Hoos Immersing Themselves in March MadnessHoos Immersing Themselves in March Madness

Hoos Immersing Themselves in March Madness

In the first round of the NCAA tournament's Midwest Regional, No. 3 seed UVA plays No. 14 seed Wright State at 1:50 p.m. Friday at Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia.

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

PHILADELPHIA — As a boy growing up in Germany, Johann Grünloh knew nothing about March Madness. The same was true for Thijs De Ridder in Belgium. That changed when they graduated to playing for professional basketball clubs in Europe. De Ridder and Grünloh each had teammates from the United States who religiously filled out NCAA men’s basketball brackets.

“They were always excited about it,” De Ridder said Thursday.

That enthusiasm was contagious, and their American teammates encouraged De Ridder and Grünloh to try their hands at prognostication. That didn’t always end well.

“I was the worst on the team, because I had no idea who to pick,” Grünloh recalled.

In 2023, he went with Purdue to win it all, only to see the top-seeded Boilermakers fall to No. 16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson in the first round. Afterward, Grünloh said with a smile, “I was sitting there in the locker room, and everyone was making fun of me. That’s all I remember.”

Like De Ridder, Grünloh is in his first year at the University of Virginia, and they’re about to find out first-hand what all the fuss is about in March. At 1:50 p.m. Friday, UVA (29-5) meets Wright State (23-11) in a first-round game at Xfinity Mobile Arena, home of the NBA’s 76ers. The Cavaliers are seeded No. 3 and the Raiders No. 14 in the Midwest Region.

From watching First Four games this week and hearing stories about the NCAAs from teammates in Europe and at UVA, De Ridder knows he’s about embark on a unique chapter in his hoops career.

“There's nothing like this in Europe,” said De Ridder, a 6-foot-9 forward who was a first-team All-ACC selection. “You can maybe compare it with a soccer World Cup or whatever, but it’s not like this.”

The UVA roster includes six players who have been part of teams that played in the NCAAs: Dallin Hall (BYU), Ugonna Onyenso (Kentucky), Malik Thomas (Southern California), Martin Carrere (VCU), Elijah Gertrude (Virginia) and Desmond Roberts (Virginia). The rest, though, are about to experience the tournament for the first time.

“I’m super excited,” said the 7-foot Grünloh, who starts at center for the Wahoos.

The Hoos haven’t played in the NCAAs since 2024, when they lost to Colorado State in a First Four game in Dayton, Ohio. From that UVA team, only Gertrude and Roberts remain in the program.

Virginia is in its first year under head coach Ryan Odom, who also has taken VCU, Utah State and UMBC to the NCAA tournament. Most of the Cavaliers, even if they haven’t played in the NCAAs, grew up watching the tournament on TV, so they understand what’s at stake this month.

The coaching staff hasn’t put Grünloh and De Ridder through crash courses in March Madness history. “I think the biggest thing for them is just to allow them to experience it,” associate head coach Griff Aldrich said Thursday.

Before the team left for Philly, the players watched the One Shining Moment video from 2019 that culminated with UVA’s victory over Texas Tech in the NCAA championship game.

“That was just to give them a sense of how special this is,” Aldrich said. “Whether it’s the police escorts [to the arena] or what we’re experiencing right now, with all the placards and things, we just want to let them embrace it. They’ve gotten to watch the First Four games, and it just builds on itself.”

Thijs De RidderThijs De Ridder

Devin Tillis and Jacari White arrived at UVA after the 2024-25 school year as graduate transfers from UC Irvine and North Dakota State, respectively. Another Cavalier, Chance Mallory, didn’t have to wait nearly as long to be on an NCAA tournament. Mallory is a freshman who grew up near UVA in Charlottesville, Va.

“To be playing in this tournament is something I've been dreaming of my whole life,” Mallory said, “so it's just been great to be a part of it. I’ve watched it my whole life.”

Asked about his players’ collective inexperience in the NCAA tournament, Odom didn’t sound too worried Thursday.

“They didn't have a lot of experience with the ACC Tournament either, and they did well with that,” Odom said. “Ultimately, it comes down to match-ups. You have to relax and play, but also go for it. You have one shot at it or you're done pretty quickly.

“Momentum is always a factor in these games. And I think, ultimately, we have to follow our process, follow the way that we have done things all year, rely on our training, trust our training. The guys will be fine if they do that. That doesn't guarantee you a win by any stretch, but it does guarantee that you will be comfortable out there on the court and you have a chance to go for it.”

At last week’s ACC tournament  in Charlotte, N.C., second-seeded UVA defeated No. 7 seed NC State and No. 3 seed Miami before losing 74-70 to top-seeded Duke in the championship game.

“I think we definitely built some confidence from that game,” Tillis said. “I have never been to March Madness before, this is my first time, but we got a feel [in Charlotte] for what these games are going to be like and how we're going to battle through them.”

Mallory agreed. “Playing that [ACC] championship game in a packed house in an NBA arena, that definitely prepared us for this tournament. Just playing in front of the biggest crowds and not being nervous and just playing our game and trusting each other is what we learned from that.”

In the ACC tournament, De Ridder said, some “good things happened, some bad things happened, and we just have to build on the good moments.”

This is the first meeting between UVA and Wright State, which won the Horizon League title. The Raiders “have our full attention,” Odom said, “and we know that we're going to have to play well in order to win.”

His players, Odom said, “are “going to be excited and there's going to be jitters. The reality is, it wouldn't be natural if you didn't have those jitters heading into that tournament. Everybody has them. It means you care about what you're doing, but ultimately, you have to settle into the game. I'm confident that our guys will.”

Odom, of course, was the head coach of the first No. 16 seed to knock off a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. That was in 2018, when his UMBC squad stunned Virginia in Charlotte.

“At Virginia, we don't talk about UMBC too much,” Tillis said Thursday, eliciting laughter from his audience. “That's a touchy subject, but taking his experience being at a mid-major school and being one of the only 16-seeds to win a game, he knows that every team in this tournament is capable of doing anything, and sharing his experience from his time at a mid-major school, he knows that it means a lot to every school that's in this tournament.”

Odom left VCU last March to become head coach at UVA, where his father, Dave, had been an assistant under Terry Holland.

“When we first took the job here, we weren't sure how it would go,” Odom said. “We have an entirely new roster that we put together and couldn't have landed in a better spot. We have great guys on the team, and we certainly understand what it means to play in the NCAA tournament, and for this particular group, to [write] their own story and to add to the legacy that is Virginia basketball has been really satisfying.”

A big part of the team’s success, Odom said, is “the character in our locker room. We signed guys that wanted to be part of something bigger than themselves, that chose Virginia for all the right reasons and wanted to experience Virginia and all that it could offer them, even outside of basketball, of course.

“They've been eager learners. They've been eager listeners, not only to our coaching staff, but to people outside—former players, former coaches. That's helped connect them to the University and to our basketball program in a big way. When you're tied to the place, you have a desire to do well for that place.”

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