UVA makes cut for state’s top PF, Allmond, and Top 40 SF

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Photo: Made Hoops

Virginia has made the cut list for two of the top 40 forwards in the nation for the recruiting class of 2026, and one of those blue-chippers is close to home.

Petersburg High School’s Lattrell Allmond, a 6-foot-8 power forward, listed Virginia as one of nine schools he is now considering: UVA, Tennessee, Kansas, Arizona, Michigan State, Indiana, Miami, Oklahoma State and Maryland.

In the process, Allmond eliminated the following schools: Alabama, LSU, NC State, Michigan, Utah, Texas A&M, Missouri, Washington, Cincinnati, Rutgers and others.

Meanwhile, Billy White III, a 6-8 small forward, has included Virginia in his top 10, which also includes: LSU, TCU, Kansas State, Stanford, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Oklahoma State and Maryland.

White, a top-40 prospect in the class of 2026, is a 4-star who has scheduled six official visits, including a trip to UVA in late August.

Getting back to Petersburg’s Allmond, a 4-star prospect, he’s rated by Rivals as the No. 2 overall recruit in the state of Virginia, the No. 5 power forward in the nation and the country’s No. 25 prospect regardless of position.

He has unofficially visited UVA, Tennessee and Oklahoma State. He has officially visited Indiana and has a trip to Kansas planned on Aug. 28.

Allmond, a very physical player, was a standout at this summer’s NBAPA Top 100 camp. Playing for Team Loaded – Virginia, he is presently averaging 15 points, 7.5 rebounds per game and shooting 3-pointers at a 47.1 clip.

Scattershooting: Football’s around the corner, pressure is on for Elliott; plus Golden Nuggets

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Scattershooting on a Saturday morning with football slowly creeping up on us, UVA practice begins in 12 days …

Focus will immediately turn to Tony Elliott in his fourth season on the job. Elliott, who is a good guy, has struggled to win in the first three years. Virginia’s 11 wins over that span is the lowest total of any Power 4 coach in the conference.

Certainly it’s bowl or bust for Elliott and his staff, and the potential is definitely there to win six games. The Cavaliers have the easiest schedule of any ACC team and have seven home games, which should offer some advantage, although the Scott Stadium homefield edge ain’t what it used to be.

Other than the schedule — UVA does not face Clemson, Miami or SMU, three of the top four teams in the conference — Elliott has some things going for him, namely 31 new players from the transfer portal. It’s a top-25 (nationally) transfer class, and for the first time in a long, long time, Virginia appears to have playable depth at every position.

Elliott mentioned late last season that one of the differences he had noticed when comparing his program to rival Virginia Tech is that the Hokies had more depth. That should no longer be the case.

So will Virginia qualify for a bowl? It should, but there’s a handful of 50-50 games the Cavaliers are going to have to win their share of in order to do so. One of the huge games on the schedule is a road trip to NC State for a nonconference game on the second week of the season.

The Wolfpack are coming off a disappointing season, including a bowl loss to rival East Carolina. Still, State is tough to beat in Raleigh.

A win could help UVA to a 3-0 start (Coastal Carolina, William & Mary) and set things up nicely for Florida State coming to town. FSU was one of the most disappointing teams in the nation last season, but expected to rebound or coach Mike Norvell could be a goner.

A loss at State could turn up the heat on Elliott and his staff, even though it’s only the second game of the season.

Meanwhile, national media have not been kind to Elliott.

CBS Sports ranked Elliott among the four worst coaches in major college football. The Sporting News ranked him No. 77 nationally and last in the ACC.

Perhaps the nastiest comments, though, came anonymously from some ACC colleagues, who took their shots in a poll conducted by Athlon:

“These guys are in trouble and most everyone expects there to be a staff change at the end of the season or earlier.”

That’s what one unnamed ACC coach said. I will inject my opinion here, that there will not be a staff change earlier than the end of the season. That’s never happened at Virginia and won’t this season, regardless of what happens. It’s not the Virginia way.

More Athlon comments:

“They’ve never delivered on the offensive expectations Tony [Elliott] set coming from Clemson. They’re sloppy on both sides of the ball and we’ve seen some talented players come in, underperform and move on.”

“This is a team you never really worry about playing. They lack discipline and they have no real identity. The parity in this league is increasing and it will be really hard for this program to make a sharp turn up.”

Wow, those are some serious shots by some of Elliott’s fellow coaches. Makes for some good bulletin board material though.

Indiana Hoosiers or Chickens?

Since Indiana backed out of its home-and-home series with Virginia and Louisville, lots of people are pointing fingers toward Bloomington and saying the Hoosiers chickened out of those games for fear of losing against nonconference opponents.

Granted, those games were scheduled when the Big Ten was playing only 8 conference games and have since expanded to 9. UVA and Louisville were replaced by games against Western Illinois and Kennesaw State. Louisville, by the way, beat Indiana in 2023 in a game at Lucas Oil Stadium, but the Hoosiers went on to scrap the home-and-home series.

Indiana is one of five Big Ten teams that won’t play a Power 4 team this season, and presently the Hoosiers don’t have a game scheduled against a Power 4 opponent through 2029.

Coach Curt Cignetti was heavily criticized nationally last season when Indiana reached the College Football Playoffs with the second-lowest strength of schedule among the non-automatic qualifiers (ranked No. 35 nationally).

“You can’t afford a bad scheduling year,” Indiana’s AD said. “You have to schedule strategically. We want our nonconference schedule to put us in the best position for success at the end of the season.”

Are you paying attention, Virginia?

Jerome: Home for Sale

Former Virginia star Ty Jerome, coming off a great season with the Cleveland Cavaliers and recently traded to Memphis, is not just moving NBA teams.

Jerome is selling his home in the hills of Studio City, Los Angeles, and moving to Memphis.

Jerome’s asking price for the 2,866-square-foot, ranch-style home (four bedrooms, five baths) is $2.59 million. He paid $2.58 in February of 2024.

The home has a pool and a fire pit on 0.27 acres, an open floor plan with a huge living room and dining room with a chef’s kitchen.

“The house in LA was and is amazing, but I’m just ready to move on from it, and yes, I’m buying in Memphis,” Jerome told “Gimme Shelter.”

Jerome, 28, has agreed to a three-year, $28-million deal with the Grizzlies after averaging 12.5 points over 70 games in Cleveland. He shot 51.6 percent from the field and 43.9 from the arc.

Meanwhile, another former Wahoo and a former Jerome teammate, 7-footer Jay Huff, was traded from Memphis to the Indiana Pacers, where he’ll play for former Wahoo Rick Carlisle.

Huff, in a breakout NBA season, played in 64 games for the Grizzlies, averaged 6.9 points, 2 rebounds and 0.9 blocks per game, averaging 11.7 minutes per contest. He was one of three seven-footers in the NBA to make better than 40 percent of his 3-point field-goal attempts with at least 200 shots.

Hootie’s Golden Nuggets

• Perfect Game, a baseball publication, has ranked the nation’s top 100 college recruiting classes for 2025, and Chris Pollard’s Virginia program is the only non-SEC team in the country’s top 8.
• The Wahoos come in at 7th place, one spot ahead of Mississippi State, where former UVA coach Brian O’Connor is now coaching. The top six are all SEC schools: LSU, Tennessee, Texas, Arkansas, Vanderbilt and Texas A&M. Pollard’s old Duke program, by the way, which has had a ton of its commitments flip to Virginia, isn’t ranked in the nation’s top 100 recruiting classes. Ouch!
• Our spies tell us that Connor Shellenberger, who recently announced that he had joined Lars Tiffany’s Virginia lacrosse coaching staff, will not stop playing professional lacrosse. Shellenberger plans on balancing out playing and coaching, and if anyone can do that, it’s Shellenberger.
• There’s a Twitter account that goes by the name of “Empty Trophy Case,” and it is clearly a creation of a Wahoo fan who reminds us often about Virginia Tech’s lack of national titles in any sport. The latest post, on Friday, read: “VPISU has gone 43,574 days without winning an NCAA championship #TitlelessTown
• UVA baseball has also added another strong pitching arm for its 2026 class in RHP Quinn Showalter out of Collierville, Tenn.  He’s 6-5, 230, with a 96-mph fastball. He was named the Tennessee All West Region top two-way player in the state for 2025. He pitched a perfect game back in April and was named a ‘25 Rawlings Underclass First Team All-American. And yes, he is another Duke commitment who has flipped.
• Virginia’s basketball game vs. Ohio State on Valentine’s Day, 2026, will be played at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena.
• This has absolutely nothing to do with sports, but if you grew up watching the Andy Griffith Show, you may appreciate it: “The reason Mayberry was so peaceful and quiet was because nobody was married. Andy, Aunt Bea, Barney, Floyd, Howard, Goober, Gomer, Sam, Earnest T Bass, Helen, Thelma Lou, Clara and, of course, Opie were all single. The only married person was Otis and he stayed drunk.”
• This gem from Danny Neckel: Former UVA pitcher Andrew Abbott, who pitched in the All-Star game this week, is the only pitcher to have a sub-2.20 ERA and a .875 winning percentage through their team’s first 100 games since Clayton Kershaw in 2017.
• Notre Dame is the only ACC basketball team with at least 50 percent of its scoring by percentage returning. The Irish return 55.1 percent of their scoring. Virginia Tech is second at 44.9 percent and three teams have 39 percent of their scoring returning: BC, SMU and Stanford. Nobody else has more than 28 percent returning. Both Virginia and Miami return zero percent of its scoring.

De Ridder granted two years of eligibility by NCAA

From Staff Reports

Photo: UVA Athletics

Thijs De Ridder has been given the green light to begin his collegiate career at Virginia, according to multiple sources.

The 6-foot-8 forward from Belgium was granted immediate eligibility by the NCAA on Friday, and is expected to be a key piece for Ryan Odom and the Cavaliers this season.

De Ridder most recently played for a professional team, Surne Bilbao Basket, in Spain. The 22-year old put up 9.3 points per contest and shot 38 percent from beyond the arc.

Initially projected as a possible second-round NBA draft choice, De Ridder chose to test his skills on the NCAA level, and committed to UVA earlier this month. He will have two years of eligibility remaining.

UVA announces official signing of de Ridder

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Photo: NBA

Virginia officially signed Belgian forward Thijs De Ridder to a basketball grant-in-aid on Wednesday, according to a post by Coach Ryan Odom.

“We are excited and fortunate to add Thijs to our basketball program,” Odom said. “Thijs is talented, experienced and competitive. He will have an immediate impact in our frontcourt and we look forward to his arrival on Grounds.”

Apparently, de Ridder hasn’t arrived in Charlottesville but has signed, and UVA is awaiting word from the NCAA on how many years of eligibility the 6-foot-8 power forward will be granted.

On Wednesday, Virginia Tech basketball’s 22-year-old German Antonio Dorn was given three years of eligibility by the NCAA, meaning Dorn will have five years to play three rather than five years to play four.

De Ridder is also a 22-year-old. Perhaps UVA will get word from the NCAA in the coming days.

Odom excited about Virginia’s loaded frontcourt

By Jerry Ratcliffe

There was a twinkle in Ryan Odom’s eyes this week when he described Virginia’s big men in what could be one of the ACC’s most dominating frontcourts.

Seven-footer Ugonna Onyenso, a physical, 247-pound center from Nigeria, played at Kansas State and Kentucky.

Seven-footer Johann Grunloh, from Loningen, Germany, has been carefully watched by NBA scouts since he was 17 years old in 2023.

Thijs De Ridder is a 6-8 Belgian who has signed but hasn’t arrived, awaiting NCAA clearance on how many years of eligibility the 22-year-old will be granted.

How could Odom be anything but excited? Consider that both Grunloh and De Ridder were both projected as NBA second-round draft choices. How many ACC frontcourts can stake that claim?

They both played in European hoops, De Ridder at a higher level, but both of them have played against grown-ass men for the past couple of years, facing former NBA players and former college stars who had found their way across the pond.

There’s also 6-8 redshirt freshman Martin Carrere of France and 6-8 incoming freshman Silas Barksdale from Hampton, along with 6-9 redshirt sophomore Carter Lang.

Those three will be battling for clean-up minutes early on, while the other three could present a nightmare for opponents. When was the last time Virginia featured that kind of physical presence on the floor? Plus, these guys can shoot.

“I’m really excited about our frontcourt,” Odom said. “It doesn’t necessarily look like it right now because they’re not all out there practicing with us, so we’re not going to have the benefit of having an entire summer with the entire roster, and that’s OK. These guys are experienced players and have played at a high level, and will be able to pick things up really quickly.”

Grunloh didn’t show up until Wednesday and De Ridder still hasn’t arrived. Carrere was a late arrival as well.

Still, Odom was eager to talk about the Cavalier big men.

“Grunloh has tremendous size. He’s over 6-11 and has the ability to stretch behind the arc,” Odom said.

The coach was excited about the possibilities because it has been three years since he’s had a center who could shoot 3-pointers, dating back to a good-passing Utah State team that was challenging to guard.

“Certainly [Grunloh] is going to provide shooting, shot-blocking, interior presence, passing, just a level of skill that’s needed at the highest level,” Odom said.

Then there’s Onyenso, who is being called Ugo (short for Ugonna).

“He’s a shot-blocker,” Odom said. “There’s more to his game than that. After having watched him so far, he’s a much better shooter than I even knew. So we’ve been toying with that a little bit. Ultimately his way to impact games is going to be his presence inside.”

De Ridder wasn’t on the practice floor, but everyone is anticipating his arrival, whether it be during the summer session or in the fall.

“He’s a really, really tough player, an all-court player,” Odom said of De Ridder. “He’s a guy that has played a lot of basketball and will be up for the challenge against the competition he’s going to face.”

Two of Virginia’s other players who have been practicing have been impressed with the big men, and can’t wait for the season to come around.

Devin Tillis, a 6-7 grad student from UC Irvine, spent some time with De Ridder when the Belgian made his official visit to UVA a few weeks ago.

“He’s a great dude, super funny, charismatic,” Tillis said. “Everybody here is going to love him. As a basketball player, he’s done it at a high level overseas. He’s a great baller, he can score it at all three levels and he’s gonna be a great defender. He has the physicality and the tools to be an NBA player … obviously, he was on NBA Draft boards.”

Dallin Hall, the 6-4 grad student from BYU who projects as the starting point guard, said he didn’t get to see De Ridder work out or play, but did watch his highlight film and was more than impressed.

“I think he’s going to fit our style of play,” Hall said. “Just as a person, I have a lot of respect for him and how he carries himself and how he treats those around him.”

For a point guard, what a luxury it will be to have De Ridder and Grunloh on the floor at the same time. Talk about an opportunity to make defenses pay if they come out to defend Virginia’s guards. Hall is frothing at the mouth anticipating tons of alley-oop opportunities.

“[Grunloh’s] height alone is obviously exciting, but also Johann’s ability to protect the rim is going to be huge for us defensively,” Hall said. “He’s a super smart offensive player. And then, Thijs, he can really shoot it. He can do a lot of things, like a Swiss Army knife. I was joking about him coming for my point guard spot.”

Odom & Co. have pulled a major coup in luring both Grunloh and De Ridder to Charlottesville.

According to the International Basketball Recruits dashboard, ranking the top 25 international prospects, De Ridder is ranked No. 5 and Grunloh No. 6.

Does it get any better than that?

There were seasons when Wahoo fans would have killed to have two big men of that quality to go along with skilled backcourts.

Ed Borderman of The Netherlands, who evaluates hoops talent on the other side of the Atlantic, wrote this about De Ridder: “No. 1 senior-Euroballer will be preseason All-ACC if he is heading to Charlottesville.”

That prediction was before De Ridder signed with Virginia.

Borderman also wrote: “De Ridder maakte dit seizoen furore bij Bilbao en dat is dus niet onopgemerkt geblrven. De Ridder genoot onder meer van interesse uit Parijs, waar hij de stap naar de EuroLeague zou kunnen maken.”

Now, my Dutch ain’t what it used to be, but I think Borderman means De Ridder is a bad ass.

Grunloh would fit that description as well. Just imaging a 7-footer, 220-pounds, who can drill the 3 and protect the rim, kind of like Jay Huff used to do his final season with Virginia, only this kid is 19. We’re told he’s also extremely dangerous on pick-and-rolls in terms of finding the open man because he’s a really good passer and decision maker.

No wonder there was a twinkle in Odom’s eyes. It’s going to rain twinkles come November.

Shooters galore on UVA practice floor

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Photo by Jon Golden

Ryan Odom had us when he said, “I love offense.” Wahoo fans could finally empty their medicine cabinets and dispose of their NoDoz, or wean themselves of caffeine.

It’s a new era in Charlottesville. No more “first one to 50 wins” chatter. Perhaps no more allowing inferior opponents to keep within an arm’s length because of the snail’s pace.

We’re talkin’ greyhounds here.

During the first summer press conference by a Virginia basketball coach since at least 2008, Odom shared his thoughts on how the Cavaliers will play this season, and the plethora of shooters he and his staff lured to Charlottesville.

A portion of UVA’s fan base never thought the Cavaliers had enough shooters. One exception was the 2019 national championship team that featured Ty Jerome, Kyle Guy, De’Andre Hunter and supporting shooters that could light up opposing defenses at times in Kihei Clark, Braxton Key and occasionally Jay Huff from the perimeter.

Otherwise, many of those teams featured only a couple of guys who could fill it up, and if they were having a bad night or if teams chose to take them out, there wasn’t enough firepower to get the job done. Instead, it was up to the defense to make stops and grind out cliffhangers with few exceptions.

Now, it’s Katie bar the door. There are shooters galore, and that’s by design.

It’s gonna rain 3-pointers in JPJ. Bring an umbrella.

“It’s something that certainly has always been important to me personally as a head coach,” Odom said Tuesday afternoon. “It’s also important to our game.”

Odom, decked out in a navy blue Virginia sweatshirt, pointed out that fans who watch NBA and college basketball, the teams that find quality looks around the basket but also find quality looks outside the 3-point arc have a really good chance to be successful, especially if they play good defense.

Certainly the latter became more important as Odom developed as a coach. He noted that when he was a head coach for the first time at Lenoir Rhyne, he wasn’t a very good defensive coach.

“I didn’t really worry about it,” Odom said. “I wanted to outscore the other team.”

That style was fun to watch for Odom’s dad, Dave, a successful coach at UVA, Wake Forest and South Carolina, but at the same time frightening for the elder Odom.

Focus on defense has increased, but so it has on shooting the rock. That has shown up in Ryan Odom’s first recruiting class at Virginia.

“Certainly we wanted to find guys that fit our system and our style,” he said Tuesday. “The more times that you can put four guys on the court — sometimes five — that can shoot the ball, well, the court just does this,” as Odom’s arms stretched wider.

“When you have multiple guys that are not those type of shooters, then it does the opposite,” as the space between his arms narrowed. “Then, the defense can load up. We’re all searching for that space on offense to be able to create both off the bounce and from behind the arc.”

Even Odom’s bigs have the ability to stretch the floor, especially German 7-footer Johann Grunloh. We even saw 7-footer Ugonna Onyenso, thought to be mostly a rim protector, nail three consecutive 3-pointers while working with an assistant coach prior to the interviews. Odom said they’re experimenting with that to see what develops.

Check out these shooting numbers from some of the backcourt guys:

Point guard Dallin Hall (BYU) shot 34.3 percent from the arc last season.

Guard Malik Thomas (San Francisco) averaged 20 points a game and put up 36 against Loyola Chicago in the NIT. All-WCC first team.

Forward Devin Tillis (UC Irvine) averaged 14 points, 26 games with double-figures scoring, 25 points three times.

Jacari White (North Dakota State) averaged 17 points per game and shot 45 percent from the floor, 39.8 from the arc. Drilled seven triples in a 27-point game against Butler.

Guard Sam Lewis (Toledo) averaged 16 points, led the MAC in 3-point percentage (44.4), and had 11 20-point outings.

Forward Martin Carrere (freshman transfer from VCU) shot 42 percent from the arc for the French (U18) National Team.

Point guard Chance Mallory (freshman from St. Anne’s-Belfield) can shoot from the NBA 3-point line, holds the STAB record with 45 points in a game and 11 triples.

Buckle up, boys and girls. The folks at King’s Dominion might have to name a new ride for Virginia’s offense.