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PHILADELPHIA, PA — Virginia basketball coach Ryan Odom did not mention the elephant in the room with his team heading into Friday’s Men’s NCAA Tournament First-Round game against No. 14 seed Wright State.
“We never talked about it,” Odom said following his team’s 82-73 opening round win of the NCAA Tournament on Friday at Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia. “We only talk about what this team wants to accomplish. We had no thought about the history other than being proud of the history of Virginia basketball.”
There was no need to. To Odom’s point, the 2025-26 Cavaliers roster features 12 newcomers from last season, and Odom, himself, is in his first year on the sidelines in Charlottesville.
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The 3-seeded Cavaliers’ first NCAA Tournament win in 2,538 days didn’t come easily, however. The Raiders had Odom’s squad on upset watch for much of the game and forced them to fight until the end to break their three-game losing skid. Nonetheless, a win in March Madness can go a long way toward building a new team’s confidence for a run in March.
“The first game is always the hardest, especially Wright State, credit to them. They did a great job executing. Their game plan was amazing,” Virginia guard Malik Thomas said. “As a team, we were a little bit nervous. … After we got our jitters out and we started to play our basketball and come together, we were able to string some shots together and hit some big shots.”
Virginia struggled in the first half with Wright State’s fast tempo. The Cavaliers turned the ball over seven times compared to Wright State’s single turnover. Those seven turnovers led to four points for the Raiders in the first half, and a five-point halftime deficit.
“They played a little bit differently than we were expecting going into the game and how we prepared,” Odom said. “…But our guys did a nice job throughout the game of adjusting, and just hanging in there. And that’s what you’ve got to do in this tournament. It’s not going to be perfect. It’s not meant to be perfect.”
The Cavaliers quickly erased the Raiders’ halftime lead with a 7-2 run out of the locker room. They then pushed the lead to as many as four points at that point of the game when 23-year-old freshman Thijs De Ridder drained a 3-pointer in the corner.
Wright State would continue hanging in there with Virginia, which picked up its 30th win of the season, for the next few minutes before the Cavaliers shifted the momentum and the energy in the arena their way. Jacari White hit a few key shots down the stretch for Virginia to pull out the win with his six 3-pointers on the day.
Virginia separated itself from Wright State with an 11-0 run after a technical foul was called on Sam Lewis for bouncing the basketball off a Wright State player, going into a timeout.
White led the way for Virginia with 26 points, while Lewis added 12 and Thomas added 11. De Ridder also finished in double figures with 10 points and six rebounds in addition to two assists.
Odom mentioned that he’s proud of how his team held together and played down the stretch to pull out the victory.
“We had to keep the pressure on defensively. We couldn’t watch the guys shoot threes. A couple of times, we watched guys shoot and they made us pay. That’s not something we have done all season,” Odom said. “I think our guys did a nice job of showing the proper poise that was needed to be able to come out victorious.”
Virginia will now look to punch its ticket to the second weekend for the first time since 2019 when it takes on the No. 6 Tennessee Vols.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Virginia holds off Wright State for first March Madness win since 2019
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