Virginia Portal Recap and Update
This year’s college basketball transfer portal season has been the wildest so far. Certainly for the University of Virginia program dealing with the extreme roster turnover that goes with the territory of a coaching change. After losing all but two players to the portal, new head coach Ryan Odom has been busy restocking the roster. There’s been encouraging progress, with still lots of work left to do.
Celebrate the Returners
The deadline for players to enter the transfer portal was yesterday. Schools have 48 hours to process requests. Barring a major surprise, Virginia will have a pair of returning sophomores. Guard Elijah Gertrude and center Carter Lang. Both coming off a redshirt year. Gertrude spent this season rehabbing from knee surgery, while Lang chose to redshirt after transferring in from Vanderbilt.
Those guys have seen three head coaches in six months. All of their other teammates are leaving. You can bet they’ve had people in their ear advising them to enter the portal too, and likely even had coaches from other schools try to recruit them through backchannels. Yet, they’re still Wahoos.
Fans celebrate every recruit that commits this time of year. I hope we’ll be even more appreciative of Gertrude and Lang. They’ve shown real commitment to UVA.
Quick Recap
Virginia has added a total of seven new players so far this offseason, five transfers and two incoming high school recruits. Shooting is the theme. The one constant among Ryan Odom’s teams has been that they put up a ton of three-pointers. He’s certainly building a UVA squad to continue that pattern.
Next season’s starting point guard will most likely be Dallin Hall. The BYU transfer is a true floor general with a 2.5-1 career assist to turnover ratio, and a 36% shooter from deep. North Dakota State transfer Jacari White has been described as a 3&D combo guard. He scored over 17 per game this season while hitting from long range at a 40% clip. And 6’6” wing Sam Lewis was Toledo’s leading scorer at better than 16 per game, hitting 44% of his three-pointers.
There have been two transfer additions in the frontcourt. Former UC-Irvine star Devin Tillis, a very skilled 6’7” power forward, averaged 13.7 points and 7.8 rebounds this past season. He’s another 40% three-point shooter too. And VCU transfer Martin Carrere followed his coach to Charlottesville. A 6’8” combo forward from France known for his shooting, he redshirted this year.
Dallin Hall, Jacari White, and Devin Tillis will all be one-year players at UVA. Sam Lewis has two years of remaining eligibility, and Martin Carrere is a long term prospect with four years left to play.
There was also a decommitment sprinkled in. Oklahoma transfer guard Duke MIles announced for UVA, then backed out four days later after Dallin Hall committed. Miles is headed for Texas A&M now.
We can’t forget the two incoming class of 2025 recruits. St. Anne’s Belfield (VA) point guard Chance Mallory re-committed to his hometown school in late March. I expect him to carve out a role right away, another elite shooter. He was joined by Woodside (VA) forward Silas Barksdale, a former VCU commit, in early April. A pair of in-state recruits right off the bat for Odom, after UVA hadn’t signed one in over a decade.
Big Budget Hoos
This portal season has been peak craziness, driven by an out of control NIL market. Most of the incoming transfers will be paid more than anyone on last year’s team. That’s not only happening at UVA, it’s the same all over college basketball. Hopefully the revenue sharing plan set to be finalized soon will help bring some form of stability. But for now, the situation is completely out of whack. Getting an average ACC starter can cost nearly the same as the minimum NBA salary.
Depending who you choose to listen to, UVA started with somewhere in the $7-9 million range available for next season’s roster. That sounds like a lot, and of course it is, but everyone is well-funded now. There are a dozen or more teams who will reportedly top the $10M payroll mark. The way things are going, if they’re lucky enough to get the right players, UVA might pass that threshold too. Kentucky is rumored to be approaching $20M.
Here are the CBB programs that are *estimated* to have spent the most NIL money on incoming transfers this offseason so far.
— Evan Miyakawa (@EvanMiya) April 14, 2025
Michigan 8.8 million
Kentucky 7.6m
Maryland 7.1m
Miami 7.1m
Iowa 6.6m
Virginia 6.2m
Washington 5.9m
Creighton 5.6m
Georgetown 5.5m
Xavier 5.5m
These are…
Evan Miya’s estimates may be a little high, but UVA has definitely shelled out serious money for transfers already. The four upperclassmen probably averaged over a million dollars each. All of them committed suddenly, and before visiting. It’s not hard to guess what brought on those decisions, But again, it’s not just a UVA thing. The same thing is going on everywhere. There have never been so many out of nowhere strange commitments as we’ve seen all around college basketball the past few weeks.
Rumored Big Man
There’s been heavy rumors over the past several days that Odom might be close to landing another of those out of nowhere commitments. The name being mentioned is Kansas State transfer center Ugonna Onyenso. We’re just waiting to see if anything comes of it.
A former top 40 ranked recruit, Onyenso played his first two seasons at Kentucky. He led the SEC with 2.8 blocked shots per game as a sophomore. That’s what he does best, one of the better rim protectors in college basketball. This year didn’t go well for him, posting modest stats in only 11 minutes per game on a disappointing Kansas State team. So, he’s on the move again with one year to play.
Awaiting Decisions
Houston transfer Terrance Arceneaux visited this week. A 6’6” combo forward with two years to play, Arceneaux averaged 6.5 points in 20 minutes per game while helping the Cougars reach a Final Four. He visited NC State last week. All signs point to a decision coming soon between the Hoos and Wolfpack.
Kansas transfer wing Rakease Passmore visited recently. The freshman was a prized top 50 high school recruit, but only lightly used in his first college season. UVA is well-positioned in his recruitment thanks to some helpful connections on the new staff. His decision may depend on how the roster shapes up though. Passmore has also visited Miami.
We’re still waiting on a verdict from VCU transfer center Luke Bamgboye too. I’m not sure how involved UVA is at this point though. He’s since taken other visits to Texas Tech and Grand Canyon.
It’s been a weird pattern so far. UVA has gotten recruits without visits, and none of transfers that have visited prior to deciding. Hopefully, one of the guys listed above will change that.
Waiver Needed
It’s no secret that Virginia would be the likely destination as things stand for San Francisco guard Malik Thomas if the NCAA grants him a waiver for another year of eligibility. He was the West Coast Conference leading scorer this season at 19.9 PPG.
Thomas only played 18 minutes total as a freshman, and is hoping the NCAA will grant him a redshirt for that season. From what I’ve heard, the UVA side isn’t optimistic about his case. We’ll see what happens. There are lots of seniors in the portal hoping blanket waivers are handed out. And if the NCAA bends at all, Thomas would be at the front of the line.
It’ll be interesting to see how Odom handles the situation. Another guard isn’t a necessity. but UVA would like to add a go-to scorer such as Thomas. They’re rumored to have offered him upwards of $2 million if he’s cleared. Odom could use that money to take swings at other high-end guards in the meantime.
Another somewhat similar situation to watch is with Charleston transfer center Ante Brzovic. He’s suing the NCAA for another season, based on the idea that his freshman year played at the Division II level shouldn’t count. UVA is one of the teams positioned to be a contender if he wins his case. The Croatian big man averaged over 18 points this past season.
New Names
UVA has reached out to several fresh portal entries this week. All frontcourt players, where the Hoos have the biggest need.
Texas Tech transfer center Federiko Federiko mentioned Virginia among the list of teams in contact. You might remember him from his first two college seasons at Pittsburgh.
Brown grad transfer forward Nana Owusu-Anane is back on the market after decommitting from SMU. Virginia is in contact.
And another former ACC player, forward Baba Miller is transferring from Florida Atlantic. The Spaniard began his college career at Florida State. UVA and many others were quick to reach out.
There’s also been talk of involvement with a big man prospect in Europe. Not surprising, given Odom’s history of recruiting overseas.
The crazy season continues. Stay with us on Locker Room Access for full recruiting coverage all offseason. And please take the time to check out our partner Fan Fund, the credit card that gives back to your favorite student-athletes.