Virginia basketball is set to enter the 2026-27 season with plenty of new faces. The women’s basketball team has a new head coach in Aaron Roussell and a completely different roster than the one that accomplished a Cinderella NCAA Tournament run for the ages. On the men’s side, Coach Ryan Odom is looking to follow up and improve on a debut 30-win season while filling in the holes of numerous senior departures.
Amid an offseason defined by change, two guards familiar not only with their teams, but also with the city of Charlottesville, could define the next chapter for both programs.
Fourth-year guard Kymora Johnson and second-year guard Chance Mallory enter the season at different stages of their collegiate careers. Johnson has already established herself as one of the best Cavalier guards ever, entering her senior season ranked No. 9 in career points and No. 4 in assists while holding the program record for three-pointers. Mallory has only scratched the surface of his potential. After an impressive freshman campaign playing 24 minutes per game off the bench, he appears poised to take another step forward — as Virginia’s starting point guard.
The two guards’ roles differ, but their paths to those roles are intertwined.
Johnson and Mallory have known each other since they were about five years old, when opportunities for girls’ basketball leagues were limited, and Johnson played in a local boys’ league.
“Yeah, I met Chance when I was probably five years old,” Johnson said. “There [were not] a lot of teams here in Charlottesville for girls, so I had to end up playing with the guys. And there was Bob the Bruins, which is like a local league here, and we both made the travel team, and we were on that, and he was like the smallest guy on the court, of course.”
Their connection only strengthened from that point. Johnson later joined an Amateur Athletic Union team coached by Mallory’s father, Joe, and the two developed side by side, maturing into leaders and eventually attending high school at St. Anne’s-Belfield.
And now, years later, they will begin their second and fourth seasons playing home games in the same stadium.
For Johnson, that responsibility is nothing new. She has been the Cavaliers’ leading scorer in each of her first three years. But her individual play and performance have always been a means to achieve a larger goal.
“I didn't want to go somewhere where I was gonna sit [on] the bench or not play,” Johnson said. “And I didn't want to really go somewhere that already had a legacy built, because I wanted to leave one behind.”
Her last chance to leave that legacy will come under circumstances few could have predicted. Former Coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton unexpectedly departed Virginia after the season, prompting Johnson to enter the transfer portal April 6. The next day, Roussell stepped in for Agugua-Hamilton, and 11 days after the new head coach was hired, Johnson withdrew her name from the transfer portal.
Like Johnson, Mallory has also had reason to reconsider whether Virginia was the right place for him. After Tony Bennett’s shocking retirement in October 2024, Mallory decommitted from Virginia and reconsidered whether staying home for the next level was still the right choice. Ultimately, quality family time and conversations with Athletic Director Carla Williams brought him back home.
“I'm really close with my family, with my sister, my Nana, so I feel like family is very important to me,” Mallory said. “And loyalty is also one big thing, and I had a lot of meetings with Carla, and she made it clear that she wanted me to be here as well.”
Mallory’s loyalty has now positioned him for a much bigger part to play for a preseason top-15 team, according to ESPN. After spending his first-year season learning behind veteran guards Dallin Hall and Malik Thomas, Mallory enters his sophomore campaign with an opportunity to take control of and run the offense. With a home crowd on his back, his performance bears an additional element of pressure.
As he remembers sitting in the nosebleeds of John Paul Jones Arena with his father, watching Bennett’s pack-line defense and the development of one of the premier programs in the country, Mallory recognizes that the children in those same seats are watching him and looking up to him as a role model.
“It means everything [to] me,” Mallory said. “It's an honor and a blessing that I can be able to put on the uniform and walk out in front of all these fans and be able to play for the little kids … I was a little kid out there in the nosebleeds watching these guys and looking up to them. So having that responsibility to be able to do my best and play for not just myself, but for everybody else that's coming to the games, and for the whole city, it means a lot, and it's a blessing.”
Few people can relate to this feeling, but his longtime acquaintance, Johnson, is one of the only people in the world who understands it.
“A lot of the same people that supported me when I was growing up are the ones that are in the stands now,” Johnson said.
After three seasons of trying to return the Cavaliers’ women’s basketball team to the ACC promised land, Johnson finally began to see that vision materialize last March. Virginia won three NCAA Tournament games as a First Four team, becoming the first team in tournament history to accomplish such a feat. It was also the first time the Cavaliers reached the Sweet 16 since 2000. Johnson was at the center of the historic run, averaging 22.8 points per game across Virginia’s four NCAA Tournament contests.
However, Johnson enters her last-ride senior season with uncertainty. She will be one of the few constants in a program trying to build on its NCAA Tournament success under a new coach and a new culture.
“I came here to win and to put this place back on the map, not to receive handouts,” Johnson said.
Even though Johnson has one season left to prove to trust the process, for Mallory, the process is just beginning. Yet their goals are incredibly similar.
“I mean, we had offers from everywhere in the country, and then we decided to take our talent here and play for the city we grew up in,” Mallory said. “So that just shows … how beautiful Charlottesville is and how great the city is and the people that are around it. We want to stay and show out for everybody [who] helped us through our journey.”
Virginia basketball will look different, but it will center around two of Charlottesville’s finest. Johnson will try to guide an almost completely new roster while cementing the legacy she has talked about imprinting on the program and the University. Mallory will attempt to establish himself as one of the early faces of Odom’s program.
But years after they were just two kids growing up on the same Charlottesville travel team, Johnson and Mallory now have an opportunity to help guide the teams they grew up watching to places they have never been before.
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