With summer sessions underway, Ryan Odom has started the building process for his first team at Virginia. It’s not an easy task with a lot of new names across the coaching staff and the roster, but so far the Cavaliers believe they’re making progress.
“Yeah, it's going good,” UVA graduate student Jacari White said. “Our goal is to connect together as a team this summer. I feel like we're doing that really well, especially with playing together more.”
Connecting the web of new faces - including the head coach himself - has been the top priority for Odom this summer. While the entire roster has not been together in Charlottesville just yet with some international prospects just arriving or scheduled to join the team later, that process has featured a lot of approaches.
Obviously, the short court and weightroom hours allowed by the NCAA in this window account for part of that. The Hoos are attacking that with mostly an eye on up-tempo offensive concepts and individual defense. Odom said he’s thrown a lot of ideas at the players in those sessions to test their knowledge and adaptability.
Beyond that, there’s been an effort away from the practice time itself to further build chemistry between a roster full of new players. White is one of 11 newcomers to Virginia, which features a blend of transfers, high school recruits, and international players joining three holdovers from the Tony Bennett era. To try to foster additional time together, there have been activities like bowling or book club - the team is reading ‘Legacy’ that looks at the All Blacks of New Zealand rugby team and its success and sharing ideas from it - or meals too.
“Sometimes it's informal, sometimes it's formal,” Odom said. “And I think all in all, the guys have been really accepting of one another.”
Odom has also focused on helping the new players feel more at home in Charlottesville. Some of that is simply showing them the lay of the land at the University. That piece has included walking tours of Grounds or driving tours of the area in general with Odom joking about all the construction going on and road names coming back to him like JPA (Jefferson Park Avenue).
He’s also attempting to give them an idea of the scope of Virginia basketball. The coaches have shared videos or invited guests to provide more information on that front. That can range from the 2019 National Championship to three-time player National Player of the Year Ralph Sampson to professional players like Roger Mason Jr. that went on to be the executive director of the NBA Players Association.
Sean Singletary was in attendance on Tuesday. Sampson spoke to the team recently, as did Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle. His visit came just two days after his team lost Game 7 in the NBA Finals and he talked about how much UVA meant to him and his life.
Odom wants his team to understand the value of what it means to play at Virginia.
“I mean I think overall it's someone that values education, right? Someone that comes here and understands that it's more than just playing basketball. And you're playing for more than just yourself, right?” Odom said. “And you think about all the players that have played here over the years in the different eras and we've shown them videos, and they've met some of these guys that have gone on to do great things. They had access to a gentleman who coached in game seven, and then was here two days later and was in our practices and not one time. He was there on his own free will, not because I asked him to come or anything like that, because he values this place. And so I think that's, to me, a big part of this is them understanding that this is not about you.”
Such a goal can run into skepticism in the modern college sports landscape. Between revenue sharing - which went into affect this month after the passing of the House settlement case - name, image, and likeness deals, and an unrestricted transfer portal, there are a lot of factors in play now when it comes to team building. Odom does not see that as a deterrent at his new job at Virginia, though.
“And yes, the times have changed. These kids are getting paid and this and that and the other, but the values of this place have not changed,” Odom said. “What you're going to get when you come here and who you're going to be after you leave here is somebody that's ready to attack the world and be successful. This is a training ground for not only the athletes here, it's a training ground for people go on and do fabulous things and then to to come back to this place and and really be impactful and we've had countless you know alums that have come back to really give back to this place and not just in basketball, in all aspects of curriculum here.”
“Certainly introducing them to the history of this place is really important,” Odom also said. “Not only the basketball side, you know, which we've done, but also the overall history of this place and what it means to be a Virginia basketball player. And certainly we're trying to do that. And being a Virginia student-athlete. We want to expose them to all that this place has to offer, because regardless of the professional aspect of this, those institutional things cannot change. We want to make sure that the people that choose, because it is a choice, to come here value that.”
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