While Virginia released its men’s basketball roster recently, Ryan Odom still had one more piece to secure on the recruiting front. That news came Monday when Belgian forward Thijs De Ridder signed with UVA.
De Ridder announced his decision on social media.
The news isn’t a surprise as De Ridder’s name surfaced months ago as a recruiting target with UVA believed to be a leader as his eventual landing spot. As an international prospect, though, there were needed steps to make first. Some of those steps slowly unfolded with Hoo fans eagerly following.
Surne Bilbao Basket, De Ridder’s professional team in Spain, announced in June he would not return as he exercised an exit clause in his contract. De Ridder also withdrew his name from the NBA Draft process last month. Those signs pointed to De Ridder’s likely path to college basketball.
Notably, there is one final step still in process. De Ridder and the Hoos are still waiting on official clearance from the NCAA in order to be able to play this season. That decision will also determine how many years of NCAA eligibility the 6’8” forward will have.
Assuming that he is cleared by the NCAA, De Ridder is a major pickup for Virginia. He appears to be physical enough to play around the paint offensively and defensively. Plus, he can step out to 3-point range to help stretch the floor offensively. UVA is expected to be a drive-and-kick, high 3-point volume team as Odom builds his preferred style for the program.
De Ridder was projected as a potential second round pick in this year’s NBA Draft before withdrawing. Last season for Surne Bilbao Basket, he averaged 9.3 points and 4.8 rebounds per game. He also shot 54% from the field and 38% from 3-point range. He previously won Belgian Youngster of the Year and was an All-BNXT First Team selection (BNXT is a professional basketball league in Belgium and the Netherlands).
In other words, this adds another experienced option for depth and versatility. The 22-year old De Ridder joins graduate transfers Malik Thomas, Jacari White, Devin Tillis, and Dallin Hall plus upperclass transfers Ugonna Onyenso (senior) and Sam Lewis (junior) as incoming players for the Hoos. All have played at least two years of college basketball.
Among those players, however, only Tillis and Onyenso are expected to be among the regular frontcourt options so De Ridder provides additional experience there. Martin Carrere (redshirt freshman/VCU transfer), Carter Lang (redshirt sophomore/returning), Johann Grünloh (freshman/Germany), and Silas Barksdale (freshman) are the other players that will be in the frontcourt competition.
Overall, the De Ridder signing adds to a strong offseason for Odom as he takes the helm at Virginia for the first time. The Cavaliers, after all, stockpiled some potential firepower with their roster moves this offseason.
Thomas scored 19.9 points per game with 39.4% shooting on 3’s with San Francisco. White averaged 17.1 points at North Dakota State. Lewis led Toledo at 16.2 points per game on 44.4% 3-point shooting (led the Mid-American Conference). Tillis averaged 13.7 points for UC Irvine. Hall averaged 4.1 assists to just 1.7 turnovers over his three seasons with BYU in addition to 7.7 points. Grünloh averaged averaged 8.6 points in the highest level league of professional club basketball in Germany.
Highlights for De Ridder can be seen in the YouTube video here.
1 Comment