Thijs De Ridder is another impact addition for Ryan Odom's first UVa roster
On Monday morning, UVa fans got the long-awaited news that Belgian forward Thijs De Ridder is set to join the Hoos for the 2025-26 season. De Ridder, long considered a quiet commitment, completed his professional season at Bilbao Basket, and is set to join the program later this summer. De Ridder is considered an impact addition, and one of the best international players to come to college basketball for the upcoming season.
De Ridder, who was born in January 2003, will turn 23 years old during his first season at Virginia. His age, compared to many much-younger, less physical players that he’ll be competing against, is an advantage for him and UVa. But so too is his experience. De Ridder has played high-level basketball in Europe, against teams that are more talented and experienced than what he should see on a game-to-game basis in college basketball.
De Ridder has played five pro seasons with clubs in Europe, starting in his home country of Belgium. De Ridder started playing for Port of Antwerp Giants in the Belgian league and in Europe, starting at age 17. By his final year with the club, at 19, De Ridder was playing a large role. He averaged 20.2 minutes per game, scoring 10.4 points and grabbing 5.8 rebounds per contests. De Ridder also demonstrated an ability to step out and hit jumpers, making 40.6 percent of his threes that year.
De Ridder was ready to move up in competition level, and moved to Spain’s Bilbao Basket, who compete in one of the best pro leagues in the world, the ACB. This league includes some of the more well-known european club teams, including Real Madrid, Valencia Basket and Barcelona.
In his first season with Bilbao, De Ridder played in 48 games, averaging 17.6 minutes per game. De Ridder averaged 6.4 points and 4 rebounds per game, as he adjusted to a better league, and also got exposure to continental competition in the Europe Cup. In the 2024-25 season, De Ridder had his best season as a pro. He averaged 21.4 minutes per contest, scoring 10.1 points and collecting 5 rebounds per game. He also shot 53.3 percent from the floor and 36.4 percent from three. He helped Bilbao win the FIBA Europe Cup, beating Greek club PAOK in the final on aggregate.
De Ridder has also competed for his country. He played on the Belgian youth teams in FIBA competition from 2018 to 2023, competing in the U16 and U20 European Championships. In his final season with the U20 team, De Ridder scored 16.9 points and grabbed 9.6 rebounds per game, and since then he has competed with the senior national team. De Ridder scored 10.5 points and hauled in 8.5 rebounds per game in the 2023 European qualifiers, and this year averaged 6 points and 5 rebounds in the FIBA EuroBasket qualifiers.
De Ridder has popped up as a fringe NBA draft prospect in the past, and did some workouts last summer before remaining in Europe. Now that players in college basketball can be compensated at a level greater than what he could get in Europe, it makes sense for De Ridders, and other players of his caliber, to consider the college route rather than staying in Europe or hoping to be a late-2nd round NBA draft pick that gets stashed overseas. De Ridder will have an opportunity for state-side visibility in college basketball, and if he plays well, despite his age, it could help him launch a pro career. If nothing else, time at Virginia allows De Ridder to be compensated quite well and then he can return to a pro career in Europe when he’s ready, if he doesn’t ultimately move on to the NBA. De Ridder is older for college basketball but still has plenty of years of pro ball ahead of him, so this move seems like a no brainer.
De Ridder is expected to be an impact player at UVa, and is widely considered one of the best foreign players to move to college basketball for the 2025-26 season. There has been a flood of european talent coming to the NCAA to take advantage of NIL and revenue sharing, and in the past a player like De Ridder likely wouldn’t have been available to UVa as he was already making good money in Spain. The fact that De Ridder has been an impressive player in the Spanish ACB makes him less of a projection to the college game. Yes, there are plenty of future pros playing college basketball, but the spanish league is full of great european players and older American players that either never made it to the NBA or played there for a while and have moved on to play in Europe. For instance, in De Ridder’s recent game against Barcelona, he was squaring off with former Virginia Cavalier Justin Anderson, and scored over former Duke standout and lottery pick Jabari Parker, who last played college basketball in 2014. Experience against players of that caliber should make De Ridder’s transition to college basketball relatively seamless.
He’ll still need to adjust to life in college basketball and life in the US, but De Ridder seems like a safe bet to be an impact player for Virginia. His ability to score and rebound around the rim, run the floor and shoot threes makes him a great fit for what Ryan Odom is going to want to do at UVa, and we have no problem projecting him as the starter at power forward, sharing time with UC Irvine transfer Devin Tillis and a few younger developmental players. The addition of De Ridder raises UVa’s ceiling, perhaps substantially, given their lack of depth at the power forward spot if he wasn’t ruled eligible or went elsewhere. If De Ridder is as good as advertised, he could push UVa from a solid team that could make the tournament to a very good one that could make a postseason run, especially given how much other talent has been assembled around him.
