Virginia has had a contradictory relationship with the college basketball transfer portal calendar, at least on its surface. In the first week or so after the portal opened, there was little news for the Cavaliers beyond the players from UVA’s existing roster announcing their intentions to transfer. Then came the supposed “dead period”, during which there is no permitted in-person contact between coaches and recruits. During those seven days, Virginia successfully gained commitments from five transfers, an explosive entrance into the transfer portal fray for Ryan Odom and company. Since then, it’s been quiet again, as the Cavaliers have gone a full week now since their last commitment.
It hasn’t been for a lack of trying. Virginia had three front court targets in the transfer portal who flirted with the Cavaliers before ultimately choosing other schools.
UVA hosted Utah transfer forward Jake Wahlin, but he ended up picking Clemson in essentially a repeat of what happened with Nevada transfer Nick Davidson. Those are two versatile stretch forwards who visited Virginia, but then committed to Clemson. Though they were tough recruiting losses, those outcomes make sense given that Brad Brownell and the Tigers have been much better as a program than Virginia in the last few seasons and have demonstrated success turning big men like Hunter Tyson, PJ Hall, and Ian Schieffelin into all-conference players.
It was reported Florida State transfer Malique Ewin was “focusing on five schools” and Virginia was in that mix, but then Ewin committed to Arkansas very quickly after that. Similarly, Milwaukee transfer forward Jamichael Stillwell, one of the top rebounders in the country, included UVA in his top six, but ultimately committed to UCF.
The silence since the last commitment from UC Irvine forward Devin Tillis last Friday has had a somewhat uneasy effect on the UVA fanbase. In response, there are two important things to consider. First, even under Tony Bennett, the fast-paced initial blitz of transfers in the portal were not usually Virginia’s path. Last year, the Hoos didn’t land a transfer commitment until May and then proceeded to pick up a total of five transfer commits between May 4th and May 16th.
Second, and much more recently, Ryan Odom hasn’t been operating in the transfer portal in a way that gives us reporters much of a chance at tracking these commitments before they happen. Usually, and that’s a term that means less and less these days in college sports, we hear that Virginia has contacted a player, that player includes UVA in his top list of schools and comes to Charlottesville for a visit, and then makes his decision. At the very least, the process typically includes one of those steps, which gives us a chance to learn a bit about the recruiting target, study his background and stats, and evaluate his potential fit at Virginia, although fit is tough to determine with a brand new head coach.
That has simply not been the case with Ryan Odom, who has landed five transfer commitments (six if you include Duke Miles, who then decommitted a few days later), none of whom were really on anyone’s radar until they announced their commitments to Virginia. All that to say that although it seems very quiet right now, don’t let that fool you into thinking Odom and his staff are resting on their laurels with only eight scholarship players for next season and half a roster still to find, particularly in the front court.
Which brings us to the most important question and the one that no one can really answer right now: what’s next for Virginia in the transfer portal?
We know that the Cavaliers need centers and forwards, but it seems unlikely that we’ll know anything about these future UVA transfer commits until they are putting pen to paper. The players still on the board for Virginia that we do know of are… believe it or not… more guards.
Kansas transfer Rakease Passmore, a 6’5″ freshman guard and former consensus four-star recruit, is in the portal after averaging just five minutes per game in 23 appearances at Kansas as a true freshman. Passmore reportedly took a visit to Virginia a week ago, but is now scheduled to visit Tennessee this weekend.
There’s also San Francisco guard Malik Thomas, who ranked in the top 25 nationally in scoring at just a touch under 20 points per game. There isn’t much information out there except some rumors that have Thomas trending towards Virginia after it initially seemed like he was going to transfer within the West Coast Conference to Gonzaga. The problem is that he has no eligibility left, at least not on paper. Thomas has played four seasons of basketball, with the one year in question being his freshman season at Southern Cal, where he played nine of USC’s 34 games and only 18 total minutes. The threshold for a medical redshirt is to appear in less than 30% of a team’s games and Thomas came in under that at 26.6%. But as far as we can tell, his playing time and lack thereof was all coach’s decisions and there was no reported injury. Without a demonstrated medical issue from a season three years past, there wouldn’t be a convincing argument for the NCAA to approve a waive for an additional year of eligibility on those grounds. There are other ways, but it’s complicated. We just have sit tight and see how this plays out for a transfer who could have a big-time impact for Virginia next season if he gets that extra year.
Then there’s Houston guard Terrance Arceneaux. There are only whispers on this one, but the stakes are pretty high considering he played more than 20 minutes per game for a team that reached the national title game. Arceneaux has been mentioned in association with Virginia as well as ACC rival NC State, who also has a new head coach in Will Wade. UVA’s new association head coach Griff Aldrich, who spent a long time coaching AAU in the Houston area, could provide a key connection in this recruitment as Arceneaux grew up outside of Houston before playing college ball for the Cougars. This one is definitely worth keeping an eye on.
None of Passmore, Thomas, or Arceneaux would help the front court situation much. But as we said, it’s unlikely we’ll know much about these players before their commitments happen anyway if the past couple of weeks are any indicator.
Keep track of all of the players Virginia has contacted in the transfer portal here: Virginia Basketball: Transfer Portal Contact Live Tracker
Stay up to date on all the latest Virginia basketball transfer portal activity, including outbound transfers from the current roster and UVA’s effort to pursue players in the portal, here: Virginia Basketball Transfer Portal: Latest News and Updates
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