Odom out of NC State picture, but in at Villanova?

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Four days after Virginia’s coaching job officially became open, the search continues.

Here’s what we’ve heard from a number of sources on Saturday:

It appears that UVA’s top target, VCU’s Ryan Odom, is no longer in the picture at NC State. Odom was considered to be on State AD Boo Corrigan’s short list until the past couple of days. However, Odom’s name has now surfaced for the Villanova job (details below).

NC State’s Corrigan appears to have narrowed his search to McNeese State’s Will Wade and Tennessee assistant coach Justin Gainey, a former point guard for the Wolfpack, who is endorsed by Vols head coach Rick Barnes.

Gainey has been an assistant coach for 13 years, but has never been a head coach. Wade has been a head coach for 11 seasons, including VCU, LSU and now McNeese.

Wade was fired by LSU in March of 2022 and given a two-year show-cause penalty for his recruiting and bribery allegations concerning recruits.

Meanwhile, Odom has been busy leading VCU to today’s championship game (1 p.m., CBS) of the Atlantic 10 Conference. The Rams (27-6), the event’s No. 1 seed, will take on No. 2 seed George Mason (22-11) in Washington, D.C.

While Odom may no longer be in the hunt for the NC State job, his name is being circulated for the Villanova job, which opened up Saturday when Wildcats AD Eric Roedl fired Kyle Neptune, who took over the position three years ago when Jay Wright walked away from the game. Neptune failed to take Villanova to the NCAA Tournament during his three-year stint.

Odom’s name was immediately mentioned as a potential candidate, along with New Mexico’s Richard Pitino, Porter Moser of Oklahoma, Maryland’s Kevin Willard and Chris Collins of Northwestern.

The son of longtime Virginia assistant coach and former Wake Forest head coach Dave Odom, Ryan, 50, jumped to the top of the list after it was reported that Marquette’s Shaka Smart wasn’t interested in the job.

Other candidates for the Virginia job appear to be Iowa State’s T.J. Otzelberger, 47; Drake head coach Ben McCollum, 43, and Furman’s Bob Richey, 41.

Iowa State (24-9) lost, 96-92, to BYU in the Big 12 Tournament quarterfinals on Thursday. Meanwhile, Drake, the top seed in the Missouri Valley Tournament, beat Bradley, 63-48 for the championship. Drake is 31-3 on the season. Furman (25-9) lost, 92-85, to Wofford in the Southern Conference championship game.