Ryan Odom and his staff received their second high-school commitment in the last two weeks, flipping former VCU signee Silas Barksdale to the Hoos. Barksdale, a 6-foot-9 forward from Newport News, joins four-star guard and Charlottesville native Chance Mallory in Virginia’s 2025 recruiting class. Barksdale and Mallory together form the first UVa signing class with multiple in-state signees since 2003 (J.R. Reynolds, Donte Minter).
Barksdale is a 3-star prospect, ranked 149th nationally in the 2025 recruiting class. The Newport News native is the 26th-ranked power forward in the class as well. Barksdale’s recruitment picked up nearly three years ago, when he took a visit to ODU. He earned his first set of offers in the spring of 2023, picking up interest from the Monarchs, and then Virginia Tech, Texas A&M and others. Barksdale picked up offers from Pitt, Richmond and other schools as well, before focusing on a few schools down the stretch in his recruitment. Barksdale’s announced final three schools last fall were VCU, Miami and Butler, with the 6-foot-9 forward ultimately signing with Odom and the Rams.
UVa wasn’t a factor in Barksdale’s initial recruitment, but Odom and his new UVa staff were able to convince Barksdale to flip from the Rams to the Hoos. Relationships help, but the ability to follow the coach that he committed to and also play at the high-major level in the ACC, was surely a useful selling point.
Barksdale starred at Woodside High School in Newport News, where he led his school to back-to-back state titles in 2023 and 2024. This year, Barksdale was the Class 5 State Player of the Year. In his senior year, Barksdale averaged 19 points and 16 rebounds per game to lead the Wolverines in both categories. Barksdale played AAU in the EYBL circuit, playing for Boo Williams.
Barksdale’s clips show an old-school big man that can bang in the post and play with his back to the basket. In high school Barksdale was certainly a man among boys in a lot of games, but even in AAU clips against better competition, Barksdale flashed both size and skill, with physicality to back down defenders, and post moves to finish plays. He also clearly has ability to rebound the basketball, and can knock down an occasional mid-range jump shot or floater.
Projecting Barksdale to UVa is an interesting proposition. The former VCU commit was not being pursued by Virginia’s previous staff, and though he had some interest from major-conference programs, he did ultimately sign with the Rams, and his ranking seems about right for his skills and what he’ll bring to the table. There’s plenty of upside here, however. UVa hasn’t played through their big men on offense in a long time, something that could change a bit under this staff. Barksdale’s path to immediate playing time will probably come from bringing energy to games. Young big men are often far from finished products, but can have an impact by coming in, grabbing a few rebounds and playing physical defense against opposing bigs while the starters get rest.
Perhaps Barksdale can come in and surprise and be a bigger factor right away, and clearly Odom and his staff believe that Barksdale can play at the ACC level. And with UVa’s roster totally depleted, bringing Barksdale to UVa makes a lot of sense. Virginia will certainly go out and find veteran starters for the frontcourt, and Barksdale can take his time developing behind them for a year or two if need be, and work on his physicality to prepare for life in the ACC.
