We’re cooked
Seems like we’ll be doing some recruit scrambling. But also, with the portal, there should at least be the fallback option to grab the Rakeese Passmore’s of the world as our young players. Obviously in the medium term we need to hit on some high schoolers but not sure that is the number one (or two or three or four) concern right now
Eeek. I am just going to choose to think this is a lot like our portal recruiting and we don’t know a lot of what’s going on. And yes, I realize HS recruiting is much more in the open. Projecting silver linings
4 spots it seems like:
Driving/Slashing/playmaking guard: Morillo, Mingo, maybe Hodge
Sharp Shooter: Foster, Ogden
Scoring 3/4 forward: Allmond, Cloer
Center: Swinging with Arafan Diane. Cody Peck maybe.
Yeah a lot of long shots, at the same time if there was ever a class to swing and miss on it would be the 2026 class. We’ll see what the portal/decommit talent pool looks like for young guys in the spring. Think Morillo is our best shot to land one out of that group (Im assuming we aren’t pushing too hard for Hodge).
It’s just my uninformed opinion, but I don’t see the logic of “doing some recruit scrambling” at this time. Of course, that also means I understand what you mean when you use that phrase. Unless a prospect is perceived to be an immediate contributor, I don’t see a real need to pursue them in the 2026 class. Nearly half of the current squad will exhaust their eligibility at the end of the season. Early attrition is a complete unknown for now. At least, unknown to the fans. The staff may have some early inklings. The team is going to need new contributors next year. Much of UVa’s future is going to depend on what happens in the upcoming season, and, most importantly, how it ends. Regardless of the record, if it ends on a positive, or upbeat, note, that will set the table for both recruiting the transfer portal and the 2027 high school class. Hopefully, in the future, things will progress to where Coach Odom and company will have the luxury of taking chances on lesser prospects who may, or may not, develop over a couple of seasons. I think a healthy program needs that. However, I don’t think UVa is at that point now. If Virginia doesn’t get a commitment from the current offers, or from prospects with which we are unfamiliar who have emerged as elite, then I would prefer that the roster be filled from the portal in the spring. If this season goes well, Virginia will be a much more attractive program in April than it is now.
As a whole, I read this update to mean that we will likely have a decent top 75 if not top 50 recruit in this recruiting class.
And I’m not typically an optimist! Maybe I’m doing a happy talk thing to myself, but I had inferred from stuff that HGN has said that Odom has a bit more of a scattershot approach to recruiting than Bennett did. I guess I can understand why folks would read this type of update if Bennett were still the coach as bad news, because you’d want HGN to say something like “Bennett has locked in on so-and-so and it’s down to us and Fran McCaffrey”. But if I’m correct on the “scattershot / hang in until the end” thing, then aren’t we sitting just fine?
Couldn’t agree more. This is a brave new world. We’ve been hard-wired for a lot more precision in the recruiting process, so this is going to be a bit of a rollercoaster. I’m just going to put my arms up and enjoy the ride.
We’re cooked
I just appreciate that youtube account for doing all these high school recruits now. I don’t know when it changed but the mixtape industry died off somewhere along the way, there aren’t many highlight videos anymore.
On the other hand, Field of 68 has been handing out grades on YouTube (presumably on whether a program improved over the off season, or not) and hardly anyone gets a grade lower than a B minus. To me, it essentially feels like a C+ means the program failed, but that’s probably just me. All I know is grading was a bit different when I was in school. 
I agree, especially since HGN already set the expectation that more 2026 offers are possible in this next recruiting period, and the bulk of our HS class might come from those. Getting 1 of these existing offers to land seems like it would keep recruiting on track.
Somebody was in to see Lucas Morillo this evening. First day coaches can visit schools.
Burlington School (NC). They have a couple 2027 high major recruits. Guard Geren Holmes and PF Charles Pur
Is there any meaning in the order of these visits, or is it just all about making the logistical details work?
For the assistants, yeah. Most of the time they’re sweeping through a area, making several stops over a couple days. For the head coach, it’s targeted. I don’t know what to expect from Odom. But usually the head coach goes out once a week in September, takes the plane, will hit up 2 or 3 in a day.
It’s really mostly about 2027 recruits, following up on guys from the summer. If Odom shows up for one of those, they’re probably being offered. The 2026 guys…it’s more of a checklist. Somebody needs to go see them, just to show up and be seen. So for us, it’s a status check. Morillo passed.
If Odom shows he has a winning and fun brand of basketball … we will start getting legit shots at top recruits because the money will be there.
Absolutely, but that doesn’t apply to 2026 recruiting. Five of UVa’s players, all presumably in the primary rotation, will exhaust their eligibility this season. If things go well, there could be others headed to the NBA draft. The roster will have some serious holes to fill. If there isn’t the reasonable expectation that an incoming recruit can contribute immediately, then his scholarship should be saved to use in the portal come spring. How the team performs this winter will determine the quality of transfer Coach Odom can attract, IMO. Regardless, there is going to be another large incoming class next summer.
I get this because grade inflation is real. However, I wouldn’t feel comfortable giving a 17-19 year old kid an F when no pundit is very good a predicting success in college.
What we need is more grading of pundit predictions. Then we might get better analysis and less click-bait hot takes and bloviating (yeah, I’m talking about you Jeff Goodman). The problem has been that such a task is time consuming and boring; a perfect job for AI.
This is the problem with building the way he did, it kind of means he needs to succeed this year or else you sort of start a spiral where you can’t get the talent to improve. I think he’s proven to be a good enough in season coach that I’m not that concerned, but it could be a real issue if we’re only meh this year and he has very little to pitch.
BUT we should at least have Chance, Elijah, Lewis, and likely one of the euros back for next year along with Barksdale and Carrere. With a few hits in that group you’re looking at only needing a couple of a transfers vs. 13.
The concern this year needs to be focused on the court though imo, I’ll check in with recruiting when we get someone (I still think we’ll end up with at least one top 100 kid, we still have a better offer than a lot of P6 teams and there are limited spots) or next season.
I do wish he could have brought one or two more underclassmen with him from his last stop though.