Freshman guard Terrence Hill says he's always valued family, which makes him a natural fit for the VCU Basketball program. 
 
At home, the Portland, Ore. native serves as a role model for his three younger siblings, Tyvelle, King, and Leilah. Hill is nearly 3,000 miles from home now, but his siblings are never far from his mind. He says he carries their presence with him through every aspect of his life.
 
"Family is the closest thing I have in my life… so setting the standard for myself, my family, and for my little brothers to look up to, so they don't make bad decisions, is a big thing for me… I feel like it's all I have," Hill said.
 
Hill's match with VCU Basketball stretches beyond his cultural fit. A rugged, 6-foot-4 playmaker, Hill appears to be a logical match for Head Coach Ryan Odom's guard-friendly system as well.
 
"Terrence can score, Terrence can pass, Terrence creates for others. Terrence is a good defender. Terrence is a competitor. He's got good size for his position. Terrence loves the game. He's passionate about basketball. He's in the gym all the time, and he wants to be great, so it was an easy call for us," Odom said.
 
Odom and his staff originally recruited Hill when they were at Utah State from 2021-23. Even though Odom was named head coach at VCU in the spring of 2023, Hill still decided to commit to Utah State last year. However, when Aggies' Head Coach Danny Sprinkle left after the 2023-24 season to take over at Washington, Hill reopened his recruitment. Odom's staff quickly reconnected with Hill, and within weeks, he was a Ram. 
 
There aren't many schools in the country farther from Portland, Ore. than VCU, but according to Odom and Hill, the distance hasn't been a barrier. Their relationship has bridged the gap.
 
"He's familiar with VCU, and it's a long way from home," Odom said. "You're not just going to go a long way from home for nothing. You're going to go to a place that values winning, and you're going to go to a place where you have familiarity with the coaches and you feel comfortable with them and the people, and I think that's where the fit happened for him."
 
Hill says that when he reopened his commitment, he knew he could fall back on the sense of trust he and Odom had built the first time around. Meanwhile, Odom and his staff say they have gone to great lengths to continue to build a familial culture at VCU.
 
"It goes beyond Terrence in terms of who we want to be as a program," said VCU Assistant Coach Bryce Crawford, who was heavily involved in Hill's recruitment. "We always want to create a sense of home for people. We want our guys while they're with us to feel at home in the sense that they can be vulnerable, they can be themselves, they can make mistakes without necessarily having all the pressure of it, but we want to have that environment for them." 
 
This sense of connection is not built solely through the coaching staff and the players. Crawford partly attributes the connectivity throughout the program to the culture that is passed down each year from veteran VCU Basketball players. 
 
"Here, you always have old pros coming around. All those guys passed it down to the next group, and then the next group, and then we got Darius [Theus] and Brad [Burgess] on our staff who played here, and they started all of it, and they passed it down. And to be a Ram, there are requirements. So, we try to hold on to those requirements and standards, and we don't compromise on those requirements and standards. So, who we bring in really matters, to keep building that connection," Crawford said.
 
Hill calls the culture within the VCU program "a brotherhood" and says he'll continue to lean on those relationships as he becomes acclimated to life as a Ram. 
 
"Since I got here, all the returning guys have accepted me with open arms," He said. "They give us pointers and serve as a big brother and role model in college and in life."