The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - UVA Hoops Signs 24-Year-Old German Shooting Guard; German Guard Has Played Pro Hoops Since 2022

Episode Date: June 30, 2026

The Jerry & Jerry Show headlines: UVA Hoops Signs 24-Year-Old German Shooting Guard German Guard Has Played Pro Hoops Since 2022 How Do You Grade Ryan Odom’s 2026-27 Roster? How Will New 5-For-5 Rule Impact UVA Hoops? Ugo Drafted In NBA 2nd Round, Playing For Pistons Tony Elliott Has #62 Recruiting Class In The Nation Notebook: Ben James, Carla Williams, News & Notes 50 Stories Per Month For Only $8 At JerryRatcliffe.com Read Viewer & Listener Comments Live On-Air Jerry Ratcliffe & Jerry Miller were live on The Jerry & Jerry Show! The Jerry & Jerry Show airs live Tuesday from 10:15 am – 11:15 pm on The I Love CVille Network. Watch and listen to The Jerry & Jerry Show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Fountain, Amazon Music, Audible and iLoveCVille.com.

Good Tuesday morning, guys. My name is Jerry Miller, and thank you kindly for joining us on the Jerry and Jerry show. This is the water cooler of everything and anything UVA sports related in this talk show, ladies and gentlemen, is the most watched and listened to UVA sports talk show in Wahoo country. Period. Facts on Facts. It stars Jerry Rackleff, the Virginia Sports Hall of Famer, who's got 50 years on the Atlantic Coast Conference beat more than 50, and he's covered UVA sports at a clip. and frequency that no other beat writer, journalist, columnist, publisher can offer. He's got more awards and accolades, more Virginia Sports Hall of Fame street cred than any scribe in the UVA coverage business folks. His website is jerry rackliff.com. $8 a month. Get you 40 to 50 fresh pieces of content per 30. day period, a price of a cup of coffee, $8 a month for 40 to 50 pieces of content per 30-day

period from Jerry Rackleff. It's just absolutely exceptional content coverage. Judah Wickhauer is the Elmer's Glue of the team. I say this often, and I try to say it consistently. We do not get to Victory Lane and celebrate with, I'm celebrating with the case of beer. I'm not sure what Hoots is celebrating over there. Maybe a case of beer, maybe a glass of wine, a Pepsi? Maybe a scotch on the rocks. A scotch on the rocks. You know what?

I'm going to change my case of beer for a McCallin 20 with my boy Hootie over there on the rocks over there. We don't get to Victory Lay without Judah Wickcower. Absolutely. And I'm sitting shotgun as Hootie Ratcliffe is driving the stock car. And Judah Wickcar is the crew chief for the NASCAR analogy there. If we can go to the studio camera and focus our driver here, our stock car, of Famer, Jerry Rackleff. You a stock car fan?

You a NASCAR fan at all hoots? You know, I have a little bit of interest in it. Once upon a time, I was a sports editor at a newspaper where in a town in Virginia where NASCAR was probably bigger than football or basketball. And so I didn't know that much about NASCAR then, but I was kind of forced into covering it. And so there were some aspects of it I enjoyed. You like the personalities?

I did. Me too. I got to interview all the stars of that day, which was Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt and a lot of those guys from that era. And the guy from Danville, Scott, What was his first name?

They did a movie Greas Lightning about him. It was a pretty cool deal. And then I got to know the guy that built and owned Martinsville Speedway, Clay Earls, who he never would confirm it, but I think he was one of those guys that used to run Moonshine, one of the original guys that got his car started. Oh, yeah. And all kinds of cool stuff like that. So I do have a little bit of interest in it.

Not a rabid fan. The personalities always have intrigued me. The Rubbin is racing have intrigued me. I did a quick Google search. Wendell Scott. Wendell Scott, yeah. That's who you're referencing. I didn't have that off the top of my head, but good thing for Google.

Goodness gracious, what a week it's been for Ryan Odom. He gets a 24-year-old German sharpshooter. He's 24 years old. Yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, he's 6'4, and he's been playing professional basketball for four years. I mean, since, was it, 22 he's been playing professional basketball? Yeah, he turned pro in 22. This guy's a stud.

Yeah, yeah. He's 24 years old. He's a grown man, 6-6-218. played in 30 games last season. I averaged 8.4 points per game and 3-5 rebounds. But the big thing, he played 21 minutes a game. I think the big thing is that he shot a little bit better than 42% from the three-point arc. And so I think that's one thing.

that really attracted Virginia to him. They've got another shooter and a guy who's strong and experienced. And like you said, he's been in pro basketball for four years now on one level or the other. The last two years with the best playing in the best German professional league. So I think Runelow played briefly in that same league. so pretty cool to have yet and I don't think anybody saw this one coming I think everybody thought that Odom was done

I thought the roster was done I thought the roster was done yeah and then all of a sudden boom you know here we go with a kid Nolan I'm not sure how he pronounced his last name Ed Coonle maybe Ad Coonley

but we'll find out today, which brings me to one thing I wanted to publicize a little bit is our whole team, including our photographer John Golden, is going to be at UVA later this afternoon, and we're going to talk to Ryan Odom about everything about the team that we can learn, and

we're going to be doing feature stories on all six of the new players, incoming players. and try to get to as many of the other players as we possibly can. We're going to spread that out over a week-long series. We'll do like one player a day plus other UVA basketball news. So if you're a UVA fan, that's something to look forward to because you'll get to know a lot about all these new players on the roster.

Dale Thompson watching the program absolutely loves the show. He says that I encourage us to stay cool this week as the temperatures hit triple digits. Just got a new HVAC system put in yesterday. Perfect timing, hoody. My dogs are very thankful for that. This is the type of weather in Charlottesville, Virginia. All three of us here, Judah Wickhauer, behind the camera as well. We live in the Charlottesville area.

And for the viewers and listeners that may be watching the show from outside central Virginia, There's a heat wave where they're projecting triple digits for an extended period of time. And the actual feels-like temperature on some days this week is projected to be 104 to 106. Dogs don't want to be outside when it's 104 or 106. I was talking to the guys that were installing that yesterday from Air Temp over in Stanton, a great company. If you need any work, I'm giving them a free commercial here. There we go. I like it, Hootie.

But I'll give them a call. They do an excellent job. My friend, the Ryan Odom roster and Cliff Daisy, you're next, you're on deck with your comments are in the eastern shore. Viewers and listeners, let us know your thoughts. Put them in the feed. We'll relay them live on air on any of the 27 social media podcast and social media platforms this show is airing upon right now. I mean, you've got a 24-year-old German pro. the only knock on this guy that I can see is he has one year of eligibility.

Yeah, yeah. The new rules kind of got him there. He's a one and done. He's a one and done guy. But it's better than not having him at all. That's the only knock on this guy here. He's 6'4. He's 218 pounds.

Yeah. This guy's a man. Yeah, I've seen some reports he's 6-6. It'll be interesting to see what he really is. But yeah, he's definitely a grown man. He's a grown man. and they have a few of those on the roster. And he's, as you highlighted on Jerry Rackliff.com for subscribers, $8 a month, this is the European pipeline here.

This could be your starting two guard. And they have two guys that could compete for this position at the two here. You can make a legitimate argument that the roster right now is marked significantly better than when the roster was to start the season, Hootie. And even to close the season. Yeah, I mean, just of the six new guys, you got three guys that are essentially wings in Christian Harmon and Juryan Dixon and now Adakunle. You got a point guard, a combo guard in Jan or Jan Videh. You've got Power Ford in Kalu Anya and a raw 7 foot one center in Favre Ibay. So that's a pretty nice incoming class right there.

This is the United Nations at college basketball. It truly is. And what a pipeline. I was talking to Scott German about this yesterday. and I mean, wow. I think not only does Ryan Edom have a great connection over in Europe, but I'm sure that Red Autry, his assistant coach from, formerly the head coach of Syracuse, does as well. Some of that goes probably back to the Dave Odom days at Wake Forest.

and I mean, that's a pretty strong roster we're looking at, considering that he has so many guys coming back from a 30-win team, including Sam Lewis and Chance Mallory, Tester Ritter, Johan Runlow. Then you got a couple. There's two guards the one that's up for grass. Because you figure Sam Lewis, Grunlow, and Derritter in the front court are set. Chance at the one. The two guard is the one that's up for grabs.

What struck me from this... You got a lot of candidates. A lot of candidates, right, right. And the candidates, and I'm not knocking Thomas, I'm not knocking Jacari White. They were great. They won 30 games. Yeah.

Right? The two guard stable for the 2026, 2027 roster is deeper than the two guard stable from last year and seems at least on paper more talented. What's really struck me about this year's team is

the length and the height. Outside of Chance Mallory, the starting lineup should go like 6, 4, 6.5, and up with Grunlow a 7-footer, Derritter, the Belgian bully, as you've monikered him. Sam Lewis is a 6'7.

Jurian Dixon's 6'4. Christian Harmon 6-6. I mean, this German kid is 6-4. You got height across the board hoots. And I think that you have to wonder in Ryan Odom's mind if this club isn't built to answer Duke's length and athletic ability because they're the kings of the mountain. And if you want to build your club to take on the kings of the mountain,

You got to match what they have, and they have length, and they have athleticism. That's what got them as far as they went last year. And that's also what exposed them against Tennessee. Exactly. The pro prospect that went lottery from Barnes's team in Tennessee, he was banged up. He had an injury when he was playing in Virginia, and he still was the best player on the floor. And he was long. He was athletic.

He was finished. he was crafty finisher. And now he's in the NBA. Now he's in the NBA. He had the prototypical NBA body. Yeah. And to your point, last year, they had a Thomas at the two.

Thomas would disappear at times. Thomas was not your prototypical two from a height standpoint. Right. I mean, this guy was either scintilladeing or he was, I don't want to say cold, but he was streaky. Yeah.

Definitely streaky. And with Chance as your starting point guard, I love Chance. His defense, he's extremely pesky. He is, he is quick, he's physical. He's got a low center of gravity that offers him defensive advantages to poking the ball away, especially for big men who make the mistake of putting it on the hardwood when they're around the rack. The knock that you could have on Chance, if there is a knock, is height at 5-7, 5-8, 5-9, depending on who's being honest.

maybe the knock is improve the jump shot, although I would imagine this offseason, he's putting a boatload of shots up from bonus fear to improve that jump shot. I guarantee you that. Yeah, guarantee you that. It's not going to be able to change 5'8. No, you can't. But for the people of his size, he's done an incredible job in finding ways to where that's not as much of a handicap as some people might say. suspect. So he's done well with that.

And he's found ways to attack you from angles that a lot of guards can't. And he's used a lot of that to his advantage. This basketball team, I mean, I'll ask you the question again. I think I already know the answer. Comments will get to him now

after I ask Cootie this question. So if you have a comment for Hootie, put him in the feed. How much better is this basketball team because we know it's better? on paper than last year's team? That's a good question. And I don't know that we'll have an answer on that until we actually see them play together.

And last year, one of the biggest challenges, which I thought they did a beautiful job with, was blending all those guys, most of them had never met each other before, into a, like you said, a 30-win team that went, to the round of 32 in the NCAA tournament, went to the ACC tournament championship game. He got just about everything he could out of that group last year.

And the fact that just they have so many people back from that team, I think gives them a huge advantage going into this season. It's a matter how he blends these new six guys in with what he has returning. I mean, on paper, they look like a preseason top 15, top 10 team to me. And I'm trying not to be, trying not to exaggerate. I mean, he's loaded. Yeah, I'm not trying to exaggerate either. We get excited at this time of year.

All programs do, because there's no games that have been played yet. he's undefeated. Everyone's undefeated. That's the best way of putting it here. This looks like a top 15 team to me. Yeah. It looks if not better. If not better. It is, it looks significantly better than last year's team. Yeah, I think so too. Significantly better. If there's a knock on this team, what is the knock? Is it three-point shooting? Well, that's to be determined because Sam Lewis is a pretty good three-point shooter. Yep. And a lot of these guys who are incoming have some nice three-point backgrounds.

Yep. In fact, probably four of them do. And then like you said, I think chance has probably worked hard on that this summer to make himself more of a threat. So you potentially have six guys that can light it up at any given moment. If chance can shoot 35%, I'm not asking for a four handle, let's say 35% from Bonifier, then defenses will have to respect his outside shot, which will make his drive-byability is attacking the rack even more explosive.

Because at the end of the year, they were almost daring chance to shoot because they knew his quickness to the rack penetrating the lane to either finish himself, with the floater, some kind of spit around the hoop, or kick out to a shooter like Jakari, was terrifying for defenses. So they sagged off him. But if they have to respect his shot and be mindful of that from downtown,

he's going to be a matchup nightmare. And that's part of the maturation of a good guard is you become that outside threat so you can draw the defense and pump-fick them and get them up in the air and drive around them and penetrate and cause all kinds of havoc. So I think that's something he's probably spent a lot of time on in this off season. Cliff Daisy in the Eastern Shore watching the program.

Then we'll get to Jeremy Wilson in eastern Tennessee. First Cliff Daisy. Good morning, gentlemen. Hope you guys are well. I'm landbound as cavalier. His boat is in the shop with wiring problems right now. Right, Laura. Several videos of University of.

Michigan, FSU, CU, and UNC will be first out of, first out of the ACC. I guess UM, what is it saying? UM over there. Clemson must be CU right there. He wants to know how the ACC is going to shake up, and he's watching it on YouTube. And football or basketball we're talking about. I would think he's talking right here, football, because he's making mention of Florida State and Clemson.

We'll get to football here in a matter of moments, Cliff. Well, the preseason polls that I've seen haven't been that kind to either one. Florida State is, I can't remember what the over under the Vegas put on their wind expectations, but it was much less than Virginia's. I think it was like five and a half, or maybe six and a half.

I think it was like five and a half. and Clemson was probably at six and a half. I think they were both projected lower than UVA. So I think Clemson almost has to bounce back. They've got tons of talent on that team. The quarterback is a big question mark. But the rest of the talent on that roster is, is really impressive.

There's no excuse for them not to win a lot of games, but it seems like some of their mystique is gone. And Florida State, if Florida State had any money, which they don't, Mike Norville wouldn't even be around for this year. They would have fired him after last season, but their Power 4 record and their ACCC. record over the last three years is atrocious.

Ever since they won the ACC championship, they've imploded. And everybody's pointing their fingers at him. He's made a lot of changes in staff and everything else. But so far, none of that seems to have worked. But the projections for Florida State are not very high. Yeah. And, you know, that's probably not good for the ACC that Clemson and Florida State have been down. That's, that was, I was literally just going to respond with you on that.

How is that going to impact the Atlantic Coast Conference? Because they need a flag waiver. Yeah, and Miami's the flag waiver right now. Right, right. So the knock will be ACC not deep. The knock will be ACC a little water down. This impacts the ACC come post. season come bull births

come college football playoff Miami is the king of the castle right now. Tony Elliot's kind of like the old days when it was Florida State and the seven dwarfs. That's right 100%. Tony Elliott, as we found out on Jerry Rackleff.com, $8 a month for subscribers,

it's got a recruiting class that what is 62 if memory serves in the country? Good memory. 62 in the nation. I read everything who he writes. Next to last in the ACC. 15 commitments for the class. But Elliot says everything is fine, Hootie. I think he's okay with that because, as I pointed out in that article,

George Welsh and Al Groh used to say, you know, I don't care what the recruiting analysts think out there. They're not coaches. They don't know what I'm looking for specifically in an athlete or a football player that I know that fits my system. And Tony Elliott, I think, is of the same ilk in that if he see somebody that he likes and feels like that they can fit in his system

and be effective at whatever position is he's recruiting them for, he didn't care about their stars or their ratings or whatever. He's confident that they can coach him up to be a football player. And so if you look at the bottom of that, list. SMU is at the very bottom, and it's not because they don't have the money to recruit. They've got more money than I don't even know how to compare it. But I think a lot of it is, you know, we've got our high school recruits, a certain

number of them, but we know that we're going to get well in the transfer portal. SMU is going to buy players. Virginia's going to buy players. There were a couple of other teams toward the bottom that I think share the same philosophy that, yeah, we're going to do what we can in high school recruiting. We'll get guys who we think we can develop. And we'll plug all of our other holes with college experience transfers, which Scott German was talking about, like when he visited a couple weeks ago.

So I don't think a lot of coaches worry about this. And maybe the guys that are coaching or, excuse me, recruiting the elite five-star guys, you know, the giants in college football, the traditional blue bloods, giants, maybe they pay more attention to those ratings because it's pretty obvious if somebody's a five-star. you know, those guys, as Danny Wilmer used to say, when I would go recruiting with him, I'd say, what's the number of the guy you're looking for out here tonight on this high school field?

He says, I don't need to know the number. He says, I'll know him when I see him. Those guys are obvious. Yeah. And I think a lot of the big-time schools, you know, I think they are concerned with five-star ratings and maybe some four-stars, but a lot of those guys don't mind grabbing people who are projected as three stars and coach them up

because they see the potential and how they'll fit in their programs. Comments continue to come in. I promised Jeremy Wilson's comment from Eastern Tennessee. He highlights now back to basketball, and we love how the show takes out a life of its own with the viewers and listeners sharing their thoughts in the feed. He highlights the physical beast that's also coming in with the same. 6 foot 11, 260-pound center. I'm going to butcher his name is it.

Mahmadu Landur. Yeah. Class of 28. Class of 28. Ryan Odom is the United Nations of Recruiting. He is. I mean, this kid. Props to him.

And this kid, you know, it's been different. I'm trying to find contact that I can get more information about this kid. But everything I've done in terms of research is that he's, a lot of the people who pay attention to that African NBA program they have over there think that this guy's going to be the first round pick of the Lakers in 2009, which would be his sophomore year here. I mean, he's, he has what, a 13 or 14-year-old. He scored 56 points in one game and had like 30 rebounds or something.

And it was such an incredible performance that we didn't hear about it. But Shaq, Shaquille O'Neal heard about it and sent the kid kudos. He's supposed to have it all. And we hope to find out more about it. It's like the Adakunle guy that signed. I guess he signed yesterday. I don't know if he'll be UVA today or not, but

we found out that he had actually agreed to a contract. And Renee Pettiford's watching the program from the rehab center waiting on her grandma. She's asking about the 6'4-German 24-year-old pro right now. This is UVA. Maybe UVA's number one sports fan. Yeah, Renee Petitford.

And he's talking now Renee about the 6'4 24-year-old German here. Yeah, Atacunle. We found out looking last night that, again, during one of my scrolling through Twitter and other stuff, researching, this guy had actually agreed to a contract to come back and play in Germany this fall. But Virginia offered him a better deal. So I don't know what that deal is, and we'll probably never know, but apparently it must have been significant.

And if Virginia's making those kind of deals this late in the process, they must have wanted him pretty badly to outbid a professional team in Germany to get him to come over here and play. We should highlight this. And Renee, this is up your alley here. Viewers and listeners are really chiming in right now. The kid is 24 years old. He's been playing basketball.

I should even say kid. The man is 24 years old. He's a man. He's 6'4, 200. 18 pounds. Some reports have him listed being 6 foot 6. He is coming from Germany to Charlottesville for one year of college basketball. That means the University of Virginia men's basketball team must be offering him such enticing compensation that he's willing to go all the way across the world for one year in central Virginia.

Yeah. He's going from Germany to Central Virginia for only one year. He's not going to get a contract extension. One year. So how much money, I mean, how much money is this guy getting here to bypass pro basketball? I have no clue. Right? I wish I knew.

Me too. Me too. But, yeah, I mean, before he was a pro, he played a lot of international basketball representing German. Right. Then he started to play pro for the Frapport Skyliners. I don't know. He signed with him in 2022. And then 24 he moved up to the Bunslinger Gladiators Club,

which is the premier German pro league, played for two years. again, played in 30 games last season, 21 minutes a game. And like Grunlow said, you know, you're playing against grown men in that league. And this guy is a grown man. And just like there were certain things that Grunlow said his coach wouldn't let him do. Of course, Grunlow was 18 or 19 at the time. because he was playing against grown men. Guys that were 26, 27, 28, 30 years old,

and coach said, no, we're not, you're not going to do that. But it's stuff that he's starting to do now at UVA as it gets older. But that league is all those premier pro leagues in Europe. Or the real deal. Yeah, you're playing against. dudes. Yeah, guys, this is real deal. Professional basketball in Europe is very much changed.

And it's always been leagues of fundamentally sound, gifted, especially the big men that can play like guards. They can pass. They can shoot. They can do a lot of different things. But basketball has in a lot of ways become, you know, almost akin to soccer is the world's sport. And the National Basketball Association is a part of that.

Social media and digital media is a part of that. Look at the National Basketball Association. A lot of the big time stars in the NBA are the Europeans. Absolutely. And it's basketball that's played with practice, with training, with drilling. America, a lot of the talent that's coming out of the United States is just playing AAU tournaments. So they're not getting the fundamental base that a lot of the Europeans are getting. because they're primarily just playing tournament play.

Now, I'm not knocking the Americans in any capacity here. It's just a different way of raising basketball talent. I think the Europeans are more disciplined. 100%. Without question. I don't even think it's close. I'll throw this to you. This is a challenging question.

We said, you and I said on this program before the season started, and then into the season as we started watching play, that the pro player on this past year's team was Hugo. We said it early. He said that Hugo was the guy that was going to have the NBA upside. He's his second round pick. He has eventually traded to my Detroit Pistons. I'm excited to see you going to Detroit.

Die-hard Pistons fan. Because of Isaiah Thomas and Joe Dumars and the bad boys. Those were bad boys. They were bad bad men. Bill Ambir, John Sally, Dennis Robbin, Bill Edwards. You didn't go in the paint. No. You didn't go on the paint against that team.

You had to check your body parts. That's 100%. And that's when they allowed them to play physically in the NBA. Who's the pro prospect on this year? year's team. Who's the top-tier pro-post the most pro-upside on this team? I think he's got to be DeRitter because

I've been told that he's worked so hard on his game to improve not only improve what he did well but to improve his overall game and any shortcomings that he had

that people could try to take advantage of last season. He's tried to eliminate those so they can't take anything away from him because he has an answer for it. So it's going to be interesting to see what he looks like this fall. But, you know, a lot of people wonder if Grunlow will make that leap between in his second year of college ball and could end up being an NBA draft choice at the end of the year too. I'm so intrigued by Grunlow. Yeah.

I'm so intrigued by Grunlow. I think Derritter has professional upside. I think DeRitter's potential limitations are his explosiveness and the athleticism. And I think he's worked on that explosiveness. Yeah. If DeRitter can figure out how he can play a little bit more above the rim, there's upside there. If DeRitter figures out a 35% downtown consistent three-point. shot. Goodness gracious. That guy's

going to be difficult to defend. Figure out a little bit going to his left. Difficult to defend. Grunlow, if he puts on 20 pounds of muscle and gets more consistent with the three-pointer than he's like a

stretch five. Stretch five, yeah. Grunlow at a stretch five with his shot blocking skill set. Man, he could be a gifted NBA player. Yes. He really could be. And we'll just see if he's ready to make that jump. So much talent on this roster.

Jeremy Ronica is watching the program. He's a diehard. He's 30,000 feet in an airplane right now. Really? Enjoying the show, watching from 30,000 feet up. What state? Yeah, where are you going, Jeremy. Where are you flying over?

I love Jeremy Who. This guy's been, we've been engaging with Jeremy Who in media, radio, or TV, or this show in some capacity for 15 or 20 years here. This guy's a diehard UVA sports fan. Where are you watching, Jeremy Hu? And he wants to know, is chance a possible pro? Or is he too undersized? I think he has potential eventually, but I don't think he's...

I think it'll be later on. I don't think he's going to leave college early to make that jump. But I think over time that he will have enough to offer to where he'll definitely get a shot from somebody. He's just, he's going to be so skilled by the time he leaves here. And with this new NCAA rule now, he can play five years. Virginia was only going to have him for four. So now they got him for five.

And just like they had Kihei Clark all that time and look at all the records he said. One of my favorite who's of all time. Yeah, he was a great kid. And I still think underrated. 100%. I get in arguments with people all the time about that. And I was so upset about people attacking him. I know.

His final year, I asked several other ACC coaches. And they said, well, if Virginia fans don't want him out-taking in a heartbeat, one of them was the Georgia Tech coach who's not here anymore. What was his name? Curly-haired guy. Oh, the pastor? Yeah, Josh. Josh Pastor.

Yeah, and he's coaching somewhere now. Yeah, yeah. Well, I think he's doing the ACC Network broadcasting, unless he got a job. I thought he got a job, but he may not have. But he said, God, what is there not to like about this kid? And there was two or three other coaches like that too. And Jim Larianegger was one of them.

He said, I'll take that kid in a heartbeat. But, yeah, a chance could be around for five years unless he's ready to make a jump. But I think the way he works so hard and is so dedicated to his game, I think he's going to make it impossible for people not to give him a chance at the next level. Again, I know his size works against him, but there have been guys his size or his size, even smaller that have made NBA rosters and, you know, Spudweb for one. Spud web was unique and then he had like a 45 inch vertical. Yeah.

But to your point, there are examples of 5A. Mugsy Boggs. Yeah, Mugsy Boggs. Tony Bennett says... Nate Robinson. Yeah. Tony Bennett said Muggy Boggs is one of the toughest guys he ever went up against in the NBA when they were both with the Charlotte Hornets.

And to your point, Houdi is, Houdi just constantly impresses me with his sports knowledge. Josh Paster is the head coach of UNLV. Yeah, that's right. You're, you continue, continue, you've impressed me for damn year, 25 years. He's, he got bouncing the NIT second round as the head coach of UNLV. He was an ACC broadcaster and just finished his past year as the head coach of the, was at the running rebels. Yeah, I thought he was. was coaching somewhere out west, but I wasn't sure where.

And Jeremy, who is over Seattle right now flying to Anchorage, Alaska. Oh, wow. Cool. Vanessa Park Hills asking a question that you covered for subscribers at Jerry Rackleft.com about the five and five year, five and five rule. And the question I think is a good one, Hootie, how this could impact first UVA sports, UVA basketball, and then how would it impact? college basketball and potentially recruits that want to stay around.

First, maybe we set the stage of what's happening? Sure. Yeah, the NCAA passed the rule that it's an age-based thing. And I don't have the rule in front of me specifically, but your clock starts when you turn 19 or your first day of college, I think, whichever comes first. which as a backlash from what I heard something about the other day is that a lot of parents now are taking their high school kids and redshirting them essentially to get them in position to where they won't play in college until they're 19. Yeah.

And so you're going to get, you get five years. There's no redshirting anymore. You might be able to get a medical exemption, maybe. I'm not sure. I think you can get a military exemption and a mission exemption, although I'm not sure that that's fair. It's always weighed heavily for BYU. You talk about playing against grown men.

The Mormons. I'm not sure that. That's a fair rule myself because it only pertains essentially to one school. There might be others that take some advantage of that, but not like BYU does. But anyway, redshirting is gone, and so you get five years to play. And it's none of this stuff where you can play in four years of four games, your freshman year. of football and then you have to sit out or you lose a year

of eligibility now you can play 11 games as a freshman and four years later you can get in your fifth year and you still have your eligibility so

I don't know what else needs to be explained there no you explained that pretty well for not having it in front of you but essentially you know A lot of the guys that Virginia thought they were going to have for like two more years or three more years, they're going to have for three more years or four more years. So Chance Mallory, instead of, he'll be a sophomore,

instead of having three years of eligibility left, he has four years of eligibility left. And that pertains to everybody who fits in that time frame. And it's an advantage not only to Virginia, but any school in the NCAA that has guys that on the roster that fit in that time frame. I think maybe I'm reading this wrong. I think this is an advantage for a school like UVA, maybe more so than an advantage for a school like, well, actually, I may take that back because of the transfer portal. Duke's talent is often one or two years and turn pro. But this talent that can go five years of college basketball, the Dukes and UNCs and the Michigan's, the blue bloods of college hoops,

can seduce that talent to play as fifth years or fourth and fifth years through the transfer portal. So even the rich will still get richer in this scenario, because if they do have more eligibility, the young men and women, college sports. They're still going to be seduced by the Blue Bloods. They're just going to play their fourth and fifth years there because this really caters to the, I don't want to call them the later bloomer, but the athlete that takes a little bit more time to develop. And the NIO can keep them around that fourth and fifth year, unless you, a guy like the center from North Carolina who people tried to encourage to come back to Chapel Hill this year.

I think he was a senior. Excuse me. I think he was a senior. He made a mistake. He decided to go to the NBA. This was the European guy. He was drafted just one spot ahead of Uganda, Hugo. And so he could be on a two-way contract.

Most likely we'll be on a two-way contract. and there were reports that if he had come back to Chapel Hill, they were going to pay him $5 to $6 million. I'm shocked he didn't come back. And he ain't going to get that money as a two-way contract player in the NBA. Henry VISA. Visa. Yeah, yeah.

He bypassed a lucrative return to UNC, to your point, $5 million in NIL, $5 million plus, and ended up going 52 to the Hawks. Yeah. When he went 52 to the Hawks, he lost money. Absolutely. A sizable amount of money

turning pro. And could have also improved his draft stock. Yeah. Playing lesser competition and a blue blood on national TV all the time. We do have some

breaking uses we often do. This is a sport we don't follow super closely. And commenters are putting this on the feed. Specifically, I want to highlight a commenter that's bringing this to my attention on

Facebook. This is on 27 pages here. So bear with me. We need some kind of cool, Judy, you'll have to come up with this. I need some kind of a little, do-do-do-do-do-do-do-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d. Yeah, sound effect. A sound effect.

100%. We get so much breaking news on this show. 100% is. 100%. Michael Murphy is wondering about this. The premier lacrosse league, again, we don't cover a lot of lacrosse here. Right. Just announced they've raised $100 million.

for their lacrosse, their professional lacrosse league. Wow. This was founded in 2018, the premier lacrosse league. They've now raised $100 million in Series E financing, Series E financing. What is that? I don't know what that is. It's various rounds of financing. So private equities infusing money into the professional lacrosse league.

Private equity scare me a little bit. As it should. As it should. Folks are wondering. is this now premier lacrosse Lars Tiffany's Avenue with $100 million coming into the league If I were Lars Tiffany, I'd jump all over that.

100%. If I'm Lars Tiffany, what I would do if I was Lars Tiffany is get my bag of money from UVA, I would settle because you don't want UVA dragging this out. They're going to make him a settlement offer, have his attorney counter, whatever that settlement offer is.

What's he want? 1.3 million? 1.4 million? 1.4, I believe. 1.4 million. They're going to chop it down, UVA, counter the chop, a couple of rounds of counter,

and get my bag, and then go be a coach in the professional lacrosse league for the next five to ten years of my life. And he'll be well compensated. And then deal with professionals where you don't have to deal with the scuttle butt,

the recruiting, the overstepping parents. All that stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Why not do that? I fear, Lars. Yeah. And I think I think you might start seeing more college coaches from various sports make that step just because they don't want to have to deal with all the chaos in college athletics,

just like Dusty May jumped from national championship of Michigan straight into the NBA. So that was a genius move by him. He loses three of his guys basically in the lottery. I think did all three going the lottery? I think so. Three in the lottery is at the peak, is at the pinnacle in Ann Arbor and then gets, what's your terminology, a Brink's truck backed up for the Dallas Mavericks? Right. And drafted one of the guys on his team. Yeah. I mean, there's genius moved by him. It truly was. And I wouldn't be surprised if we see a little bit more of that because, And I think college coaches are unlike in the past where it was hard to make that jump to the professional league as a head coach. I think they're more prepared for that now because of all the stuff that they've had to go through with the portal and the NIL and all those sort of complications that they didn't have to deal with.

Yeah. And they're more familiar with all those kind of things going into the pros where you do have to deal with the money and the trades and moving around and all that stuff. So I wouldn't be surprised we see more of that in the future. 100%. The college football and college basketball coach has never been better suited to transition to professional sports than they are right now. Right. because they're basically running professional teams. They are running pro teams.

Yeah. Pretty much. The scuttle butt was 30 million, the salary cap for UVA football this last year. Yeah. And I would imagine that number might be higher. It may be. I mean, it's going up all across the board. Right.

They're saying Michigan's, was it Michigan? It's next year or 29. It's expected to be a 50 million. dollar roster. I mean, that's insane. They got a kid, we'll emphasize this again, a kid, a man, to stop playing pro basketball in Germany

to go across the world to central Virginia for one year. Yeah. To play college basketball. They must be paying this guy hundreds of thousands of dollars. At least. If not, knocking on the door of a million dollars. I mean,

DeRitter was savvy enough post last year, I the Tennessee game to not say he was coming back right away. You and I immediately deciphered that that was sophistication from De Ritter and his management to basically leverage UVA for more money. Sam Lewis, on the other hand, did not have that initial nuance and sophistication immediately after the Tennessee law said he was coming back. Then someone got in his ear and said, hey, son, maybe you made a mistake here. Why don't you play a little bit cooler. Right. And then the

scuttle butt was maybe Sam Lewis wasn't returning. Why has it he inked? Finally he splashes that he comes back. We both know that meant more money for Sam. Oh, I had to. Had to be because he's a key player. Yeah. And they needed to have them back. Goodness gracious. What a time to be a Virginia

fan right here. Comments continue to come in here. Vanessa has a follow-up on the five-for-five. She's the queen of Earleysville. She's watching the program at a key contributor for our family. See if I can find that comment the comments are coming in how will the five for five will impact the recruiting for europe given the age cap um well it's affecting this this kid that's coming that jerry just

talked about he because of that age um limitation uh he gets one year and that's it um because you get five for five, I guess, you know, he's 24 years old, and I guess that, you know, starting at 19, that's five years. So this would be his fifth year and this would be his only year. So it's going to... There's your example. It's going to impact in that, in that aspect, depending on how old those guys are that transfer over. Comments continue to come in for hoots here. Do you do that guy's watching a Sony's way to Anchorage. Yeah, pretty cool. Jeremy who's watching 30,000 feet up on his way to Anchorage.

That's awesome. 27 platforms the show is airing on right now. Goodness, we're hour and change into the program right now. Time is flying with our man here, Jerry Rackleff. I got to talk to you about, this is a sport. We don't cover a lot here, but maybe we start. Maybe we have a Ben James tracker. I'm going to rattle off.

First, we should, for the viewers and listeners that don't know, let them know who Ben James is. Because I think this dude might start becoming a household name. You know this better than I do. Ben James here. I'll try to do a snapshot and pass it to you. Sure. One of the top golfers in college golf, four-time UVA All-American from Connecticut, committed early to Bowen Sergeant in UVA, earned a PGA tour card while playing

college sport, college golf as the top golfer, this past year. year, dude is stacking some paper right now. He's a professional right here. I'm going to tell you, pass along his earnings than give you, I mean, it's your show here. $245,670 right now for Ben James. It's pretty good considering he's 22 years old. He's a pro for a couple of weeks. This guy's a 22-year-old kid who's a professional golfer.

Well, he made an immediate splash. His first tournament. but it was in the Canadian Open, I think. Made 23K. May 23,000. And he went from there to the U.S. Open, I believe. Yeah, $181,000 he made at the U.S. Open. I think he finished in a tide for 23rd at Chinnecock. Yeah, made the cut.

Made the cut. Which is not easy, especially for a rookie. For a rookie in his second tournament. Yeah, and then bounce back home to the travelers. Yep. Up in Connecticut this past week. What did he finish there? Let's see here.

I can tell you his earnings, then I'll tell you his earnings. you what he finished made $41,500 at the travelers came out of the gates really hot at the travelers cooled off a little bit on Saturday and Sunday what we're trying to bring up with the name Ben James extremely easy per name to remember this could be a household name here soon it could be I mean it's hard to get up to a much faster start than that right Jordan Spieth did, but not many guys get off to that kind of start right out of the blocks. And so I think there's going to be big things for him in the very near future. But, I mean, he came here with a reputation that he was going to be one of the top golfers in college golf.

And he lived up to every bit of that reputation over. four years and thanks to that PGA program that they have in college you have to play all four years in order to qualify to be out for that competition for a PGA card right out of the right out of school and you know had it not been for that carrot dangling there he probably would have turned pro earlier and had to go through Q school and all that sort of thing. Maybe the corn fairy tour, like most people do, that are really good. But he was able to maintain that quality of play and win that card this past year as a senior was an incredible year. Incredible year.

And now he's, he's. fulfilling all those predictions expectations as a rookie on the PGA tour which is mind-blowing. Yeah, and correction. Correction from what I said. He's 23, not 22. This guy, I watched him. I'm a huge fan of the majors. Who is a huge golf fan.

Huge fan of the majors for me, mainly when I'm watching. Huge fan of anything UVA. So I've been watching this guy. this guy can swing I mean he makes contact with the golf ball as good as almost all pros out there he has every aspect of the game he's long off the tee he's good with the putter

his short game is fantastic he's emotionally composed yeah that's a huge part of it super heady this guy like very like uh zen if you may um we may be looking at You know, it's early here. I mean, there's only a handful of tournaments

into his true professional career. We may be looking at a household name waiting to happen. I wouldn't be surprised if that comes to fruition because he's, I don't say that he has any flaws in his game. And again, I think one of the major parts of that is the mental part of it, which he seems to have a really good control over.

and maybe perhaps that's from working a little bit with our good friend Bob Rottella who I know has worked with the UVA team so yeah I think the sky's the limit for Ben James and another sport that we probably don't cover that much but I thought you're going to go men's tennis here well no I was going to go well I should with the kid who claims up the rankings. Hodar. Yeah. But swimming.

Gretchen and Alex Walsh. And the other girl that broke all the Italian records over in Italy, Curtis. Breaking World Records. I mean, I think Gretchen Walsh, they looked at one of the particular distances, the top 10 times in the world. I'll belong to her. All ten of them. It's crazy.

It's insane. Yeah. It's insane. And he mentions, we just mentioned this in passing. It's just an abundance of riches here. I'm looking at the ATP men's tennis rankings. We're both tennis fans here.

Hodar is now 26 in the world. He won his Wilmleton opener. Yep. Yesterday, I believe. 19 years old, this kid. I mean, it's just, It's an abundance of riches for the Virginia fans out here. And Andros mentioned on her show a few weeks ago that he's going to probably after Wimbledon,

I think he's going to come here and train a little bit with the men's team, which is pretty cool. In 2026 alone, only 2026, Hodar's got $1.6 million in prize money. He's only been a pro since Christmas. Right. 24 and 10 on the season. on the tennis season in 2026. Look for him in Wimbledon, ladies and gentlemen. Yeah.

I mean, he'll make some noise. He made some noise. What was it in the French? That we just had? Yep. I mean, this is just absolutely an abundance of riches. And then Dietrich is winning a lot of whatever circuit that is. He's racking up some wins right now, too.

Yeah. It's special. Professional tournaments. playing as an amateur. Absolutely special. Show is yours. How do you want to close? Time flies here. We're an hour and ten minutes in. Oh, wow. You got to see the series? Yeah, I mean, if you're a Wahu basketball fan, you really need to jump on and get a subscription because starting tonight, we're going to be making a lot of noise. Our whole team and photographer will be at UVA today. we're going to talk to all the new players and do features on each one of them.

We'll be doing like one a day. We'll be doing all the news from Ryan Odom about the team and his thoughts on the guys coming back, the new kids, and much more. So we'll be having that spread out over the next week at least, maybe a little bit longer. And then not far from now, Jerry. July 15th is the ACC football kickoff, the earliest they've ever had that event. Football season's right around the corner. We didn't even talk about the fact that at ACC kickoff, one of the student athletes that's sent to ACC kickoff is Bo Pribula?

Pribula. Pribula. Which may be an indication, Bo Pribula, the Missouri transfers, your starting quarterback. If you read between the lines, I think so, because they send three representatives from each. school to there to represent to use the guys who are really good talkers and which

privula is. Right. And so is Noah Josie and Cam Robinson. They're the three that will represent Virginia down there. And usually it's, you know, three of your top-notch players. So I

think if they're going to send a quarterback down there, to me that indicates that he's definitely in the lead as the starting quarterback at this juncture of the season. He's Jerry Rackleff guys. His website's jerry rackliff.com and subscribership is $8 a month and it gets you 40 to 50 pieces of fresh content per 30-day period. It's the price of a cup of coffee. The subscribership is blowing up. Don't get left behind if you're a UVA sports fan. It's the best $8 you can spend

for anything UVA sports related. Jerry Rackleaf.com. Judah Wood Cowers behind the camera. Hootie Rackleff. I am on a vacation next week and the following week. Maybe a chance to be determined. We may do a show next Tuesday. To be determined, potentially. We are off the week of the 13th, 100% back in the saddle for the entire network.

Monday, July 20th, and certainly with the Jerry and Jerry show on Tuesday, July 21. And by then, football will be cranked up, brother, because their first game is the 29th of August. Right. So I think they'll probably start practice a little earlier. I mean, Houdie, we're less than two months from the first game in the season. Oh, yeah. Because today's the 30th, and the first game is August 29th. So we're under two months from kickoff.

Yeah. From season kickoff from the start of the year. Virginia Sports Hall of Fame or Jerry Rackleff. He's got more awards and accolades than anyone on the UVA beat, ACCC beat. It's not even close. Judah Wickhauer behind the camera. My name is Jerry Miller.

The final episode of the I Love Seville show before a respite for vacation is at 1230 p.m. Thank you kindly for joining us guys on the Jerry and Jerry show. So long, everybody. Thank you. Send you.