CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Sam Lewis was his team’s leading scorer last season at Toledo. Jacari White took the most shots and scored the second-most points per game at North Dakota State.

Malik Thomas led the West Coast Conference in scoring at 19.9 points per game for San Francisco.

All around the Virginia practice gym Friday, players worked out who believe they can be their team’s primary scorer.

Guys who want the basketball.

First-year Cavaliers coach Ryan Odom has tasked them with something else, though – becoming an unselfish squad.

“At first, it was kind of tricky,” Lewis told Cville Right Now. “Sometimes, people would get out of their body, shoot shots, and they’d get on us for not passing it. You come here, you have to learn to be unselfish. And that’s what we’ve been doing.”

White said it’s human nature to want to make a good impression and to prove that you belong at your new school.

“That’s natural and normal coming into a new program, new coaches. I feel like everybody has that mindset coming in,” he told Cville Right Now. “But as we do things off the court and get to know each other better, that’s how we really understand each other more.”

Odom and his staff didn’t waste any time setting that tone for the team. And it’s been perhaps the most consistent message the players have heard this offseason.

“He talks about it every minute of every day,” said Lewis, whose 16.2 points per game ranked fourth in the Mid-American Conference. “He’ll stop a practice, even if it’s the first drill, to let that be known: We’re not selfish and we pass the ball.”

For Odom, taking a bunch of alpha dogs and getting them to play in the same yard is a process that actually began before they all got to UVA. It started with recruiting players that had the right mindset to be team-first.

Odom, who has led VCU, Utah State and UMBC to NCAA Tournament appearances at previous career stops, has always favored deep, versatile teams that share the ball and are not built around one or two stars.

“It wasn’t rocky because everybody came here for a common goal, and that’s to get Virginia back to that national level, getting back to playing championship basketball,” Thomas said. “I think everybody had a great attitude, a great mindset.”

With the willingness in place, much of the preseason has focused on learning each other’s games, knowing where teammates want the ball to be in position to score.

Odom didn’t want to put any of his new players “in a box” in terms of what they could or couldn’t do. He let them show their new teammates and coaches what they could do.

The rebuilt-through-the-portal Cavaliers have a deep and versatile frontcourt, with centers Ugonna Onyenso and Johann Grunloh, forward Thijs DeRidder and Silas Barksdale and wing Devin Tillis.

It has a bevy of ballhandlers in the backcourt including Thomas, Lewis, White, BYU transfer Dallin Hall, Elijah Gertrude and freshman Chance Mallory, the former St. Anne’s-Belfield star.

“Everybody can have their own night on any given night,” Thomas said. “The talent we have, it’s going to be fun how everything gels together.”

Thomas said the team is eager to see what it looks like on the court against an actual opponent. It’s first chance to find out comes Thursday night against Vanderbilt in an exhibition in Nashville.

The Cavaliers will also host Villanova in an exhibition on Oct. 24, before opening the season Nov. 3 at home against Rider.

“We’ve established and put together a roster of guys who, they’re just really good dudes,” Odom said. “They enjoy one another. They’re committed to coming in and learning every single day. You’re ahead of the game when you have that.”