Virginia Basketball Continues to be Unranked In AP Top 25 Poll

Despite a 4-0 start, Virginia continues to not get any love from the AP Top 25 voters

Virginia coach Ryan Odom works the referees during the second half of their exhibition game against Vanderbilt at Memorial Gym in Nashville, Tenn., Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025. | Denny Simmons / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Despite their 4-0 record, Virginia Basketball continues to be unranked by the AP Top 25 voters. This is not a huge surprise, as UVA has not exactly played the strongest schedule up to this point, but it shows that this team still has a ways to go despite their 4-0 start.

Duke (5th), Louisville (6th), North Carolina (18th), and NC State (25th) were the ACC teams that were ranked this week. The Cavaliers got one vote.

Even though they are not ranked in the AP Top 25, Virginia has seen a steady climb in the KenPom rankings. After yesterday's games, Virginia now ranks 38th in KenPom, with the No. 30 offense and the No. 77 defense.

Where can they improve?

For Virginia to keep winning games and making moves up the polls, they are going to have to start playing better defense, especially when it comes to containing opposing guards. That was a key point of emphasis for head coach Ryan Odom after their win over Marshall:

“I think every game that we're gonna play, we're gonna play a team that is gonna have a leading scorer coming out of that game. The key is minimizing how they play, right?  I think our guys did that for the most part. You know, you look at (Wyatt) Fricks. I mean, he only attempted three threes in the game. You know, (Kai) Spears only attempts four, you know, in the game. Coming into the game, I mean, Fricks was seven for eight, you know, in the last game. And so from that perspective, our guys did a nice job. You get to play their percentages. But, you know, certainly there are areas where we can get better. A lot of it's related to pick and roll defense. But we like to have our guys back, and we want guys running into the seven-footers a lot. So we're willing to, you know, give up, you know, some of those harder twos at times. And if guys make them, then you kind of have to tip your cap. If it becomes a real problem, then you have to switch the coverage.” 

He also talked about the identity forming around the team:

“There were times out there where we got the turnover and then Dallin makes the three. I mean, there were some times out there where it was like, okay, the guys are really imposing their will and might on the game. I think we're going to have ebbs and flows. You're not going to play perfect basketball. But our goal right now is just to continue to try to get better every practice, every shoot around, every game, every film session, to just improve and try to get the guys playing to their full potential It's still really early in the season. We're only four games in. So by no means are we where we need to be right now. We're excited about where we're at, but we need to get a lot better.”

Virginia Basketball is back in action this Friday afternoon at 5:00 p.m. ET against Northwestern.