The new-look Virginia basketball is here, teeming with size, shooting and offensive firepower. Coach Ryan Odom, a purveyor of fast-paced basketball and an amateur mathematician in his belief that three points is more than two, has assembled a team of veterans hell-bent on playing March basketball and certainly capable of getting there.
One of those veterans is graduate forward Devin Tillis — an offensive Swiss-army knife and “glue guy” extraordinaire who joined the team from the NIT runners-up UC Irvine and might be the most interesting player on the roster due to his unique and difficult-to-label playstyle.
Odom is not the type of coach to put anyone in a box, Tillis said, which is good because he is a pretty hard player to label. Asked how he would describe his own game, Tillis laughed.
“I’ll just say fundamental,” Tillis said.
That’s a quality every basketball coach loves. He chose it because he does not play a flashy or explosive brand of basketball, but makes the right plays and finds ways to win offensive possessions.
Tillis defies some conventions of basketball. The Los Angeles native is a burly four-man who chucks deep three-pointers, makes them, then muscles his way to the basket for a tough post bucket on the next possession. What he lacks in vertical pop he makes up for with balletic footwork and delicate touch around the rim.
Averaging 13.7 points, 7.8 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game last season, Tillis is a versatile box-score filler across the board. He is an efficient scorer, more than competent as a rebounder and can operate as a secondary initiator option in a high-octane offense. He ranked consistently among the best in the conference in impact and productivity metrics in his three years as an Anteater — a period during which the program went 79-29.
Tillis knows his role is going to change as he transitions from an offense in which he was the focal point to one where there are just more players that can reliably attack a defense. He is not worried, though — if he is asked to shoot then he can shoot, if he is asked to pass he can do that too.
“I love shooting threes, making threes,” Tillis said. “But also we have a bunch of guys who are going to make a lot of threes this year, so it's easy to make the extra pass.”
A simple way of understanding his skillset is saying that he just plays winning basketball. The scoring capabilities are exciting, but when adding in his great rebounding and passing, the elevator pitch looks even better. Tillis grabbed the third most rebounds in the Big West last year and ran point for the Anteaters on more than one occasion, averaging more than two assists per game.
At 6-foot-7, a guy with Tillis’ size and post scoring prowess receiving screens on the perimeter is not a common sight, even in the chaos of mid-major college basketball. That responsibility is usually held by smaller and quicker guards or springy athletes on the wings. His unique offensive skillset is not lost on Odom, who said he envisions Tillis taking on a pronounced playmaking role on a team stuffed with competent ball-handlers.
“I'm really comfortable with Devin in pick-and-roll and making decisions with the ball,” Odom said. “He's a really good passer from the interior, and he's a really good finisher. He's a good shooter as well. He's going to be a really important player for us.”
On a Virginia team flush with capable scorers and handlers, the name of the game is going to be exploiting mismatches. Tillis’ game is far from perfect, but he is tailor-made to do just that. He can bully smaller guys on the interior, punish late closeouts with his near-40 three-point percentage, set a mean screen and receive one, too.
His teammates know that. Graduate guard Dallin Hall said that Tillis’ feel for the game and passing chops make him impossible to double, and his added scoring pedigree makes him capable of collapsing a defense singlehandedly.
“He has great feel for the game, really good basketball IQ,” Hall said. “You can't double him because he's such a good passer, and so I think that's gonna be super helpful for us, just creating mismatches.”
In his media day press conference, Odom raved about Tillis’ resume and intangibles. Led by Tillis, UC Irvine won 32 games last season, making it to the finals of both the Big West Tournament and the NIT, a level of winning Odom and Tillis are both hoping to replicate in Charlottesville.
"His experience, his toughness [and] his smarts are going to be really important for us,” Odom said, “He's a big player for Virginia — there's no question about it.”
When the Cavaliers open their season Nov. 3, Tillis may start the season coming off the bench, though fans should expect to see a lot of him even then. He has the kind of versatile, mismatch-exploiting skillset that wins games — and a willingness to be the best teammate he can be to do so.
“I want to be the best teammate and also be the best player for my teammates around me,” Tillis said. “So I've kind of been a glue guy my whole career, making sure my team wins. I'll do whatever it takes to win. You put me in any scenario, and I'll make sure we win.”
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