy athleticism that made him a four-star prep recruit.

I’ll pull an Odom here and not make any bets on how this will all play out.

I think we see him continue going with a 10-man rotation with Carrere as the 10th guy until he gets Tillis back, at Tillis is the 10th man.

At some point, maybe around the first of the year, one guard and one forward from among those 10 will start to see their minutes decrease.

I have my ideas there.