Thijs De Ridder Scores 24 as No. 9 Virginia Steals Its Way Past Drexel 89-60

Thijs De Ridder did not need long to remind everyone why he was named the ACC's preseason Player of the Year. The Virginia forward scored 12 points in the first 140 seconds of the season, and No. 9 Virginia never looked back, running Drexel out of John Paul Jones Arena 89-60 on Tuesday night.

De Ridder finished with 24 points on 9-of-15 shooting and nine rebounds in 27 minutes. Sam Lewis added 20 points and a game-high four 3s, and 7-footer Johann Grünloh posted 11 points and nine rebounds. But the stat that will get Ryan Odom's attention in the film room is a defensive one: the Cavaliers piled up 18 steals, a record for John Paul Jones Arena, and turned Drexel's 21 turnovers into 25 points.

It was Virginia's seventh straight season-opening win. It was also a statement about what kind of team Odom wants this to be in year two.

A Two-Minute Takeover

Virginia scored first and kept scoring. De Ridder's opening flurry staked the Cavaliers to a 14-2 lead before most of the crowd had settled in, and eight minutes into the game the scoreboard read 25-4. Drexel struggled to hold onto the ball, and Virginia's pressure kept turning stops into chances the other way.

Lewis captured the mood afterward. "I feel like we just came out and punched them in the face," the guard said, before handing the credit to his frontcourt partner. "Thijs came out really big for us. He just set the tone from the beginning, and that got us going."

The lead swelled to 51-22 with 1:28 left in the first half. Drexel closed the half on a 5-0 run to make it 51-27 at the break, which felt like a footnote at the time. By halftime, Virginia had already done most of its damage, and De Ridder had already done most of his.

The Pressure Is the Point

Last season, Odom's first in Charlottesville, ended at 30-6 with a trip to the ACC tournament title game. That group leaned on shooters like Jacari White. This one, Odom suggested, wants to make life miserable before the opponent ever gets a shot up.

"After each exhibition, we targeted it and focused on it a little bit, just being more disruptive and more active," Odom said. "Thankfully, it showed some tonight."

It showed everywhere. Chance Mallory had four steals. Lewis, freshman starter Nolan Adekunle and Elijah Gertrude each had three. De Ridder and Jurian Dixon chipped in two apiece. Drexel's 21 turnovers were spread across most of its rotation, a sign of how relentless the ball pressure was.

Odom was careful to frame it correctly. Virginia's coach said the goal of the pressure "is not to steal it," but to be disruptive, and that this group has the potential to be a really disruptive team. On this night, the steals came anyway.

Drexel coach Zach Spiker saw it coming and still could not stop it. "They didn't do anything to surprise us. They just did it really well," Spiker said. Spiker's assessment of the Cavaliers went further than most opposing coaches go in November: "They're going to be a tough team, home and away, all season, and could play deep into March."

The Second-Half Dip

The only blemish came right after halftime, and Odom did not let it slide. Drexel came out of the locker room with more force and cut a 24-point deficit to 16. Virginia's offense bogged down, and the Dragons, who had looked overwhelmed for 20 minutes, suddenly looked competitive.

"I was hoping for more at the beginning of the second half," Odom said. "You have to give Drexel credit. They came out and were more physical, and we settled for poor shots and weren't great in the half court."

The coach added a line that tells you where the bar is set in Charlottesville this season: "We can't play that way out of halftime when we played a pretty good half overall."

Virginia steadied itself and pulled away over the final eight minutes, but the Cavaliers won the second half by only five points, 38-33. The Dragons shot 23-of-58 (39.7 percent) for the game and 8-of-25 from 3, and made 6 of 7 free throws.

Virginia's own numbers were solid if unspectacular: 32-of-67 (47.8 percent) from the field, 10-of-29 from 3 and 15-of-19 at the line, with a 42-33 edge on the glass. The difference was volume. Eighteen steals and nine extra rebounds meant Virginia took nine more shots than Drexel did, and on a night when the half-court offense sputtered for stretches, those extra possessions were the cushion.

Stars, Newcomers and a Deeper Bench

De Ridder was what a preseason Naismith Trophy watch list player should be. Twenty-four points, nine boards, 4-of-4 at the line, two 3s and two steals, with zero turnovers. After the game, the forward kept it simple: "I was just really, really excited for this season. Now it's finally begun."

Lewis was nearly as efficient, going 6-of-12 from the field, 4-of-6 from deep and 4-of-4 at the line with four rebounds, three assists and three steals. Grünloh gave Virginia a steady presence inside with nine rebounds, a block and a steal.

The bigger subplot was the newcomers. Virginia lost five rotation players from last season's 30-win team, including Malik Thomas (12.4 points per game), Dallin Hall and Jacari White, so the opener doubled as a first look at the replacements. Seven Cavaliers made their Virginia debuts, including UC Irvine transfer Dixon, who scored seven points on 3-of-4 shooting off the bench, and transfers Kalu Anya, Jan Vide and Christian Harmon. Adekunle started as a first-year and filled the stat sheet defensively. Favour Ibe, a 7-foot-1 freshman, also got a first taste of college minutes, and Silas Barksdale played after redshirting last season. Gertrude, meanwhile, was a spark with eight points, four rebounds and three steals in 15 minutes.

Odom made clear this roster plays differently from last year's. "These guys, they're different. It's not what we had last year. They're good in their own way and different in their own way," he said.

The one area to clean up beyond the second-half lull: ball security at the point. Mallory had four steals but also six turnovers, and Virginia finished with 14 giveaways. Against Drexel, that was survivable. Against the schedule ahead, it will not be.

For Drexel, Latief Lorenzano-White and LaDricus Pittman led with 11 points apiece, with Pittman hitting three 3s. Dillon Tingler added 10. Picked ninth in the CAA after a 17-16 season, the sixth straight winning year under Spiker, the Dragons will take plenty of lessons from a night when they lost the turnover battle 21-14. To their credit, they did not fold when the margin hit 29, and that second-half push is something to build on.

What Comes Next

Virginia (1-0) does not have long to admire this one. The Cavaliers host Northeastern on Friday, Nov. 6, at 5 p.m. on ACC Network, then head to Washington, D.C., for the Capital Showcase against No. 12 Arkansas at Capital One Arena on Sunday, Nov. 8. That is the first real measuring stick, against John Calipari's SEC program, and a chance to find out whether this defense travels.

The take: Virginia looks like a team built to grind opponents down rather than outshoot them, and De Ridder gives it the star power to finish the job. If the Cavaliers can play 40 minutes the way they played the first 20 on Tuesday, Spiker's March prediction will look conservative.

Full stats are in the official box score (opens in a new tab), and Virginia's game recap (opens in a new tab) has more from Odom and the players.

Sources: Virginia Athletics, ESPN box score, Field Level Media. More men's college basketball coverage on Undrafted.

Virginia is 1-0. Drexel falls to 0-1 and returns to Philadelphia with plenty to work on.

Photo: Virginia Athletics.