VCU coach Ryan Odom is expected to be named the next head coach at Virginia, according to multiple reports. ESPN first reported the two sides were approaching a deal.
Odom, 50, led VCU to the NCAA Tournament this season in only his second year with the program. The No. 11 seed Rams — whose season ended Thursday, after their 80-71 first-round loss to No. 6 seed BYU — shared the Atlantic 10 regular-season title with George Mason before winning the league’s tournament championship.
It’s a full-circle moment for Odom, who was the architect of the greatest upset in NCAA Tournament history at Virginia’s expense. In 2018, Odom led UMBC to the first 16-over-1 upset, downing Tony Bennett’s top-seeded Cavaliers 74-54. Virginia, motivated by that defeat, rebounded the following postseason to win the program’s first and only national championship.
As for Odom, he coached three more seasons at UMBC before eventually departing for Utah State in 2021. After two seasons coaching the Aggies, earning an NCAA Tournament berth in his second year, Odom returned to his East Coast roots at VCU in 2023.
The Virginia native is the son of longtime Wake Forest coach Dave Odom, who remains involved in basketball and serves as the tournament chairman of the Maui Invitational, the sport’s most prestigious holiday tournament.
Odom has a career record of 201-117, with six 20-win seasons in his nine years as a head coach.
For Virginia, Odom represents the long-term replacement for Bennett, who abruptly retired in October less than a month before the start of this season. Longtime Bennett assistant Ron Sanchez was named the Cavaliers’ interim coach this season and led UVA to a 15-17 record. The program announced the day of its season-ending ACC tournament loss to Georgia Tech that Sanchez would not be retained.
Considering Virginia did not win another NCAA Tournament game under Bennett after the 2019 national championship, the Cavaliers will be hoping Odom can facilitate a similarly quick turnaround as he did in his last two jobs.
But a key piece of his success will hinge on Virginia’s financial investment in men’s basketball in the modern era. While Bennett regularly redshirted players their first season in Charlottesville and held on to them for several seasons, that model took a hit in the era of unprecedented player movement and name, image and likeness freedoms. Industry sources say that Virginia’s NIL budget this season was not commensurate with that of a top-25 program, and if the Cavaliers hope to become regular contenders again, they’ll need to provide Odom with the requisite funding.
We’ll find out soon just how serious a player Virginia intends to be, though, because the transfer portal opens on Monday, March 24. The players the Cavaliers retain — and more importantly, the ones they add — will provide a much better indicator of whether Odom can expect to compete in the ACC in his first high-major season.
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