Last year went as well as possible for first-year Virginia Basketball head coach, Ryan Odom. With a completely new roster, he led the Cavaliers to 30 wins (15-3 in ACC), a second place finish in the ACC and a 3-seed in the NCAA Tournament making it to the Round of 32.
Expectations will be even higher this upcoming season. They’re one of a few teams in the country who didn’t lose a player with eligibility to the transfer portal, bringing back several key pieces. They also added to the depth with talent from the portal, setting themselves up as a consensus preseason top-20 team for the 2026-27 season.
Ahead of Sunday’s exhibition matchup with Vanderbilt where we’ll get our first good look at them, here’s a look at some key storylines to watch for Virginia.
1. Chance Mallory’s upcoming breakout campaign
Despite playing in a backcourt filled with veteran guards, freshman Mallory still carved out a significant role, averaging 9.3 ppg and 3.4 apg in 24 mpg off the bench. He’s now set up to be the lead guard for the Cavaliers as a consensus sophomore breakout candidate. With star forward Thijs De Ridder (15.6 ppg and 6.2 rpg) back in the frontcourt, having Mallory as an All-ACC player will solidify the team as a top-tier contender in the ACC.
2. Perimeter shooting (replacing Malike Thomas and Jacari White)
Mallory is a solid shooter (35%) from deep but the team is replacing multiple other key shooters such as Thomas and White, the top shooters from three-point range. Among the newcomers to the team include Christian Harmon (12.8 ppg and 35% 3PT at Arkansas State), Jurian Dixon (15.9 ppg on 39% 3PT at UC Irvine) and Jan Vide, who only made 10 shots from deep at LMU. While Mallory and returning guard Sam Lewis will provide most of the shooting, UVA hopes there won’t be a drop-off in that category, one of the biggest strengths from the 30-win team a year ago.
3. Replacing Ugonna Onyenso’s interior defense
Another underrated reason to the team’s success was the play of the 7’1 Onyenso off the bench, averaging three blocked shots in 18 mpg. The All-ACC defender gave them great interior defense and with him gone, the pressure will be on Johann Grunloh to give them plenty of defense on the inside. There will be some sort of drop-off in that category for Virginia Basketball; will it be enough to make them vulnerable in more games than expected?
Add us as a preferred source on Google