Onyenso Finds Perfect Landing Spot at UVA

By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Ugonna Onyenso was 15 when he left his native Nigeria to pursue his basketball dreams, a journey that’s taken him to Saly, Senegal; to Putnam, Conn.; to Lexington, Ky.; to Manhattan, Kan.; and, now, to the Grounds of the University of Virginia.

Not every stop has been as fulfilling as he’d hoped, but that hasn’t deterred Onyenso, a 7-foot, 245-pound senior at UVA.

“One thing in life is, we always have our ups and down,” he said before a recent practice at John Paul Jones Arena. “It’s just how focused you are with the tasks ahead. So I'm going to make use of whatever time I have left in college to keep proving myself, and I'm doing it at the right spot, so I'm really grateful for that.”

On a Kansas State team that finished 16-17, Onyenso had minimal impact last season. He averaged 11 minutes per game and in 24 appearances totaled 66 points, 58 rebounds and 21 blocked shots.

None of those numbers screamed NBA prospect, but that didn’t dissuade Virginia’s new staff from recruiting Onyenso when he entered the transfer portal last spring. Head coach Ryan Odom and his assistants saw a young man of high character who had considerable untapped potential on the court.

“We always feel that way with guys, to be honest,” Odom said. “We don’t prejudge them based on another staff that they played for or other teammates that they played with. It’s more about the positives this young man brings to the table.”

For Onyenso, who’s played for Nigeria’s national team, those attributes include “size, clearly,” Odom said, “and athleticism, mobility, rim protection. All those factors were important for us. Then once we began to work with him when he got here, it was pretty apparent that he had more to give and more growth than even we thought.”

Ugo with the exclamation point‼️

📺 @espn #GoHoos pic.twitter.com/EaeOpX7eCJ

— Virginia Men's Basketball (@UVAMensHoops) February 7, 2026

No. 33’s emergence as a defensive force is of the many compelling storylines in Odom’s program. Splitting time at center with another 7-footer, Johann Grünloh, Onyenso is averaging 6.5 points, 4.8 rebounds and 2.5 blocks in about 18 minutes per game, and his field-goal percentage (56.3) leads the 15^th-ranked Wahoos, who are tied for second place in the ACC.

“We're all just really proud of Ugo,” Odom said. “He deserves to have the success that he's having right now in his career. He's found a place in a group of people that really care about him. Not that the others didn't, but we really value what he does. He's an elite shot-blocker ... He works at his game really hard. He comes in every day and works on different aspects of his game, whether it's the post-ups or it's the 3-point shooting or just his free-throw shooting.”

Virginia, which takes on Ohio State (16-8) on Saturday night in the Nashville Hoops Showdown, is 21-3. Onyenso has come off the bench for all 24 games, and he’s embraced that role. It’s not unusual for him to be on the court late in close games, as was the case Tuesday night when UVA rallied to defeat Florida State 61-58 in Tallahassee.

Onyenso played 24 minutes against the Seminoles, to 15 for Grünloh.

There was a time, Onyenso said, when his attitude “would have been, ‘Why wasn't I starting?’ But at the end of the day it doesn't matter who's starting. At the end of the day you're still going to come out and hope to get a little breather. So whatever time you have on the court, if you can produce, use that time to show what you know how to do, and we're both doing a really good job.”

Onyenso, 21, is not the only UVA reserve who’s good enough to start. Others who begin games on the Cavaliers’ bench include Chance Mallory, Jacari White and Devin Tillis. All of his players, Odom said, have willingly put aside their egos for the good of the team.

“We talked about that at the beginning of the season as we first got together,” Odom said. “The theme of this year, for us, is sacrifice. We're going to have to sacrifice. We all came here for a reason. We came here because of Virginia and what it could offer, but also it's an opportunity to do something bigger than we could do by ourselves. And I think the guys that come off the bench know that just because they're coming off the bench doesn't mean they won't finish a game.”

Of the players on the Hoos’ roster, only Elijah Gertrude, Carter Lang and Desmond Roberts were in the program last season. With so many newcomers, personality conflicts could have surfaced, but the players have meshed well.

“It’s been fun playing with these guys,” said Onyenso, who’s majoring in American studies. “We love each other, and it's not even just on the basketball court. The way we interact with each other outside of basketball and everything, that's what matters, because your life outside of basketball sometimes reflects on how connected you are on the basketball court, and we've been doing a really good job of trying to create a bond outside of the court.”

With the transfer portal now such a big part of college basketball, recruiting has been likened to speed dating. It’s not always possible for coaches to get great reads on the personalities of potential transfers.

“Sometimes you can, sometimes you can't,” Odom said. “In Ugo's situation, we knew people connected to the situation that were really good character references for him. He's turned out to be better than we anticipated. He's just a really good person. He's a good team guy. He's really competitive and wants to win. I think the environment here has really helped him continue to grow.”

Onyenso is from Owerri, the capital city of Nigeria’s Imo State. His mother and his four siblings still live in Nigeria. (His father died when Onyenso was 12). When it became clear that Onyenso had a future in basketball, he joined the NBA Academy Africa program in Senegal. That accelerated his development in the sport and allowed Onyenso to compete in international tournaments.

After two-and-a-half years, he left the NBA Academy Africa to come to the United States, and in January 2022 he enrolled at Putnam Science Academy, a boarding school in Connecticut.

With Onyenso on its roster, Putnam went 20-0, and he averaged 11.4 points, 9.0 rebounds and 5.7 blocked shots per games. He recorded at least 10 blocks in five games.

Not surprisingly, he received scholarship offers from multiple high-profile programs, and Onyenso ultimately chose Kentucky. The Wildcats’ big men then included Oscar Tshiebwe, who’s from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Onyenso said he enjoyed “playing behind Oscar. He taught me a lot. Not just as a basketball player, but the kind of life he lived outside of basketball, and especially coming from Africa. So he was a good role model for me, especially through my first year of college.”

As a freshman in 2022-23, Onyenso played in 16 games for UK. As a sophomore, he missed the first nine games of the season with a foot injury but ended up starting 14 games and averaging 3.6 points, 4.8 rebounds and 2.8 blocks in 18.7 minutes per game.

Looking for a better opportunity, Onyenso transferred to Kansas State after the 2023-24 school year. He expected to be a significant contributor for the Wildcats, but that didn’t happen.

“They gave me a role,” Onyenso said, “and I was like, ‘OK, if this is what you want me to do, I'll do it.’ I didn't play much at K -State. But I understood it’s a part of life. It's part of the process, I guess. So I took it and I kept working. And then I came here, and I'm getting better opportunities, thanks to the coaches.”

At UK and K-State, Onyenso said, he worried about making mistakes with the ball and thus was reluctant to try to expand his offensive game. When he arrived on Grounds, Odom encouraged him to develop new skills.

“If you show him that you know how to do something, he’s just going to let you do it,” Onyenso said. “If you show what you can do, he's going to let you rock.”

In his first three seasons, Onyenso scored in double figures only twice: once at Kentucky and once at Kansas State. He’s reached double figures three times as a Cavalier as he continues to expand his offensive repertoire.

He’s made seven 3-pointers (out of 25 attempts) this season and he looks to teammate Thijs De Ridder, a 6-foot-9, 238-pound forward, for low-post pointers.

“What I watch the most when Thijs is posting up is how physical he is whenever he's going to the basket,” Onyenso said. “I know I'm pretty physical, but sometimes it doesn't look like that. So watching someone like that, it's like,

‘OK, this is what he did, and this is how he got to the basket, and I’ve got to do the same thing in a way.’ ” 

The most eye-catching part of his game remains his shot-blocking. Against Butler early in the season, Onyenso rejected eight shots, the most by a Cavalier since Jay Huff blocked 10 against Duke in February 2020.

Butler missed 29 shots in that November game. “I think the big fella blocked 27 of them,” head coach Thad Matta said of Onyenso afterward.

Few things please Onyenso more than being tested around the basket.

“I love it,” he said. “It’s so funny, the fact that the guards feel like they can come in and challenge the big guys. Maybe they've done it against other big guys and they succeeded. Well, it's different when you're playing against someone that takes pride in blocking shots.”

He smiled. “I see it as an opportunity to add up to my stats. The more they keep coming, the better for me.”

Onyenso hasn’t been home to Nigeria since 2024, and he’s looking forward to seeing his mother and other family members in person again. His immediate priority, though, is helping the Hoos continue their ascent in the ACC.

“We have a mission ahead of us,” he said, “so we're staying locked into that mission. My mom, she understands.”

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