Scattershooting: Odom’s Euro roots, statue for Staley and Hootie’s Golden Nuggets

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Scattershooting around UVA, the ACC and college athletics, while gearing up for this morning’s “The Jerry & Jerry Show,” live from downtown Charlottesville at 10:15 …

Coming to America

We knew that Ryan Odom and his staff had connections to European hoops, but wow. With the recent additions of German Johann Grunloh, Ugonna Onyenso of Nigeria (via Kansas State and Kentucky), Martin Carrere of France (via VCU), Virginia could be adding even more Europeans to the roster.

Reports surfaced Monday that Belgian Thijs De Ridder (see related story on this website), is likely leaving Spain for Virginia. De Ridder and Grunloh are both projected second-round NBA Draft picks.

Odom has been all over European basketball, and five days ago was in Varese, Italy, to visit Elisee Assui, a 6-foot-7, 230-pound wing who plays for Serie A in Varese. Assui, 19, is also being courted by Louisville, Clemson, Missouri, Texas and Wisconsin to some degree.

Assui has played in 23 games this season for the Varese club and is averaging 4.4 points and 2 rebounds per game and shooting 45 percent from the arc. While playing in the U18 Tournament in Dubai in 2023-24, he averaged 11.2 points, while making 64 percent of his 2-point field-goal attempts and 44.4 percent of his 3’s. Should he choose to come to Virginia, the school would be stuck with his exit fee of 300,000 euros, a fee for any non-NBA club.

Stay tuned of Assui and De Ridder.

If all this comes to fruition, I don’t envy Virginia play-by-play man John Freeman tangling with those names in the early going.

Odom and his staff are experienced in scouting international players, have tons of connections. Bringing in Europeans to UVA makes sense because Virginia brings in lots of international students and can bring them into international classes to make the transition smoother.

Coaches also like European players because they are generally more disciplined, have better fundamentals and are usually better shooters than the average American player.

A statue for Dawn

In a more perfect world, this would have happened in Charlottesville, with UVA benefitting from its most famous women’s player ever, Dawn Staley.

The city of Columbia, S.C., where Staley coaches South Carolina’s women’s program, unveiled a brand new statue of Staley downtown last week. The statue is of Staley atop a ladder, cutting down a championship net, something she’s had a lot of practice doing over the length of her career.

She has been coaching the Gamecocks since 2008, taking the program to three national championships and seven Final Fours.

Staley was selected by Columbia’s mayor, not only for her basketball achievements, but also for her influence on equality.

“So I agreed to the statue, not for me, but for the girl who will walk by one day and wonder who I was,” Staley said. “Maybe she’ll look me up. She’ll see that I did some things in basketball, of course, but I hope she sees much more. I hope she sees that I was a champion for equity and equality. That in my own way, I pushed for change. That I stood proudly in the space God called me to inhabit, not as someone perfect or extraordinary, but as a regular girl who used her gifts to open doors so other girls wouldn’t have to knock as hard.”

Hootie’s Golden Nuggets

• Remember Duke Miles, the Oklahoma guard who committed to Virginia via the portal, then decommitted a couple days later and signed with Texas A&M? Well, he’s done it again. Miles requested release from A&M and is on the market yet again.
• Stunning factoid: Virginia swimmers have set 19 World Records since Oct. 18, 2024.
• UVA has offered 2026 forward Sebastian Wilkins of Brewster Academy in New Hampshire. He’s a top-60 player who has also been contacted by Maryland and Duke.
• Remember Ian Schieffelin, who helped Clemson beat Virginia at JPJ this past season? Well, Schieffelin is now trying out for Clemson’s football team and Dabo Swinney said he’s excited about the transition. Assuming he’ll be a tight end or an edge rusher?
• OK, I realize it’s not the ACC, but it should be noted that 5-Star Arkansas freshman Boogie Fland is considering withdrawing his name from the NBA Draft and returning to college basketball. If that happens, experts predict that Fland may demand as much as $7 million from the Florida Gators.
• Last, but certainly not least, longtime Virginia associate head basketball coach and former Wahoo player Jason Williford has been hired by Ed Cooley at Georgetown. Williford will fill the vacancy of Kenny Johnson, who left the Hoyas to join Indiana’s new staff. Cooley is hoping that Williford’s connections will help Georgetown sign four highly rated prospects from metro D.C.