The Ryan Odom era officially begins tonight for Virginia Basketball.
After a couple of exhibitions, UVA will take the court for a game that counts and they will welcome Rider to Charlottesville. This is a great opportunity for the Cavaliers to start 1-0 and get some early momentum in the season.
Virginia coach Ryan Odom works the referees during the second half of their exhibition game against Vanderbilt at Memorial Gym in Nashville, Tenn., Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025. / Denny Simmons / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
I think this is going to be a team that will play with pace and get up a lot of three point shots, a far cry from the Tony Bennett teams that were dominant in the past. This has the potential to be a high-profile offense under Odom and that is what I am watching for tonight.
Some key stats for tonight’s game:
Virginia begins its 121st season of men’s basketball, sporting a 1,760-1,234 (.588) all-time record.
• UVA is 25-2 in its last 27 season-opening games.
• The Cavaliers are 97-23 all-time in 120 season-opening games.
• UVA is 104-11 at JPJ in non-conference play since 2009-10.
• Rider’s Maurizio D’Alessandro is a Charlottesville native. D’Alessandro played youth basketball with and against UVA’S Carter Lang, Desmond Roberts and Chance Mallory.
• D’Alessandro’s father, Ben, served as a graduate assistant coach at Virginia in 1998-99 under Head Coach Pete Gillen, his coach as a player at Providence.
• Ryan Odom is 5-5 all-time in season-opening games as a head coach (2-3 at UMBC, 1-1 at Utah State, 1-1 at VCU and 1-0 at Lenoir-Rhyne).
Virginia is 1-0 all-time vs. Rider, defeating the Broncs 76-49 at John Paul Jones Arena on Nov. 19, 2009.
• Mike Scott tallied 17 points on 8 of 9 shooting to lead Virginia.
• Sammy Zeglinski added 12 points, while Jeff Jones added 11 points and Sylven Landesberg chipped in 10.
• UVA shot 51.8 percent from the field, went 7 of 16 from 3-point range, and won the rebound battle, 42-27.
Ryan Odom was named the University of Virginia’s Dean and Markel Families Men’s Head Basketball Coach on March 22.
• Odom became the 13th head coach in the program’s history.
• He spent the last two seasons at VCU, leading the Rams to a 52-21 record and 2025 NCAA Tournament berth.
• VCU won the 2025 Atlantic-10 Tournament and shared the A-10 regular-season championship.
• UVA is Odom’s fifth stint as a collegiate head coach. Over the past 11 seasons, he has compiled a career record of 222-127, including stops at Utah State (2021-23), UMBC (2017-2021), Lenoir-Rhyne (2016) and Charlotte (2015, interim head coach).
• Odom led UMBC, Utah State and VCU to the NCAA Tournament during his second season at those schools.
• He led Lenoir-Rhyne to the NCAA Division II Sweet 16 in 2016.
• Odom coached UMBC to a stunning upset against Virginia in the first round of the 2018 NCAA Tournament in Charlotte, marking the first time a No. 16 seed defeated a No. 1 seed in the event’s history.
I think that Virginia is going to win this game with ease. They are coming into tonight’s game with a KenPom ranking of No.. 59 while Rider is beyond the 300s. Odom’s team is going to have a good debut and the fans will love this new style of basketball.
Final Score: UVA 83, Rider 62
