Virginia basketball officially announced the signing of Ryan Odom their new head coach. The position became available after the Cavaliers decided to not to rehire previous head coach Ron Sanchez.
The Cavaliers were laser-focused on Odom as a top candidate for the position this week. The news of Odom’s hiring was confirmed on Saturday per NCAA March Madness.
Virginia basketball is coming off a season where they finished 15-17 overall and 8-12 in the ACC. They lost to Georgia Tech in the ACC tournament 66-60 on March 12.
Odom’s coaching career began from 2004-2010 as an assistant at Virginia Tech University.
He became an assistant at the University of Charlotte during the ’14-’15 season. Odom became the head coach at the University of Maryland Baltimore County from ’16-’21. Odom coached the Retrievers to the AEC conference championship and a spot in the NCAA tournament during the ’17-’18 season.
He then coached the Retrievers to the AEC regular season conference title in the ’20-’21 season.
Odom took his talents to Utah State from ’21-’23. The Aggies secured a spot in the 2023 NCAA tournament.
For the last two years, Odom was the head coach at Virginia Commonwealth University. This year Odom led the Rams to the Atlantic 10 conference regular season title, tournament championship, and a spot in the NCAA tournament. The No. 11 seeded Rams lost in the first round to No.6 seeded BYU 80-71 on Thursday.
Odom is the son of former South Carolina head coach Dave Odom.
It turns out Odom’s ties to Virginia basketball go back. While he was head coach at UMBC, Odom led the then No. 16 seeded Retrievers in an upset win over the then No. 1 seeded Cavaliers in the first round of the 2018 NCAA tournament. The Retrievers defeated the Cavaliers 74-54 and it was the first time a No. 16 seed defeated a No. 1 seed in the 64 team tournament field.
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