The college basketball transfer portal is officially closed following a record-setting 2025 cycle, which saw more than 2,500 players enter during the 30-day window this spring. Most of the top prospects have already committed elsewhere as rosters are continuing to take shape with programs finalizing key additions for the 2025-26 season.
The Virginia Cavaliers are looking to get back to the promised land. The once great basketball program has taken a bit of a backseat to teams like Duke, Houston, Florida, and many others. Virginia hopes they did enough to put themselves on the map with the transfer portal.
Can Virginia Men’s Transfer Portal Additions Lead Them to the 2025-26 March Madness Tournament?
Of the 10 Cavaliers who entered the transfer portal, eight have announced their commitments to other schools.
Two are remaining in the Atlantic Coast Conference, as Dai Dai Ames is headed to California, and Isaac McKneely, who led the league in 3-point shooting a season ago, will play his final year of college basketball at Louisville, which also means that Virginia will have to face him twice next season.
Andrew Rohde (Wisconsin), Jacob Cofie (USC), and Elijah Saunders (Maryland) are headed to Big Ten schools, while Anthony Robinson (Xavier) is headed to the Big East, and Blake Buchanan (Iowa State) is Big 12 bound. TJ Power (Penn) is the only one not headed to a major conference program so far.
If you’re looking for more evidence of his chops, Thomas dumped 52 combined points on Gonzaga over two contests and went nine of 16 from three.
He also put up 25 against Memphis and twice hit the 35-point mark against Loyola-Chicago, capped by a perfect 17-of-17 performance from the charity stripe in a second-round NIT loss to the Ramblers. Somehow, free-throw shooting might be a strength for the ‘Hoos.
As with Grünloh’s addition, Virginia’s ceiling drastically improves with Thomas’ announcement. Odom has rounded out his frontcourt and added a three-level scorer in the span of two weeks. Thomas would presumably slot in at the three to start the 2025-26 season.
However, is this enough to get Virginia back into the March Madness tournament after their disappointing 2024-25 season? I don’t know. Virginia lost a lot of key pieces, 10 players in total to the portal. They found some suitable replacements, with Thomas arguably being the biggest pick up.
KEEP READING: 2025 Men’s College Basketball Transfer Portal Tracker
Virginia has top-20 potential and could find their way into some preseason polls with this transfer haul. Odom just landed arguably the best available scorer in the portal, and the new-look roster now features few holes coming into next season. So, to say that Virginia could return to the tournament next season is very possible.
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