Virginia Basketball Notes: More On Those 3's, De Ridder, Scheduling

When Ryan Odom took the helm of the Virginia basketball program, he ended up needing to reset almost the entire roster. With only three players remaining with UVA, the Hoos brought in 11 newcomers from either the transfer portal, overseas, or the high school ranks.

There's a common trait shared by a lot of those new faces: the ability to shoot the 3-point shot.

Virginia added eight players that hit at least 35% of their 3-point attempts last season in varying leagues. In the NCAA, Sam Lewis (44.4% shooting from 3 on 4.0 attempts per game), Malik Thomas (39.4% on 5.3 attempts), Jacari White (39.8% on 7.1 attempts), Devin Tillis (39.5% on 3.3 attempts), and Dallin Hall (35.3% on 3.2 attempts) all made that mark. Freshman 4-star Chance Mallory (40.0% as a junior and senior) did that at the high school level. Belgian forward Thijs de Ridder (39.1% from 3 in a Spanish League) and German center Johann Grünloh (approximately 35%) had that rate overseas.

"Certainly we wanted to find guys that fit our system and our style," Odom said. "And the more times that you can put four guys on the court, sometimes five that can shoot the basketball, well, the court just does this [and opens up] and when you have multiple guys that are not those type of shooters, then it does the opposite. And then the defense can load up. The NBA, it's a little bit harder to do that because of the rules. But in college, certainly, you want the space."

The Hoos certainly will be looking for those shots, something that's pretty clear from Odom's stated philosophy and the stats. VCU ranked 21st nationally in 3-point rate (percentage of total shots that are 3's) last season at 47.8%. In his three years prior to that, Utah State's rate landed at 40.2%/116th in 2021-2022 and 42.1%/61st in 2022-2023, while VCU was at 44.2%/35th in 2023-2024.

That may not be that big of a departure from Virginia when compared to last season. The Cavaliers took 42.8% of their shots from 3-point range last season, which ranked 87th nationally. It will be a stark difference from the three seasons prior to that, though. UVA went 29.9%/339th in 2021-2022 and 35.6%/241st in 2022-2023, and 32.6%/294th in 2023-2024.

You have to go all the way back to the 2020-2021 season to find the Hoos in the top 50 nationally. That team attempted 42.7% of its shots from behind the arc to rank 48th nationally. Sam Hauser (41.7% on 6.0 attempts per game), Trey Murphy III (43.3% on 4.8 attempts per game), and Jay Huff (38.7% on 3.0 attempts per game) had a lot of shooting success that season with all three still in the NBA.

That's a little bit of what Odom will be going for now at Virginia, just at a higher pace. Where will these shots come from under Odom? Looking at the shooting zones courtesy of CBBanalytics.com shows this breakdown over the last four seasons at Utah State and VCU:

• Utah State 2021-2022: 568 attempts came on 3-pointers above the break (at least 14 feet from the baseline) and 177 from the corners (within 14 feet of the baseline) or 76.2% of the 3's came above the break.
• Utah State 2022-2023: 606 attempts came on 3-pointers above the break and 181 were from the corners or 77.0% of the 3's came above the break.
• VCU 2023-2024: 684 attempts came on 3-pointers above the break and 220 were from the corners or 75.7% of the 3's came above the break.
• VCU 2024-2025: 694 attempts came on 3-pointers above the break and 261 were from the corners or 72.6% of the 3's came above the break.

Here are Odom's team's shooting percentages on those 3's the last four seasons. Notably, Odom's teams shot a higher percentage than the national average on above the break 3's in three out of the four seasons.

• Utah State 2021-2022: 32.4% on 3-pointers above the break (33.2% national average) and 39.5% from the corners (35.5% national average).
• Utah State 2022-2023: 39.6% on 3-pointers above the break (33.5% national average) and 34.3% from the corners (35.9% national average).
• VCU 2023-2024: 34.6% on 3-pointers above the break (33.3 % national average) and 38.2% from the corners (35.9% national average).
• VCU 2024-2025: 35.0% on 3-pointers above the break (33.4% national average) and 31.0% from the corners (35.5% national average).

More On Thijs De Ridder

European forward Thijs De Ridder announced that he had signed with the Cavaliers earlier this week. He 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 and shot 54% from the field with 38% from 3-point range.

While Virginia has not officially made an announcement or updated its roster, Odom addressed the situation at his summer media press session. As reported previously, De Ridder is still waiting for 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.

"He's cleared partly right now, not fully overall. I don't know what I'm at liberty to discuss, quite honestly," Odom said. "But I think we're still going through the process of finishing that. We've gone along this path with him and we're at a point where we're able to tell the world we're connected on this and he wants to come, we want him to come, and now we just got to finish the job. And, some of that's not on us. It's not our timeline. It's the NCAA has to go through that, that finishing process. So, and if you really think about it, it's a natural thing, the fall sports are beginning and so they're not going to get to some of the cases like Thij's right away. It just takes more time."

Odom said that Virginia Associate Head Coach Griff Aldrich took the lead role in De Ridder's recruitment. The former Longwood head coach joined the Hoos in this role in the spring so he has been working on the De Ridder angle for most of his tenure to date.

"I mean, just like any kids, you know, he was recommended by somebody and we began to investigate it and we began to recruit him and figure out where are all the details?" Odom said. "You have to unlayer it to figure out if it's worth continuing to recruit. And I think our staff, my assistant coaches have done a great job. You know, Griff has been at point on this one of peeling back the layers and my encouragement was, let's keep going until we get told, we run into a roadblock where it's like, well, it doesn't make sense to continue on that path anymore. And ultimately I had to become comfortable with, OK, if he doesn't come, we're still good with where we're at. And good taking the risk in order to do that. And so I'm certainly there. And at this point, you know, it's thankfully we're in a good place and we're hoping that it gets across the finish line."

State Of Virginia Games

The ACC decided to trim back the number of league games for its members starting this season, sliding back to 18 games instead of 20. That opened up a couple of slots for non-conference games.

Recent reports indicate that UVA will have a non-conference game with Ohio State this season as an example of one contest that became more possible with the ACC's decision. The Hoos and Buckeyes will meet on a neutral court on Valentine's Day according to those reports. Neutral site games give both opponents an equal shot at a good game for the NET ratings, which are used as a sorting tool for the NCAA Tournament selection process. Games on a neutral court against teams ranked 1-50 fall into Quad 1 while teams ranked 51-100 fall into Quad 2. This is slightly more friendly than home games where teams ranked 1-30 are Quad 1 and teams ranked 31-75 are Quad 2. It's not as beneficial as a road game where teams ranked 1-75 count as Quad 1 and teams ranked 76-135 count as Quad 2.

With the challenges of scheduling, it's unclear how frequently Virginia will be able to schedule in-state opponents from other conferences. The Hoos played Radford and JMU in 2021-2022, just JMU in 2022-2023, no one from the state in 2023-2024 or 2024-2025.

"Yeah, it just remains to be seen," said Odom, who scrimmaged against Virginia while at VCU last season. "Certainly, we're trying to put ourselves in a position where we have the best schedule that will challenge us and get us prepped for conference play. I mean, that's the goal. You want to put yourself in a position initially where you're playing really good teams, you're winning those games, and it's propelling you into conference play. And while realizing that you're going to play some games where you're not going to be victorious, you're going to go on the road to school X and play a tough game. Maybe you don't come out, but it doesn't hurt you from an NCAA standpoint. You've challenged yourself. You've been out on the road and done that. And then once you get into the conference, it's up to you to do your job in order to have a resume that is worthy of making the NCAA Tournament. So in our minds, we have to schedule for that every year. And so it's not so much about in-state, out-of-state. It's more about we have to schedule properly to put ourselves in the best position to make the NCAA Tournament and have the best seed possible."

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