Ryan Odom didn’t need much time in Charlotte to explain why Virginia is in a far better spot this fall than it was a year ago. The answer, in his mind, starts with something college basketball often lacks now: players choosing to stay.
Virginia heads into the season with a core that survived the sting of its 79-72 second-round loss to Tennessee, and that defeat may have done more than end a promising 30-6 debut year. It helped persuade several of the Cavaliers’ best pieces to run it back.
“We felt like we didn't accomplish everything we wanted to,” said guard Sam Lewis, one of three returning starters.
Lewis is back alongside all-ACC forward Thijs De Ridder and center Johann Grunloh, and sophomore point guard Chance Mallory is set to start after coming off the bench as a freshman. That group gives Odom a foundation he simply didn’t have last season, when he and almost the entire roster were new to the program.
Lewis said the difference is obvious already.
This year’s group, he said, is light-years ahead of last year’s team on defense and in knowing assignments and where teammates will be on the floor.
Odom sees the same thing. Retention, he said, changes everything from daily standards to how quickly a team can grow into Virginia basketball.
“There’s a benefit to having retention from a practice perspective, just an overall standards perspective,” Odom said. “These guys understand, you know, what it means to be a Virginia basketball player, what it means to put that jersey on, the history of the program.
“There’s a lot of stuff that we did a year ago, you know, in terms of putting it together. An entirely new collection of players that had never played together, and now we have guys that are back that have been through some pressure situations.
They’ve been through some tough games, some disappointing endings. So they have a working knowledge and can help the new guys.”
That 79-72 loss to Tennessee may have been a painful finish, but it also left Virginia with something else: a sense of unfinished business. Lewis said the players never held a group meeting about their futures; each made his own decision.
Still, the result was the same. The Cavaliers kept the heart of the roster intact.
De Ridder and Grunloh both could have explored the professional route, even if neither was viewed as a sure NBA draft pick. Lewis, after transferring to Virginia from Toledo and averaging in double figures, could have gone back into the portal and likely found a better financial deal.
“There were guys that if they had put themselves on the open market, I'm sure they could have found someone to give them more [money]," Odom said. “That's the state of the game.”
Mallory’s return was less surprising. The Charlottesville native had committed to Virginia under Tony Bennett, reopened his recruitment after Bennett’s departure and then recommitted once Odom arrived. For him, the choice never felt complicated.
“What Odom said aligned with what I wanted to do,” Mallory said. “There was no reason to leave.”
The Cavaliers’ retention didn’t stop with the main rotation. Odom was happy to find that players lower on the depth chart decided to stay, too.
Elijah Gertrude, the last remaining link to the Bennett era, remained in the program. Martin Carrere, who followed Odom from VCU, also came back.
Forward Silas Barksdale, who redshirted last season, stayed as well.
Those kinds of decisions are often rare in a sport where limited minutes can push players out the door. Odom said he was worried about losing them.
“I was concerned [that they'd leave]," Odom said, "... and I was thrilled that they didn't."
Virginia won’t be judged on continuity alone, of course. But Odom would much rather start this season on firmer ground than he did a year ago, when nearly everything had to be built from scratch.
The Cavaliers open Nov. 3 at home against Drexel.
In Other News...
Virginia Is About To Get A Spotlight Fans Will Notice
ACC Tipoff in Charlotte offered the first real public glimpse of how Virginias season is being framed around experience, opportunity and a changing league landscape. Ryan Odom spent the event talking through his teams outlook alongside Dukes Jon Scheyer, while the conversation around the Blue Devils centered on how their new pieces fit and how much room there is for growth as the year unfolds. North Carolina also drew attention through Michael Malone, who has been working to adjust to college basketball and connect with the program and its former players.
For Virginia, though, the bigger stage may come after the event itself. The Cavaliers are set to be one of the leagues most visible teams on the schedule, the sort of profile that ensures every step of Odoms first season will be watched closely by a national audience. In a conference full of familiar powers and fresh storylines, that kind of exposure only raises the stakes, and it puts an added spotlight on how quickly Virginia can turn its experience into something that travels well beyond Charlottesville. [Read more 🡒]
Virginia O-Line Faces Urgent Pressure After Pass Protection Collapse
Virginias offensive line spent the early part of the week digging through the film after a rough night in Tallahassee, where protection issues became impossible to ignore in a loss at Florida State. The Cavaliers are trying to sort out what broke down so badly and how to get the front five back on track, because pass protection is now a central issue for a unit that has to hold up if the offense is going to settle in.
The challenge is not just about cleaner technique or better communication, either, because the looks Virginia faced kept changing and made the operation harder to sort out on the fly. With the Seminoles mixing up their approach and testing the Cavaliers in different ways, the next step for Virginia is finding answers quickly enough to keep the problem from carrying over into the rest of the schedule. [Read more 🡒]
Virginia Faces An Early Syracuse Test That Could Set The Tone
Virginias 2026 start has already gone sideways sooner than expected, with two losses arriving before the Cavaliers could really settle into the kind of opening that preseason models had hinted at. Even so, the next few weeks still carry real weight, and the visit from Syracuse stands out as the kind of game that can either steady things or deepen the unease around a team trying to find its footing.
Syracuse brings its own uncertainty into the matchup, with recent roster moves and a quarterback situation that has changed quickly from one week to the next. For Virginia, the bigger issue is less about the numbers in any projection and more about whether this group can turn a frustrating early stretch into something more stable before the season starts to slip further out of reach. [Read more 🡒]