When Virginia decided to go in a new direction with its basketball program, it was a changing of the guard. Quite literally it turns out so far in the transfer portal. The Cavaliers added their fifth commitment Wednesday night and it came from another guard as BYU's Dallin Hall opted for the Hoos.
Of the five portal pickups so far for Ryan Odom, four have been guards in full with Hall joining Oklahoma's Duke Miles, Toledo's Sam Lewis, and North Dakota State's Jacari White as commitments. Martin Carrere, the fifth, could be considered a guard/forward hybrid as that was his roster listing at VCU. Hall announced his decision on social media.
All four portal additions at guard to date have connected on at least 35.9% of their 3-pointers while attempting at least 2.5 per game. Over three seasons at BYU, Hall attempted 3.5 3's per game with a 35.9% career percentage. Lewis led the MAC last season at 44.4% on 4.0 attempts per game. White hit 39.8% of his 3’s last season at North Dakota State on 7.1 attempts per game. Miles made 43.0% of his 3's at Oklahoma last season on 2.7 attempts per game. Carrere redshirted at VCU as a freshman last year, but did show strong 3-point shooting while playing in France (41.9% in the 2024 U18 FIBA EuroBasket Tournament).
That is not really the best part of Hall's game, though. He averaged 4.1 assists to just 1.7 turnovers over his three seasons with the Cougars. This past season, he posted 133 assists with 52 turnovers for a 2.56 assist-to-turnover ratio that ranked 37th nationally. In 2023-2024 for the final season under Mark Pope before he left for Kentucky, Hall posted 172 assists with 59 turnovers for a 2.92 ratio that ranked 26th nationally. UVA's Reece Beekman finished 21st that same season at 3.03.
The 6'4", 200-pound guard logged 61 starts at BYU while playing in 100 games total. He averaged 24.8 minutes (2,482 total minutes) during his time in Provo so that's a lot of experience coming into the fold. In addition to the shooting and assists numbers, Hall's averages stacked up as 7.7 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 0.8 steals per game. He had numerous big single game stat lines as a Cougar with 16 games of at least 10 points and at least 5 assists combined along the way.
With most of UVA’s players from last season in the transfer portal and multiple already committed elsewhere already, Odom’s first roster in Charlottesville is starting to take shape. He’s added two class of 2025 recruits in Chance Mallory and Silas Barksdale, both 4-star prospects in the 247 rankings, in addition to Miles, White, Lewis, Carrere, and Hall from the portal. The Hoos will be in pursuit of many more players this cycle, though. Elijah Gertrude, a former 4-star prospect coming off a knee injury, and Carter Lang, a walk-on from local school St. Anne’s-Belfield via a transfer from Vanderbilt, are the only returning Virginia players that have not entered the transfer portal or completed their eligibility from last season.
247 Sports rates Hall as the No. 19 combo guard in the transfer portal currently. Rivals had him as a 3-star recruit out of high school when he chose BYU over offers from Utah State, Oregon State, St. Mary's, and others. Highlights for Hall can be found on YouTube here and here.
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