CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. \u2013 No. 23 Virginia (10-1) hosts American (7-5) in non-conference action on Monday, Dec. 22. Tipoff at John Paul Jones Arena is set for 6 p.m. on the ACC Network and Virginia Sports Radio Network.<\/p>\n
For Openers<\/p>\n
No. 23 UVA closes its three-game homestand vs. American. Tickets<\/p>\n Single-game, group and mini-plan tickets are on sale at uvatix.com<\/a>. The four-game mini-plan features North Carolina, one of Syracuse, Miami, or Virginia Tech, and two additional games of the fan\u2019s choice. The six-game mini-plan features the choice of Maryland or North Carolina, one of Syracuse, Miami, or Virginia Tech, and four additional games of the fan\u2019s choice. Broadcast Information<\/p>\n The Virginia-American game will be televised on the ACC Network and streamed on ESPN.com\/watch. The New Head Coach<\/p>\n \u2022 Ryan Odom<\/a> was named the University of Virginia\u2019s Dean and Markel Families Men\u2019s Head Basketball Coach on March 22.<\/p>\n He spent the last two seasons at VCU, leading the Rams to a 52-21 record and 2025 NCAA Tournament berth. All-Time vs. American<\/p>\n The Cavaliers own a 6-1 advantage over the Eagles in the all-time series that dates back to 1938. Last Time vs. The Eagles<\/p>\n Elijah Saunders<\/a> tallied a career-high 21 points to lead Virginia to a 63-58 win over American on Dec. 22, 2024, at JPJ. Last Time Out<\/p>\n Dallin Hall<\/a> scored a season-high 20 points to lead No. 23 Virginia (10-1) to an 80-72 win over Maryland on Dec. 20. Virginia Standard<\/p>\n The Virginia Standard is to pursue excellence and is built on the six pillars of humility, passion, unity, servanthood, thankfulness and accountability, Hoo Are These Cavaliers?<\/p>\n The 2025-26 roster is highlighted by 12 newcomers, including Dallin Hall<\/a> (BYU), Malik Thomas<\/a> (San Francisco), Devin Tillis<\/a> (UC Irvine), Jacari White<\/a> (North Dakota State), Ugonna Onyenso<\/a> (Kansas State), Sam Lewis<\/a> (Toledo) and Martin Carrere<\/a> (VCU). New Kids on The Block<\/p>\n Newcomers Johann Gr\u00fcnloh<\/a> and Ugonna Onyenso<\/a> provide elite rim protection for UVA. Crash The Glass <\/p>\n UVA ranks 14th nationally in offensive rebounds (14.6 rpg), 33rd in rebound margin (8.6) and 34th in rebounds (41.3 rpg). Let it Fly<\/p>\n Virginia is averaging a school-record 26.8 3-point attempts per game, surpassing 22.7 in 2007-08. On The Horizon<\/p>\n No. 23 Virginia opens ACC action at in-state rival Virginia Tech on Wednesday, Dec. 31. Tipoff for the Smithfield Commonwealth Clash at Cassell Coliseum is set for 2 p.m. on the ACC Network.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. \u2013 No. 23 Virginia (10-1) hosts American (7-5) in non-conference action on Monday, Dec. 22. Tipoff…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[75269,72282,72286,85,46,105,33770,72285,50181,110273],"class_list":["post-197090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-acc","tag-cavaliers","tag-hoos","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports","tag-university-of-virginia","tag-uva","tag-virginia","tag-wahoos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nUVA is 7-0 at John Paul Jones Arena and 111-11 in non-league action at JPJ since 2009-10.
\nUVA has scored 80 or more points in 10 games, most since 11 in 2007-08.
\nThe Cavaliers are averaging 86.5 points, second-most in school history (89.8 ppg in 1954-55).
\nUVA is 22nd in NET rating and 25th in kenpom.com rankings.
\nUVA head coach Ryan Odom<\/a> served as an assistant coach at American from 2001-04.<\/p>\n
\nThe Landing, UVA’s premium group space in JPJ Arena, is available to reserve for home games during the 2025-26 season. Please contact the ticket sales team at (434) 924-8821 for more information.<\/p>\n
\nThe game will also be broadcast on Virginia Sports Radio Network, VirginiaSports.com and Virginia Sports app.
\nLive statistics will be located on VirginiaSports.com and the Virginia Sports app.<\/p>\n
\nVCU won the 2025 Atlantic-10 Tournament and shared the A-10 regular-season championship.
\nUVA is Odom\u2019s fifth stint as a collegiate head coach. In 12 seasons, he has compiled a record of 224-127, including stops at Utah State (2021-23), UMBC (2017-2021), Lenoir-Rhyne (2016), Charlotte (2015, interim).
\nOdom led UMBC, Utah State and VCU to the NCAA Tournament during his second season at those schools.
\nOdom coached UMBC to an upset against Virginia in 2018 NCAA Tournament, marking the first time a No. 16 seed defeated a No. 1 seed in the event\u2019s history.
\nOdom is the first UVA coach to start his tenure 5-0, surpassing the Cavaliers\u2019 first coach Henry Lannigan who started 4-0 in 1905-06.<\/p>\n
\nVirginia defeated American 63-58 in the last meeting between the teams on Dec. 22, 2024.
\nUVA added 91-70 win in the other meeting between the teams at John Paul Jones Arena on Dec. 28, 2006.
\nUVA is undefeated at home against American, posting a 6-0 record in Charlottesville.
\nVirginia\u2019s lone loss to American was a 69-54 true road defeat on Feb. 3, 1951.<\/p>\n
\nTaine Murray<\/a> added 13 points and Isaac McKneely<\/a> chipped in 11 points as UVA closed non-conference play with a 7-4 record.
\nSaunders shot 7 of 9 from the field and 7 of 8 from the free throw line to extend his double-figure streak to three games.
\nUVA out-rebounded the Eagles 33-26 and scored 26 points in the paint.<\/p>\n
\nHall shot 8 of 8 from the field and had a team-high six assists in the Cavaliers\u2019 fifth straight win.
\nJacari White<\/a> (15) and Devin Tillis<\/a> (10) helped UVA to a 38-25 advantage in bench points.
\nUVA used a 17-0 advantage spanning halftime and a 15-2 run to gain a 48-37 lead to gain the victory.<\/p>\n
\u2022 We play with pace, share the basketball and our defensive style is to dictate and disrupt.<\/p>\n
\nUVA added European imports Thijs De Ridder<\/a> (Bilbao Basket), Johann Gr\u00fcnloh<\/a> (RASTA Vechta) and true freshmen Silas Barksdale<\/a>, Chance Mallory<\/a> and Owen Odom<\/a>.
\nRedshirt sophomores Elijah Gertrude<\/a>, Carter Lang<\/a> and Desmond Roberts<\/a> are the lone returners from last year\u2019s team.
\nUVA returned four points (all from Roberts) from 2024-25.
\nDe Ridder leads UVA in scoring at 15.1 ppg, followed by Mallory (11.2 ppg), Thomas (11.1 ppg) and White (10.9 ppg).
\nGr\u00fcnloh leads the team in rebounding (7.3 rpg) and blocks (2.7 bpg), while Hall has a team-best 3.9 assists per game.
\nUVA is averaging 86.5 points per game and limiting its opponents to 67.9 ppg.<\/p>\n
\nUVA ranks third nationally in blocks (6.9 bpg), highlighted by Onyenso\u2019s eight-block effort vs. Butler and Gr\u00fcnloh\u2019s seven-block effort vs. NC Central.
\nGr\u00fcnloh ranks 10th nationally with 2.7 blocks per game, while Onyenso is 15th at 2.6 bpg.
\nGr\u00fcnloh\u2019s seven blocks vs. NC Central were most by a Cavalier freshman since Jason Clark<\/a>\u2019s eight vs. VMI on Jan. 24, 2002.
\nOnyenso\u2019s eight blocks vs. Butler were the most by a Cavalier since Jay Huff<\/a>\u2019s 10 vs. Duke on Feb. 29, 2020.
\nGr\u00fcnloh has two or more blocks in eight games, while Onyenso has multiple blocks in six games.<\/p>\n
\nUVA is 8-0 when out-rebounding its opponent.
\nThe Cavaliers have 49 or more rebounds in four games, out-rebounding Hampton (49-25), NCCU (48-34), Rider (49-32), Marshall (38-35) and Northwestern (49-25).
\nUVA has 20 or more offensive rebounds in three games, including 20 or more in back-to-back games (Rider and NCCU) for the first time since November of 2007 (25 at Penn and 20 against Seton Hall).<\/p>\n
\nUVA ranks 16th nationally in 3-point shooting percentage (39.7%) and 33rd in effective shooting percentage (.573).
\nUVA\u2019s 39.7 percent (117 of 295) 3-point shooting percentage ranks second on UVA\u2019s single-season list (40.3% in 2015-16).
\nUVA has shot 30 or more 3-pointers in four contests.
\nUVA attempted 30 or more 3-pointers in back-to-back games (Rider and NCCU) for the first time since March of 2021 (Syracuse and Ohio).
\nUVA\u2019s 36 3-point attempts vs. NC Central were its most since 38 against Virginia Tech on Feb. 10, 2018.
\u2022 UVA has made 11 of more 3-pointers in seven games, including a season-high 15 vs. Queens.
\nUVA had a school-record eight players make at least one 3-pointer in its win at Texas on Dec. 3.
\nIn 2025-26, Devin Tillis<\/a> (58.3%), Jacari White<\/a> (50%), Chance Mallory<\/a> (45.5%), Dallin Hall<\/a> (43.3%), Sam Lewis<\/a> (40.5%) and Thijs DeRidder (39.3%) are UVA\u2019s 3-point shooting leaders.
\nWhite set a UVA record with 12 consecutive made 3-pointers during a three-game stretch from Nov. 28-Dec. 6.
\nWhite leads the team with 30 3-pointers, while Malik Thomas<\/a> and Mallory each have 15.<\/p>\n