NASHVILLE—With Tony Bennett somewhere off in the distance, a younger version of Chance Mallory was wheeling and dealing as the smallest player on the floor and giving an occasional harmless stink eye to the Virginia staffers serving as referees while his affinity for Virginia basketball increased by the minute.
For as long as Mallory can remember, Virginia basketball and its camps have been a part of his life. His favorite player was Cavaliers’ guard London Perrantes while he developed a soft spot for former Virginia guard Devon Hall and forward Justin Anderson through his interactions with them at camp over the years.
The Charlottesville native sat through Virginia’s historic loss to 16 seeded UMBC, its subsequent national title run and everything in between. Now he’s a part of its program.
“I definitely grew in love for UVA as a young kid,” Mallory told Basket Under Review. “As a kid, playing on a college court was like me playing out here right now. It's just a dream come true.”
Mallory’s high school St. Anne’s Belfield is just a seven-minute drive from Virginia’s John Paul Jones Arena. It’s a staple of the relatively small Charlottesville, Virginia, as is the Mallory family.
The Virginia guard is among the best high school players that the college town has produced and has been on its radar since before he was a teenager, his sister worked the Virginia basketball camps that her brother attended throughout Bennett’s tenure.
Mallory says he sees himself as “a loyal guy.” He played for the same AAU program from his days as a third grader until his final high school season. His electric off the bounce scoring ability could’ve gotten him into one of America’s most prominent prep schools, but he chose to stay with the St. Anne’s Belfield coaching staff that he’d known since he was a kid.
When Mallory shut down his recruitment for the final time, he mentioned that he was recruited by “great” schools like Tennessee, Maryland and Vanderbilt, but that he loves Charlottesville too much to leave it during his college years. Mallory re-opened his recruitment after Bennett’s sudden retirement, but the other schools that pushed for him never seemed to have much of a chance if Virginia hired a coach that prioritized Mallory.
When Virginia hired Cavaliers’ lifer Ryan Odom to replace Bennett, it represented an opportunity for Mallory to play for someone like him. Odom and his freshman point guard have been around this place too long to take that for granted.
“It is [fulfilling], there’s no doubt about it,” Odom said. “He loves UVA, remembers all the big games in JPJ as a youngster and being there and supporting the Wahoos. Now for him to have the opportunity to play for UVA and be a part of that history, the storied program that it is, is a blessing for him and I'm just excited that I get to coach him.”
By the end of this, Odom may owe a commission to former St. Anne’s Belfield coach Damin Altizer and those within the Charlottesville community that envisioned this as a possibility years ago. Altzier has worked with the Virginia point guard since he was “eight or nine” years old and has walked with him through every step of his journey.
Mallory’s high school coach–a former Virginia guard who has since taken the women’s head coaching job at Covenant School–still remembers coaching the eighth-grade version of Mallory, who was “like 4-foot-11” and what he saw in him back then. If he wasn’t already, Mallory became accustomed to being the smallest player on the floor that season–as a varsity player.
The unavoidable disadvantage Mallory was tasked with overcoming was enough to justify a career that ended in high school or unfulfilled potential. Mallory always embraced the underdog role and the idea that he could do what others thought he couldn’t.
“He’s always had a chip on his shoulder,” Altizer–who compared Mallory’s mindset to former Virginia guard Ty Jerome–told Basket Under Review. “He has never doubted himself. He, from day one, thought that he was going to be a high major player. That was always his goal and where he wanted to be.”
Mallory’s father, Joe, always told him that “heart over height” was a worthwhile motto to consider in his situation. The Charlottesville native never appeared to be allowed to use his limited stature as an excuse to not pursue his dreams.
The dream was always clear for the undersized guard; he wanted to do anything he could to play for Virginia. Mallory heard those who believed he was striving for nothing more than a pipe dream inspired by his background with the program, but never appeared to be deterred. At that point, he’d be putting his height over his heart in a way that his father advised against.
“There’s always going to be people that don’t think I’m good enough to be on this level that I am,” Mallory said. “But it’s a little bit of a chip not to prove everybody else wrong, but to prove to myself that I belong. I know I belong, but it’s just showing everybody else I belong, as well.”
The consistent plugging along and efforts to justify his self belief resulted in Mallory resulted in NJIT, Liberty and Radford offers prior to his sophomore year of high school. He was still waiting, though. Mallory was still without a power five offer, waiting on an opportunity that made his dreams come true and hoping for something that would allow him to believe that his belief wasn’t a far cry from reality.
Then, his “dream” day came. Maryland and Virginia Tech had broken the door open with offers after Mallory’s sophomore season before Bennett finally called and offered the local product. Mallory had a “different level of excitement” that day relative to his temperament on the days in which he picked up other offers, Altizer said.
Mallory knew this moment was possible since his freshman year of high school—when it “clicked” that he needed to work harder because of the things that he realized were attainable to him—but he didn't appear to expect it like Altizer did.
“It was kind of a shock because at first a lot of the people that were telling me that [Virginia] wasn’t gonna recruit me,” Mallory said. “Actually getting that call from Coach Bennett was definitely a shock and I was full of excitement to get that call.”
Altizer says that Mallory has been in the spotlight of his hometown to some degree since he was under 10 years old and appears to buy the idea that Mallory didn’t need all that much convincing to become a part of the program that Bennett had rolling.
Bennett’s sudden retirement before the 2024-25 season sparked some “uncertain” times for the Charlottesville native, Altizer says. But now that he’s found the coach to put his trust in, it appears as if Mallory isn’t going anywhere.
As the Virginia point guard stands in the basement of Memorial Gymnasium in a Virginia track suit, he indicates that this isn’t a classic example of a one-year landing spot. This place means too much to Mallory for this to become transactional.
“He’s a hometown kid and wasn't chasing big lights or anything like that,” Altizer said. “Home means something to him.”
Mallory has the temperament to find comfortability within most of the programs that recruited him, but they don’t compare to the environment that he’s within nowadays. The Charlottesville native is within an easily-drivable distance to his parents’ house, he likely knew his way around Virginia’s facilities on the first day of summer practice and he’s playing alongside two players from his high school program.
It’s almost a storybook ending for the Virginia guard.
“I mean, it was definitely a dream,” Mallory said. “A pretty far-fetched dream as a kid being my size, but it's definitely a dream come true.”
As Mallory put it on the floor two times and squeezed around Vanderbilt guard Tyler Tanner for an unconventional right-handed layup from the left side, he didn’t have a chance to reflect. It was all moving too fast. The position–and uniform–that Mallory was in on that drive was the one he’d always envisioned, though.
For the first time, he was a Virginia guard. He appears to be one that can contribute significantly right away, too.
“There’s no question about it,” Odom said when asked if Mallory could be a “big piece” to what Virginia does in 2025-26. “He’s not afraid of anything. He’s tough, he’s physical, he’s not going to back down, he’s really quick.”
Mallory went for nine points in Virginia’s exhibition loss to Vanderbilt before having to leave the game with cramps, Basket Under Review has learned. He’ll have to find a way to contribute consistently among a roster of older guys with winning aspirations, but counting him out from running the show at times appears to be unwise.
The Virginia point guard was ranked as the No. 55 player and No. 6 point guard in 247 Sports’ rankings of the 2025 high school class. 247Sports analyst Adam Finkelstein described Mallory as one of the most “reliable” true point guards in the class and said his “skill level with the ball in his hands is truly elite.”
Mallory’s final AAU season on the Under Armour circuit indicated all of that to be true. The efficiency was there on 45/38/90 shooting splits, the ball control was there with his 2.47 assist-to-turnover ratio and his disruptiveness showed up with 1.6 steals per game. He’s done all the things that a freshman point guard needs to do in order to play, now it’s his time.
“For him to have the opportunity to have the keys to the program is pretty remarkable,” Altizer said. “I can’t say enough about how special it is.”
If Mallory plays his cards right, he’ll have the keys to this thing for a long time. The long line of excellent point guard play within this Virginia program can continue with Mallory.
To the Virginia guard, it’s more about that than the things about the transactional nature of the sport that often drive it nowadays.
“When I leave UVA,” Mallory said. “I just want everybody to know my name. It’s as simple as that.”
