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Virginia Returns Home Friday for Tilt Against Queens
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Virginia (5-1) hosts Queens (3-4) in non-conference action on Friday, Nov. 28. Tipoff at John Paul Jones Arena is slated for 4 p.m. on ACC Network Extra and Virginia Sports Radio Network.
Tickets
• Single-game, group and mini-plan tickets are on sale at uvatix.com. The four-game mini-plan features the choice of Maryland or North Carolina, one of Syracuse, Miami, or Virginia Tech, and two additional games of the fan’s choice.
• The six-game mini-plan features the choice of Maryland or North Carolina, one of Syracuse, Miami, or Virginia Tech, and four additional games of the fan’s choice.
• The Landing, UVA’s premium group space in JPJ Arena, is available to reserve for home games during the 2025-26 season. Please contact the ticket sales team at (434) 924-8821 for more information.
For Openers
• Virginia meets Queens for the first time.
• UVA’s Chance Mallory and Queens’ Danzelle Bullock Coles were teammates at St. Anne’s-Belfield School from 2023-25.
• UVA scored 80+ points in its first five games for the first time since in school history.
• UVA ranks fourth nationally in blocks (8.0 bpg), highlighted by Ugonna Onyenso’s eight-block effort vs. Butler and Johann Grünloh’s seven-block effort vs. NC Central.
Broadcast Information
• The Virginia-Queens game will be streamed on ACC Network Extra via ESPN.com/watch
• The game will also be broadcast on Virginia Sports Radio Network, VirginiaSports.com and Virginia Sports app.
• Live statistics will be located on VirginiaSports.com and the Virginia Sports app.
The New Head Coach
• Ryan Odom was named the University of Virginia’s Dean and Markel Families Men’s Head Basketball Coach on March 22.
• He spent the last two seasons at VCU, leading the Rams to a 52-21 record and 2025 NCAA Tournament berth.
• VCU won the 2025 Atlantic-10 Tournament and shared the A-10 regular-season championship.
• UVA is Odom’s fifth stint as a collegiate head coach. In 12 seasons, he has compiled a record of 224-127, including stops at Utah State (2021-23), UMBC (2017-2021), Lenoir-Rhyne (2016), Charlotte (2015, interim).
• Odom led UMBC, Utah State and VCU to the NCAA Tournament during his second season at those schools.
• Odom coached UMBC to an upset against Virginia in 2018 NCAA Tournament, marking the first time a No. 16 seed defeated a No. 1 seed in the event’s history.
• Odom is the first UVA coach to start his tenure 5-0, surpassing the Cavaliers’ first coach Henry Lannigan who started 4-0 in 1905-06.
Last Time Out
• Finley Bizjack scored 25 points and Michael Ajayi added 17 points and 14 rebounds to lead Butler to an 80-73 win over Virginia at the Skechers Greenbrier Tip-Off on Nov. 23.
• Malik Thomas led UVA with 24 points and Jacari White chipped in 14 in the Cavaliers’ first loss.
• Ugonna Onyenso added eight blocks and seven rebounds.
• Butler shot 48.2 percent and out-rebounded UVA 43-39.
The Virginia Standard
• The Virginia Standard is to pursue excellence and is built on the six pillars of humility, passion, unity, servanthood, thankfulness and accountability,
• We play with pace, share the basketball and our defensive style is to dictate and disrupt.
Hoo Are These Cavaliers?
• The 2025-26 roster is highlighted by 12 newcomers, including Dallin Hall (BYU), Malik Thomas (San Francisco), Devin Tillis (UC Irvine), Jacari White (North Dakota State), Ugonna Onyenso (Kansas State), Sam Lewis (Toledo) and Martin Carrere (VCU).
• UVA added European imports Thijs De Ridder (Bilbao Basket), Johann Grünloh (RASTA Vechta) and true freshmen Silas Barksdale (Woodside High School), Chance Mallory (St. Anne’s Belfield) and Owen Odom (Collegiate School).
Redshirt sophomores Elijah Gertrude, Carter Lang and Desmond Roberts are the lone returners from last year’s team.
• UVA returned four points (all from Roberts) from 2024-25.
• De Ridder leads three players averaging double figures at 17.5 ppg, followed by Thomas (14.3 ppg) and Mallory (11.3 ppg).
• Grünloh leads the team in rebounding (7.3 rpg) and blocks (3.5 bpg), while Hall has a team-best 3.8 assists per game.
• UVA is averaging 86.5 points per game and limiting its opponents to 67.3 ppg.
New Kids On The Block
• Newcomers Johann Grünloh and Ugonna Onyenso provided elite rim protection for UVA.
• Grünloh ranks fifth nationally with 3.5 blocks per game, while Onyenso is seventh at 3.0 bpg.
• Onyenso and Grünloh each had four blocks against Hampton, marking the first time since Dec. 22, 1998, a pair of UVA teammates each had four or more blocks (Kris Hunter 5, Chris Williams 4).
• Grünloh’s seven blocks vs. NC Central were most by a Cavalier freshman since Jason Clark’s eight vs. VMI on Jan. 24, 2002.
• Onyenso’s eight blocks vs. Butler were the most by a Cavalier since Jay Huff’s 10 vs. Duke on Feb. 29, 2020.
• Grünloh has two or more blocks in each game, while Onyenso has multiple blocks in four games.
Crash The Glass
• UVA ranks second nationally in offensive rebounds (18.2 rpg), 17th in rebounds (46.3 rpg) and 18th in rebound margin (13).
• UVA is 4-0 when out-rebounding its opponent.
• The Cavaliers have 49 or more rebounds in four games, outrebounding Hampton (49-25), NCCU (48-34), Rider (49-32), Marshall (38-35) and Northwestern (49-25).
• UVA has 20 or more offensive rebounds in three games, including 20 or more in back-to-back games (Rider and NCCU) for the first time since November of 2007 (25 at Penn and 20 against Seton Hall).
Let it Fly
• Virginia is averaging a school-record 27.8 3-point attempts per game, surpassing 22.7 in 2007-08.
• UVA attempted 30 or more 3-pointers in back-to-back games (Rider and NCCU) for the first time since March of 2021 (Syracuse and Ohio).
• UVA’s 36 3-point attempts vs. NC Central were its most since 38 against Virginia Tech on Feb. 10, 2018.
• UVA is shooting 34.7 percent (58 of 167) from 3-point range.
• Jacari White leads the team with 13 3-pointers each, while Malik Thomas has 12 3-pointers.
On The Horizon
• Virginia travels to Texas for an SEC/ACC Challenge contest on Wednesday, Dec. 3. Tipoff at Moody Center is set for 9:15 p.m. on ESPNU and Virginia Sports Radio Network.