Coach Ryan Odom held his first offseason media availability Tuesday at John Paul Jones Arena. Fielding local media questions for the first time since March, Odom was pressed about recruitment, his incoming transfers and more. Through the first offseason availability, it became clear that the team has begun to gel — with Odom leading the charge.
Every time he was asked a question, he gave a confident answer, giving the Virginia faithful what they wanted to hear. Refreshing for the fans, Odom made it perfectly clear that he will abandon the Cavaliers’ former style of playing at a slow pace.
“We're training them to play at a high pace, but at a pace that’s not reckless where they're turning the basketball over,” Odom said. “... We're teaching them what our shots look like, not what the individual shots should look like.”
With this strategy in mind, Odom described how he convinced a bevy of coveted transfers to pick Virginia.
“I think our [new] style of play is a style that is befitting of a lot of different players around the country … If I’m a parent sitting in that living room, I’m thinking ‘Alright, I want to look at U.Va.’” Odom said.
Currently, the new transfers are training in Charlottesville for the summer. For many of them, Virginia is a very new place. For others, such as freshman guard Chance Mallory, Charlottesville was already home. So, the question is simple — how is the team acclimating and bonding?
Well, aside from eating meals and exploring Charlottesville together, the Cavaliers went bowling, and the game showcased pieces of their personalities. For starters, graduate guard Jacari White was the winner, with a score of 200.
“Every time I had a strike, it was like, ‘You got another one?’” White said. “I was like ‘I think so, yeah.’ It was just crazy.”
White, who was a bit more reserved than his teammates at the media availability, may not talk much. However, he lets his actions do the talking, as evidenced by his bowling score and his pristine 17.1 points per game he averaged last year at North Dakota State.
Elsewhere in the gym, graduate guard Malik Thomas was also available to talk — and also responded sincerely when asked about his bowling performance.
“I wasn’t having the best bowling day,” Thomas said. “But shoutout to the guys, they bowled an incredible game. Jacari bowled 200, so he killed it, obviously, but I’m going to be getting better and better.”
In his response, Thomas displayed who he is — a natural leader, which is a designation several of his teammates agreed with. The details say it all. Thomas maintains eye contact throughout his entire response. He offered a firm handshake and asked for reporters’ names before taking questions. Thomas is quick to praise his teammates, and they are quick to praise him back. Just ask senior center Ugonna Onyenso.
“Malik is doing a really good job stepping up as a leader,” Onyenso said. “I believe every point guard should be able to interact with the team [in a leadership capacity]. So I feel like Malik is doing a really good job at that.”
This leadership role comes naturally to Thomas. As a graduate student, he has spent several years playing college basketball at a high level. He has accrued boundless wisdom and is now perfectly suited to fit the mold of a classic Virginia point guard leader.
“I'm a guy that's coming from a lot of experience, playing two years at San Francisco, playing two years at [Southern California],” Thomas said. “The best thing you can always bring is your voice.”
A teammate said that Thomas is “the loudest in the gym,” corroborating Thomas’ statement.
“I take pride in being the leader of this team, and leading by example, first and foremost,” Thomas said. “And just helping people that are coming from high school or coming from a different institution, and it's just been great being a leader of this team and being the voice, and to always be consistent.”
Thomas already echoes one of Odom’s goals for summer practice — consistency. Instead of installing complex schemes on offense and defense, Odom said that the Cavaliers need to “be able to guard our man first.” Consistent fundamentals, coupled with unlimited grit, will be at the core of an Odom-led program.
For now, Odom will continue to rigorously install the gameplay he desires from his program. But soon, players will depart back home or elsewhere until classes start in August. So, what will the rest of summer training camp look like? According to junior guard Sam Lewis, Odom tasked his players to connect with Charlottesville.
“That's one of our big goals this summer,” Lewis said, “just to connect with the place in the community, and that's going to help us just come together and win games.”
Lewis, much like his coach, hit the right notes. In the eyes of Odom — and in the mold of legendary coaches Tony Bennett and Terry Holland before him — a holistic commitment to the University is the Virginia way.
And this men’s basketball program is certainly on the right track. Graduate forward Devin Tillis had a message to the world on behalf of his team — the sky is the limit.
“Stop doubting,” Tillis said. “We got some good players, and I promise you, we're coming together [well] as a team. We're going to get to know each other, and it's going to be a fun season.”
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