The i’s have been dotted, the t’s crossed, and Thijs de Ridder is, finally, officially, a full-fledged member of the UVA Basketball program.
And there was much rejoicing.
“We are excited and fortunate to add Thijs to our basketball program,” coach Ryan Odom said on Wednesday, in a press release from UVA Athletics announcing the news. “Thijs is talented, experienced and competitive. He will have an immediate impact in our frontcourt, and we look forward to his arrival on Grounds.”
De Ridder is the final piece in the frontcourt puzzle for Odom’s debut UVA team.
The 22-year-old Belgian import played the last two seasons for Surne Bilbao Basket in Spain’s Liga ACB, averaging 10.1 points and 5.0 rebounds in 21.9 minutes per game, shooting 53.3 percent from the field and 36.4 percent from three this past season.
In case you were wondering, because I was, his first name is pronounced Tess.
Speaking about de Ridder at last week’s basketball media day, Odom said he is “a really tough player, an all-court player, a guy that that has played a lot of basketball, and high-level basketball at that.”
The frontcourt depth for Odom’s first group is borderline elite.
The projected starter at the five spot is seven-footer Johann Grunloh, a German teen who averaged 8.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.6 blocked shots in 23.0 minutes per game, and shot 47.2 percent from the floor and 35.7 percent from three, as a 19-year-old in the German BBL.
Grunloh’s ability to shoot from the perimeter and his ball-handling will both be assets in Odom’s run-and-gun attack.
“My first year at Utah State, I had a five man that could shoot threes and advance the ball. But I think this will be the first year since then, and that was a really good passing team, and was really hard to guard,” Odom said.
Grunloh, Odom said, “is going to provide, you know, certainly shooting, shot blocking, interior presence, passing, a level of skill that’s needed at the highest level.”
The backup at the five spot is another seven-footer, Ugonna Onyenso, from Nigeria, by way of Kansas State, who was a four-star, Top 50 recruit out of high school, whose counting numbers at the college level won’t get you all that lathered up – he’s averaged 3.0 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.6 blocked shots in 12.9 minutes per game in 64 games across his three seasons.
Actually, that blocked shots number should get you excited – that translates to 5.0 blocks per 40 minutes.
If Onyenso, who tested the NBA Draft waters after transferring out of Kentucky before landing at Kansas State last spring, can give Odom five points, five boards and two or three blocks in 15-20 minutes, we’ll take that and run.
“He’s a shot blocker, and certainly there’s more to his game than that,” Odom said. “After having watched him here with us so far, he’s a much better shooter, you know, than I even knew, and so we’ve been, you know, we’re toying with that, you know, a little bit. But ultimately, his way on the court, his way to impact the games, you know, is going to be, as a presence inside.”
The other guy at the four spot, alongside de Ridder, is Devin Tillis, a 6’7” power forward who averaged 13.7 points and 7.8 rebounds per game, shooting 53.5 percent from the floor and 39.5 percent from three, at UC-Irvine last season.
These are the guys that I’d expect to get the bulk of the minutes in games with Power 4 and ACC opponents next season.
Extra depth comes with Carter Lang, a redshirt sophomore from Charlottesville who sat out the 2024-2025 season after transferring in from Vanderbilt, Martin Carrere, a redshirt freshman from France who sat out the 2024-2025 season at VCU, and Silas Barksdale, a Top 100 recruit from Newport News.
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Chris Graham
