Round Robin: A Look at Virginia Basketball as ACC Play Commences

Virginia enters the "second season" when they travel to Blacksburg on New Year's Eve. Sporting an 11 - 1 record, a NET rating of 21 and ranking 23 on Kenpom, this early season success is surely a surprise to all but the most fervent of Hoos fans. Now that the out-of-conference slate is completed, Najeh Wilkins joins Val to talk about Virginia's prospects heading into ACC play.

The turnaround from last season is dizzying. What strikes you most about the difference between last year and this year?

Val: Just the speed with which this team was assembled. Ryan Odom was hired on March 21st. He got Chance Mallory to recommit within 48 hours. In nine days, Odom signed Silas Barksdale (now redshirting), Sam Lewis, Jacari White, Devon Tillis and Dallin Hall. (Oh, and Duke Miles, who subsequently felt he was recruited over, and de-committed.) Within another two weeks, Odom had snared Ugonna Onyenso, Malik Thomas and Johan Grunloh and all that was left was waiting for Thijs De Ridder. Within a month, Odom had an entire team.

Maybe this NIL regime is the way to go. Contrast that with Tony Bennett’s months, nay year’s long recruitments of Efton Reid, Cole Anthony, Javon Quinerly and so many others. Heck, Reece Beekman took a couple years. And even when Beekman’s signing was announced, I felt a greater sense of relief than of joy. It was just that exhausting.

Najeh: I would say the offense flows better, and they share the basketball. Virginia is No.45 in assists per game, averaging 17.7. They move the basketball and always find the best shot especially in their half-court offense. The Hoos also are getting a good contribution from its bench with various scorers coming in and playing at a high level. Virginia is No.30 in bench points in 2025 averaging 34.75 bench points. Another big reason for the turnaround is how deep they are and anybody can go off. One night it can be Malik Thomas, Dallin Hall, Johann Grünloh, Devin Tillis, or Sam Lewis. The roster meshes and fits so well. It really doesn’t matter. Virginia can get going offensively and explode for a barrage of points. When you have a talented roster that is unselfish, shares the basketball, and always finds the best shot it, makes your offense premier. This is why the difference has been so striking.

Who is the most important player going forward?

Najeh: Chance Mallory. The young freshman has been a spark off the bench running the operation on offense and scoring the basketball at a high level. Mallory is shooting 44.1% from beyond the arc. Defensively he has been pest and been a reason the Cavaliers have been successful in smothering teams and not letting them get in a rhythm. He is averaging 11.1 points, 4.7 rebounds, 3.6 assists, and 2.3 steals. Coach Odom will likely turn to Mallory more, especially in ACC play. A lot of the times this season when Virginia has gone on a run it is because Mallory has been leading the second unit and running the offense at a high level. For Coach Odom, keeping Mallory in-state has been one of the best decisions of the 2025 recruiting class and for the team this year. Without Mallory, Virginia wouldn’t be nearly as good.

Val: It only took me two games to come to the conclusion that Mallory is already the best player on the team, so I certainly agree with Najeh’s assessment of Mallory’s worth. But for this season, Thijs De Ridder is going to be the bellwether. This team has a lot of jump-shooters, who for the most part haven’t shown a lot of success getting to the rim – Lewis, Tillis, White – and the one guy who was supposed to be the slasher, Malik Thomas, hasn’t shown the ability either at this level. Grunloh and Onyenso have middling post-up games, so when the threes aren’t falling, and we know that there will two or three or four times that this doesn’t happen, who takes over? If De Ridder can, then the Hoos will be a force.

Thus far, De Ridder has been feasting on the minnows en route to season averages of 16 points and 6 rebounds per game on 54.6% shooting. If you look only at the Maryland, Dayton, Texas and Butler games, you know the harder competition that Virginia has faced, De Ridder is averaging just 8 points and 6 rebounds on 38% shooting. That’s not NBA material. The good news is that De Ridder, I’m sure, knows this. After his dud of a game against Maryland, Thijs responded with a vengeance for his best game against American.

In the coach's pre-season poll, Virginia was selected fifth. Do you agree with that assessment? If Virginia is going to exceed that expectation, what has to happen? And if you think Virginia will fail to reach that standard, what will have gone wrong.

Najeh: I would say they are a top three team in the ACC. They should exceed that expectation. They have a really good coach in Ryan Odom and a team with a good blend of young players and veterans. For that notion to happen as a top three team, they need to continue to play high level offense, share the basketball, run in transition, and play quality basketball. On defense continuing to apply full court pressure and make teams work hard for buckets. In ACC play, the talent will level will be much higher and harder to defend but the Hoos have the interior defense and perimeter defense to withstand whatever players or trams they are facing. They have a very deep roster where anybody can go off on any given night.

Val: I’m fine with fifth, until we have more games against top caliber competition. We haven’t played anyone of note yet, though of the four teams I mentioned WRT to De Ridder, only Maryland was a home contest. Texas sits at 46 in the kenpom ratings, while there are six ACC teams rated higher: Duke, Louisville, UNC, NC State, Clemson and SMU. In addition, Wake Forest, Cal, Notre Dame, Virginia Tech, Syracuse, Stanford and Pitt are all ranked ahead of Maryland We haven’t seen anything yet.

Who is the most under-rated player on the team?

Val: Dallin Hall. Despite Hall’s 20-point outburst against Maryland and his late-game heroics versus Northwestern, much of Cavalier Nation still seems to want Mallory to displace Hall in the starting lineup. I think that’s short-sighted. As we have all seen, this Virginia team, to date, can come at you from a lot of different directions and Hall is, and always was, a pass-first point guard with a 3.3 to 1 assist to turnover ratio. What he has shown is that he can score if the team needs it, but he’s content to let others get their points. That maturity is to be prized. Also, according to Dan Bonner, who has been courtside for two Virginia games this year, it is Hall who is calling out the defensive assignments. We’ve given up a lot of backdoors to decidedly substandard competition; we will need him more as ACC play ramps up.

Najeh: Ugonna Onyenso. He is a key player off the bench that provides valuable minutes in the front court. He can defend at a high level on the interior send back shots and grabbing rebounds. Onyenso is averaging 4.5 rebounds and 2.5 blocks. When he comes in, he gives Thijs De Ridder and Johann Grünloh an opportunity to rest and where the Cavaliers don’t miss a beat on the defensive side of the ball or getting a quick bucket at the rim. With his presence coming into games, it will prove valuable for the Cavaliers because he gives them a paint presence and one that can run the pick and roll at a high level and make plays on defense.

Under Tony Bennett, Virginia was obviously a defense-wins-games kind of team and now we're an offense-wins-games kind of team. Is this offense good enough to win the ACC?

Najeh: Yes they are. Virginia is a perfect blend of elite offense and good defense. When they need to get a stop they can with their stellar perimeter defense which leads to transition buckets and open shots on the other end. What makes this offense good is their ability to share the basketball. Of their 362 made field goals, 58% of them have come off assists. The Hoos are also elite at shooting the basketball from beyond the arc. Virginia ranks No.15 in the country in three-point percentage shooting it at a 39.62% clip. Before the his wrist injury, Jacari White was the Hoos’ best shooter shooting the ball at a 50% clip. With the floor spacing they have, it makes the offense flow better and smoother. They can win games with their offense because they are capable of scoring 80+ points against anybody easily. Virginia has scored 80 points in all but one game this season. With that type of output, they can win any game they suit up in.

Val: Well, as Najeh said, this Virginia team is scoring at an unreal clip this year, having eclipsed the 80-point threshold in all but one game. And that’s despite playing at roughly the same pace as Tony Bennett teams, right about 60 – 62 possessions per game. But scoring seems to be up across the board, and forgive me if my methodology is wrong, but last year’s median team scoring wise was Fairleigh Dickinson with 73.6 points per game. As of this writing, the median scoring team in the country is Wichita State at 77.9 points. Maybe amidst all the roster churn, no one is working as much on defense.

I don’t know that I would characterize this offense as elite, per se. The most singular aspect that was elite was Jacari White shooting the catch-and-release three a la Klay Thompson. White is injured, thankfully just to his non-shooting hand, but it will be a month or so before we find out how he recovers. That, and De Ridder’s performances against better teams will determine whether we have an elite offense.