Transfer Guard Malik Thomas Commits to Virginia
Virginia has landed one of the nation’s top scorers. Former San Francisco star Malik Thomas announced his commitment to play for the Wahoos. The 6’5” guard was a first-team All-WCC selection and the conference’s leading scorer this season, averaging 19.9 points per game. He’s a graduate transfer with one year of remaining eligibility.
NEWS: San Francisco transfer Malik Thomas has committed to Virginia, he tells @LeagueRDY.
— Sam Kayser (@247HSHoops) May 10, 2025
Thomas began his career playing two seasons at USC before spending the last two at San Francisco. Was named First Team All-WCC this season.
He averaged 19.9PPG, 3.9RPG and 2.1APG in 24-25. pic.twitter.com/FtjEoxCEzs
About Malik Thomas
Malik played his first two years at Southern California, then the past two for San Francisco. Since he only appeared in nine games as a freshman, the NCAA granted him a waiver for another year of eligibility. The waiver process took a while to play out, finally getting resolved this week.
A former top 100 recruit out of Damien High in Southern California, Thomas established himself the past two seasons as a star in the West Coast Conference. He’s become a pure bucket-getter, scoring from all three levels, one of the better shot creators in college basketball. Leading the conference this season at 19.9 points per game. And doing so in an efficient manner, connecting on 39% from three-point range and converting 85% of his frequent trips to the foul line.
This is the news that the UVA coaching staff, and fans for that matter, have been waiting on. Word had gotten out several weeks ago that Thomas would likely head to Charlottesville if his waiver was granted. We weren’t sure that it would be approved. He’s a huge addition for the Cavaliers, to say the least. Thomas gives UVA the go-to scorer they were missing. He raises the bar for next season significantly.
What’s Next
With the addition of Malik Thomas, Virginia is up to 12 players for the 2025-26 season. They aren’t quite done yet. Odom will want one more player for sure, and could be open to adding a second.
Virginia still needs another forward to split time with UC-Irvine transfer Devin Tillis. The name that’s been circulating in recent days is Thijs de Ridder, a 22-year old power forward from Belgium. He’s one of the best Euro players considering the college route, already a standout in the top Spanish pro league. There’s a lot of chatter that Virginia is in favorable position, assuming the NCAA deems him eligible.
If there’s a second addition, it will be a young player on the wing. The top name to know being Italian Elisèe Assui Virginia coaches made the trip to see him recently. They also checked out Romanian Denis Badalau. And Kansas transfer Rakease Passmore is still available. He visited a few weeks ago.
Attention soon shifts to high school recruiting for the class of 2026. Coaches will be out on the road next weekend for the spring live evaluation period, as Ryan Odom looks to assemble his first full recruiting class at Virginia.
Reload Nearly Complete
Ryan Odom has quickly put together a very impressive roster for next season. It’s a team built to win immediately. Some fans may not approve of everything going on in the current environment, but Odom and his staff have maximized the transfer portal and leveraged NIL opportunities about as well as it could be done. The result is a new look UVA team with the upside to be nationally relevant in year one.
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(Featured Image Credit: USF Athletics)