UVA Basketball Portal Update: Elijah Saunders to Maryland, TJ Power to Penn

Originally posted on Virginia Cavaliers on SI
By Matthew Newton | Last updated Apr 12, 2025 9:53 PM ET

It was reported earlier this week that Elijah Saunders was still "seriously considering" a return to Virginia. With UVA in desperate need of front court pieces, and particularly experienced forwards, that seemed to present an opportunity for Ryan Odom to reconstruct his roster for next season with a returning contributor from the previous Virginia team.

Instead, Saunders took a visit to Maryland starting on Friday and saw what needed to see in order to make his commitment to new head coach Buzz Williams and the Terrapins. Saunders announced his commitment to play his final season of college basketball in College Park in a social media post on Saturday (April 12).

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A post shared by Elijah Saunders (@elijah_saunders)

Of the 10 Cavaliers who entered the transfer portal, eight have now 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 three-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.

The two Cavaliers who have yet to make their commitments are redshirt freshman guard Christian Bliss, who did not play a single game in two seasons at UVA, and freshman guard Ishan Sharma, who played in 29 games as a true freshman and averaged 3.4 points in 12.8 minutes per game.

Keep track of all of the players Virginia has contacted in the transfer portal here: Virginia Basketball: Transfer Portal Contact Live Tracker

Stay up to date on all the latest Virginia basketball transfer portal activity, including outbound transfers from the current roster and UVA's effort to pursue players in the portal, here: Virginia Basketball Transfer Portal: Latest News and Updates

This article first appeared on Virginia Cavaliers on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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