<\/p>\n
FILE – Virginia’s Thijs de Ridder, right, goes up for a shot against Tennessee’s Felix Okpara, center, and Nate Ament during the first half in the second round of the NCAA college basketball tournament, March 22, 2026, in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
Matt Slocum\/AP Photo\/Matt Slocum<\/p>\n
FILE – Virginia’s Johann Gr\u00fcnloh (17) blocks a shot but Wright State’s Solomon Callaghan during the first second in the first round of the NCAA college basketball tournament, March 20, 2026, in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
Matt Rourke\/AP Photo\/Matt Rourke<\/p>\n
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) \u2014 Thijs De Ridder couldn’t help but feel uneasy as he shifted from multiyear professional player in Europe to first-timer in American college basketball, complete with returning to the classroom.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Big man Johann Gr\u00fcnloh didn’t worry about the academic work as much as being so far from family and friends in Germany.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
Yet by the end of the season, the duo \u2014 part of an influx of international talent across the sport \u2014 had transitioned smoothly enough to play a huge role in the Cavaliers’ immediate leap under first-year coach Ryan Odom to win 30 games and play for an Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament title. Those former pros have returned for a second season, and they can look back at last year like a curiosity and valuable experience that had them knowing exactly what to expect this time around.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt worked out pretty well for us,\u201d Gr\u00fcnloh said Wednesday during the ACC Tipoff preseason media days. “Of course in the beginning it was a little bit different. But I think we managed to adapt to this play style pretty good and did what the coaches wanted us to do.\u201d<\/p>\n Both were every-game starters for a team that reached the second round of March Madness for the program’s first NCAA Tournament victory since winning it all under Tony Bennett in 2019. It was a strong start to Odom’s tenure with a team originally picked to finish fifth in the ACC.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n De Ridder and Gr\u00fcnloh get comfortable in Charlottesville<\/p>\n The 6-foot-9, 238-pound De Ridder ended up being a first-team All-ACC performer after leading the Cavaliers in scoring (15.6) and rebounding (6.2) while shooting 50.8%. Gr\u00fcnloh, a lean 7-footer, provided interior length and rim protection in averaging 7.1 points and 5.2 rebounds and ranking 16th nationally in blocked shots (2.2).<\/p>\n Yet their success was about more than numbers in a different style of basketball. For them and other players in attendance Wednesday, like North Carolina’s Neo Avdalas (who played last year at Virginia Tech) and Duke’s Dame Sarr, it also was about acclimating to a new life.<\/p>\n \u201cThe biggest thing when you have international players, it’s no different than a young man coming from across the country … you want to make them feel comfortable like they’re a part of a family,\u201d Odom said. \u201cI think our staff does a good job of that, our community does a great job of making these guys feel very comfortable and wanted at UVA. I think that’s the biggest reason they get acclimated pretty fast.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n De Ridder was particularly concerned about reentering academia considering he had graduated from high school in Belgium in 2021.<\/p>\n \u201cI was just scared, really nervous in the beginning a little bit,\u201d the 23-year-old De Ridder said. “First, the basketball part is like, I didn\u2019t even know that my style of basketball would fit in the college basketball part. And it was like four years for me without any class. You have to go to class again instead of like resting or being on a PlayStation.\u201d<\/p>\n Adjustments have included a different style of play and distance from family<\/p>\n That wasn’t as much of a concern for Gr\u00fcnloh, who was only a year removed from graduation. Still, it took adjustments like playing by American college rules with TV timeouts \u2014 \u201cThat threw me off a little bit,\u201d he said \u2014 and playing halves instead of quarters.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cOverseas it\u2019s a little bit more slowed down,\u201d Gr\u00fcnloh said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got some veterans there, some veteran point guards who are like 30 years old. They play a long time and they ease it down a little bit, most of the time. But here it\u2019s just the athleticism. Everybody can jump out of the building, everybody can dunk the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n As for staying connected to home, Gr\u00fcnloh leaned on video phone calls, while his mother got on the Snapchat app for another avenue.<\/p>\n \u201cYou’ve got to stay in touch with them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n De Ridder, at least, had spent some time living on his own by going from Belgium to playing professionally in Spain to prepare for at least part of this experience.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cBefore it was just like a one-hour flight and now it\u2019s like a 12-hour travel,\u201d De Ridder said. “So that\u2019s the hardest part for sure, being away from family. But I\u2019m having fun. I\u2019m having a great time being a college student.\u201d<\/p>\n AP Sports Writer Steve Reed contributed to this report.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Sign up for Top 25 poll alerts here, visit the Top 25 here and see AP\u2019s full men\u2019s basketball coverage here<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FILE – Virginia’s Thijs de Ridder, right, goes up for a shot against Tennessee’s Felix Okpara, center, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[157161,128012,69969,157162,202,196,197,1033,87657,86579,1721,88829,199,87667,73297,87686,942,43369,157163,82,84,83,157165,157164,3142],"class_list":["post-459465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-acc-virginia-international-talent","tag-belgium","tag-germany","tag-johann-grunloh","tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","tag-product-40776-ap-california-sports-only","tag-product-40780-ap-florida-sports-only","tag-product-40781-ap-georgia-sports-only","tag-product-40785-ap-indiana-sports-only","tag-product-40788-ap-kentucky-sports-only","tag-product-40791-ap-massachusetts-sports-only","tag-product-40803-ap-new-york-state-sports-only","tag-product-40804-ap-north-carolina-sports-only","tag-product-40809-ap-pennsylvania-sports-only","tag-product-40812-ap-south-carolina-sports-only","tag-product-40815-ap-texas-sports-only","tag-product-40818-ap-virginia-sports-only","tag-ryan-odom","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-thijs-de-ridder","tag-tony-bennett","tag-virginia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>
<\/a><\/p>\n