The 2025–26 Virginia Cavaliers men's basketball team represented the University of Virginia during the 2025–26 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. They were led by first-year head coach Ryan Odom following the departure of interim head coach Ron Sanchez. They played their home games at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, Virginia, as members of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

The Cavaliers began the season with four straight wins before traveling to White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia to participate in the Greenbrier Tip-Off. They won their first game of the tournament to extend their winning streak to six games. The streak ended in the final of the tournament with an eight-point loss to Butler. The Cavaliers picked up where they left off, winning their next three straight games, including a victory at Texas in the ACC–SEC Challenge. These victories saw them enter the AP poll at number twenty-four. They won three further non-conference games against non-Power 4 opponents to rise to twenty-first in the rankings. They began ACC play with a rivalry game against Virginia Tech. The game went to triple overtime and the Cavaliers lost by ten points. The team went on a five-game winning streak after the loss, which included three road victories, one of which was at twentieth-ranked Louisville. They rose to fourteenth in the rankings before losing by five points to twenty-second ranked North Carolina. They fell to seventeenth after the loss, but went on a nine-game winning streak to ascend to eleventh. The streak included one non-conference game, a victory over Ohio State. They did not defeat a ranked team over the stretch, but did notch a double overtime victory at Notre Dame, along with three other road victories. The streak was broken at top-ranked Duke, 51–77. The Cavaliers defeated Wake Forest by five points, and they won their rivalry re-match with Virginia Tech by four points to end the regular season. They were ranked tenth in the AP poll entering the postseason.

The Cavaliers finished the season 30–6 overall and 15–3 in ACC play to finish in second place. As the second seed in the 2026 ACC tournament, they earned a double-bye into the quarterfinals, where they defeated seven seed NC State. They advanced over third seed Miami in the aemifinals. They did not win the tournament, as they lost to top seed and top ranked Duke in the Final, 70–74. The Cavaliers earned an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament and were the three-seed in the Midwest region. They were ranked ninth in the AP Poll released prior to the tournament. They defeated fourteen-seed Wright State in the first round before being upset by six-seed and twenty-third ranked Tennessee by six points to end their season.

Previous season

With the last-minute retirement of Tony Bennett and the appointing of interim head coach Ron Sanchez, the Cavaliers started the season 3–0, including a ten-point victory over Villanova in the Hall of Fame Series. They then traveled to the Bahamas to participate in the Baha Mar Hoops Championship, where their fortunes changed. They lost in the semifinals to eleventh-ranked Tennessee 64–42 and in the third place game against twenty second-ranked St. John's 80–55. They won two games against non-Power 4 opponents before losing their ACC–SEC Challenge game against thirteenth-ranked Florida 87–69. They followed that with a loss in their ACC opener against SMU. They finished their non-conference slate 2–1, with a loss against twenty-first-ranked Memphis. They closed the 2024 portion of their schedule with an ACC win over NC State. The Cavaliers had a rough start to the 2025 portion of the schedule, as they went on a five-game losing streak. This included two losses to Louisville, and losses in California to Stanford and California, and a loss in a rematch with SMU. They broke the streak by going 2–2 in their next four games. This streak included a loss in their rivalry game against Virginia Tech. The team went 4–2 over their next six games, which included a three-game winning streak. They defeated Pittsburgh, Georgia Tech, and Wake Forest, and won the rivalry rematch with Virginia Tech. However, they lost to third-ranked Duke and at North Carolina. They lost to thirteenth-ranked Clemson and defeated Florida State by three points in their next two games. The Cavaliers lost the regular season finale to Syracuse 84–70.

The Cavaliers finished the season 15–16 and 8–12 in ACC play to finish in a five-way tie for ninth place. The team finished atop the five-way tiebreaker and were the ninth seed in the 2025 ACC tournament. They faced eighth-seed Georgia Tech in the first round. Despite defeating the Yellow Jackets during the regular season, they were defeated 66–60 in the tournament. They were not invited to the NCAA tournament or the NIT. Interim coach Ron Sanchez was not retained at the end of the season.

Offseason Coaching departures Virginia coaching departures Ron Sanchez Interim head coach 11 Associate head coach at Baylor Jason Williford Associate head coach 16 Assistant coach at Georgetown Orlando Vandross Assistant coach 10 Isaiah Wilkins 4 Assistant coach at Cal Brad Soderberg 10 Assistant coach at Millikin Kyle Guy Special assistant 1 Assistant coach at Nevada Chase Coleman Graduate assistant 2 Assistant coach at Navy Ronnie Wideman Assoc. AD for MBB admin 16 Assoc. AD at Virginia Stelios Tzoutzis Program & operations assistant 5 Assistant coach & GM at Liberty

Player departures Virginia player departures Blake Buchanan 0 F 6'11" 225 Coeur d'Alene, ID Transferred to Iowa State Elijah Saunders 2 F 6'8" 229 Phoenix, AZ Transferred to Maryland Andrew Rohde 4 G 6'6" 202 Milwaukee, WI Transferred to Wisconsin Jacob Cofie 5 F 6'10" 230 Seattle, WA Transferred to USC Dai Dai Ames 7 G 6'1" 190 Milwaukee, WI Transferred to California Bryce Walker 8 G 6'2" 205 Beltsville, MD Graduated Ishan Sharma 9 G 6'5" 192 Milton, ON Transferred to Saint Louis Taine Murray 10 G 6'5" 208 Auckland, NZ Graduated Isaac McKneely 11 G 6'4" 188 Poca, WV Transferred to Louisville Anthony Robinson 21 F/C 6'10" 250 Peachtree City, GA Transferred to Xavier TJ Power 23 F 6'9" 221 Shrewsbury, MA Transferred to Penn Christian Bliss 30 G 6'4" 198 Queens, NY Transferred to Delaware

Coaching arrivals Virginia coaching arrivals Ryan Odom Head coach VCU Head coach Griff Aldrich Head coach Longwood Associate head coach Matt Henry Assistant coach VCU Assistant coach Bryce Crawford Darius Theus Kelsey Knoche Director of operations Director of operations Matt Hart Director of analytics Director of analytics Billy Bales Director of video Video coordinator Ahmad Thomas Coordinator of player development Director of recruiting Michael Crowder Managing director – culture formation & program development Longwood Director of culture and alumni engagement

Incoming transfers Virginia incoming transfers Malik Thomas 1 G 6'5" 205 Fontana, CA San Francisco 1 Sam Lewis 5 G 6'6" 210 Chicago, IL Toledo 2 Jacari White 6 G 6'3" 180 Orlando, FL North Dakota State 1 Martin Carrere 7 G/F 6'8" 180 Pontonx-sur-l'Adour, France VCU 4 Devin Tillis 11 F 6'7" 225 Los Angeles, CA UC Irvine 1 Dallin Hall 30 G 6'4" 197 Plain City, UT BYU 1 Ugonna Onyenso 33 C 7'0" 247 Owerri, Nigeria Kansas State 1

2025 recruiting class

Roster Players

Coaches Virginia coaching staff Ryan Odom Dean and Markel Families head coach 1 1 Hampden–Sydney Griff Aldrich Associate head coach Matt Henry Assistant coach Trinity Bryce Crawford Ohio State Darius Theus VCU Kelsey Knoche Director of operations Maryland Matt Hart Director of analytics George Washington Billy Bales Video coordinator Lenoir-Rhyne Ahmad Thomas Director of recruiting UNC Asheville Michael Crowder Director of culture and alumni engagement Virginia Mike Curtis Strength and conditioning coach 17 17 Ethan Saliba Head athletic trainer 28 43 Kansas

Schedule and results Source:

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!colspan=12 style=""| Regular season

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Notes

Rankings

References