Aldrich, Odom like brothers; plus news on Staples & McKneely

By Jerry Ratcliffe

(EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an update report with added transfer portal news)

During his introductory press conference this week, new Virginia basketball coach Ryan Odom mentioned his long relationship with his newly appointed associate head coach Griff Aldrich.

Odom said their time as a coaching staff at UMBC was cut short when Longwood came calling in pursuit of Aldrich as its head coach, after only two seasons under Odom.

When Odom was in the running for the UVA job, it was a natural fit to reach out to Aldrich to get the band back together.

The two had been teammates at Hampden-Sydney, and eventually Odom got into coaching while Aldrich had entered the private equity and energy equity world in Texas. However, Aldrich got the itch to get into coaching and Odom provided the avenue at UMBC.

“I never really thought I would leave Ryan when I went to UMBC, but then, kind of out of the blue, the Longwood opportunity popped open,” Aldrich said.

Aldrich spent the next seven seasons at Longwood, while Odom built winners at Utah State and VCU.

“So when [Odom] was kind of going through this process, and the opportunity to work together, it was kind of a little bit of a dream come true to come back together.”

While Aldrich has a strong background in law and business, plus mad analytical skills, he wasn’t really interested in that side of the basketball business. In other words, he had no interest in a general manager-type of role. Instead, he’s in love with the coaching aspect of the game.

“That was very important to me, that I still want to stay on the court and coach,” Aldrich said. “I love the relationship side with the players. To be honest, sometimes it’s harder to have great relationships as the head coach because of the title, so I’m really looking forward to being able to have deep relationships with our players.

“I do love analytics, I do love numbers, and now, in the current state of college athletics, just with my background, sometimes it seems that those mesh well together. But I’m starting to think about how you put a team together, and you’ve got the financial aspects that we didn’t have to worry with a few years ago.”

Because Odom and Aldrich have been so close over the years, they’re definitely on the same wavelength, can anticipate each other’s thoughts and work well together.

“I think we’re really complimentary,” Aldrich said. “I’m probably more of a builder and process-and-program guy. Ryan’s great at that also, but that’s probably where my mind naturally goes. He’s a brilliant on-court, X’s-and-O’s guy. I’m a driver, a bulldog, so I’m constantly pushing, and he’s more of a gentle touch.”

There have been times in the past when Odom has had to remind Aldrich that everything isn’t going to happen overnight, but needs to be chipped away over time. Conversely, Aldrich will propose, “Hey, we’ve got to close the loop here and kind of move on.”

They have been friends and staff members long enough that they can say things to one another without offending the other, and that’s special.

“We’re brothers in a real sense,” Aldrich said.

Aldrich has always known of Odom’s love for the Virginia program and his youth in Charlottesville, and believed it would be only natural for Odom to make a run for the Cavaliers job if the timing was right. This time, it clearly was.

• Reports had former Virginia 3-point king Curtis Staples in town on Thursday to meet with Carla Williams about the new general manager’s role with UVA basketball. Staples has spent the last several years building a strong basketball program at private school Lakeway Christian Academy, where he reportedly stepped down earlier this week.
• Staples, who held the NCAA record for career 3-point field goals (413) during his UVA days (1994-98), is originally from Roanoke. Ironically, the guy who broke his record eight years later, Duke’s J.J. Redick, also was from Roanoke (although he spent his early years growing up in Charlottesville).
• Staples, who first contacted JerryRatcliffe.com several weeks ago to express his interest in the UVA GM role, pointed out that he has been attending law school the past couple of years and believed he was ready to make a career move.
• In other UVA hoops news, sharpshooter Isaac McKneely, one of the Cavaliers’ top 3-point shooters in program history, is reportedly interested in North Carolina, Louisville, West Virginia and Virginia in terms of a possible transfer. McKneely, a rising senior, entered the portal this week, but left himself with the option to return to UVA. According to reports from Mike Wilson of The Knoxville Sentinel, McKneely has schedule a visit to Tennessee for early next week. McKneely is the ACC’s leading 3-point shooter.
• It should be noted that rising senior Elijah Saunders and point guard Elijah Gertrude are the only two Cavaliers who are not in the transfer portal.

Wally Walker weighs in on the search for Odom

By Jerry Ratcliffe

There was no one in the Virginia basketball family more well-equipped to spearhead a coaching search than Wally Walker.

The hero of UVA’s first ACC Tournament championship in 1976, the No. 5 overall pick of the ‘76 NBA Draft, and part of the Seattle SuperSonics’ three NBA Western Conference Championships as a player and later as the organization’s president and general manager, Walker built an impressive resume. He was president of the club for 12 years.

In his current role with Virginia as Deputy Athletics Director, he led the search committee on a national scale to find the school’s next basketball coach. At the end, the answer was only 70 miles away in downtown Richmond in VCU’s Ryan Odom, who had strong roots to the UVA program.

“From the first time we spoke to Ryan, he had that quiet confidence that said, ‘Hey, I got this,’” Walker said after Monday’s press conference, where Odom was officially presented as Virginia’s new coach. “Every step of the way and a little bit of what the narrative is I’m hearing — and maybe I’m hearing a limited sample — is that this was obvious.

“It wasn’t altogether obvious. The more we looked, it became obvious. But we had great candidates who want to be here, and we had to look and talk and vet all of them, and Ryan, every step of the way, just stood out.”

During the presser, Odom talked about how when he was just a kid, he accompanied his father, Dave Odom, then the head coach at East Carolina, to meet with Virginia head coach Terry Holland about joining Holland’s staff. They met at a nondescript hole-in-the-wall diner in Clarksville, near the Virginia-North Carolina border, to discuss the possibilities. Dave Odom agreed to come to UVA, where he was an assistant for several years.

All Ryan Odom remembered about the trip, just being a youngster, is that they had a meal.

When Ryan Odom met with Virginia’s brass for the first time, it wasn’t anything like his dad’s and Holland’s meeting. It was via Zoom.

But when Odom was asked to meet UVA president Jim Ryan and AD Carla Williams, one of the first questions was, Why Virginia?

Odom was prepared. He had his wife, Lucia, to print two pictures of him posing in a Virginia uniform for the cover of a Cavalier basketball camp brochure. He was 12 years old and the photos were taken by Holland’s wife, Ann, who was in the audience for Monday’s presser.

“So I just put them right in front of them,” Odom said. “Why Virginia? That’s why Virginia. That’s the starting of why Virginia.”

Walker said that after the initial contact, the committee, Williams and others attached to the search began to watch Odom’s VCU team play a lot, and the more they watched, the more they were convinced.

“He talked about his defense and being an offensive guy, but they were a great defensive team and they played hard every night,” Walker said. “So you put what we learned about him as a guy, what we saw when we talked to him and watch his team play, and it became obvious.”

Walker met up with Odom’s parents, Dave and Lynn, at Monday’s press conference and it was a great reunion.

“I’ve stayed in touch with Dave over the years, but the last time I saw Dave and Lynn was on Maui, because they run the Maui Invitational, and I’ve got a home on Maui,” Walker said. “So literally, they’re at our home and on our deck, the last time I saw Dave and Lynn. It’s a small world.”

Jeff Jones on Odom’s offense, recruiting and defense

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Photo: UVA Athletics

One aspect of Ryan Odom’s recruiting reach that may have been overlooked during his introductory press conference on Monday was his international links.

Jeff Jones, who coached at Virginia, American and ODU, and hired Odom at American years ago, attended Monday’s event, and was all onboard with the hire.

“He’s a coach’s son and he knows the game,” said Jones, who was also a coach’s son (as was former UVA coach Tony Bennett). [Odom] looks at it differently than just guys who have played basketball.”

As an assistant to Jones for two years at American, Jones was amazed at Odom’s ability to recruit internationally, developing recruiting ties that father, Dave Odom, created while at Wake Forest, i.e. Tim Duncan, Ricky Peral and others.

“Ryan had great international contacts,” Jones said. “In fact, his recruiting internationally was probably better at that time than it was recruiting kids from the U.S. At one point, we had seven or eight international kids at American. We called ourselves NATO.”

Odom’s VCU team this past season had two players from England, one from France and another from Ukraine.

Jones has closely watched Odom develop over the years in terms of coaching philosophy, and liked what he heard during Monday’s press conference.

“It was definitely true what he was saying about the offense,” Jones said. “He definitely was more offensive-thinking (when he worked at American) than defensive at that time.

“When he first went to UMBC, I was at Old Dominion and we were going to play at Towson. We practiced at UMBC and Dave (Odom) was there. Dave pulled me aside — he uses me sometimes to deliver messages to Ryan, noting that Ryan wouldn’t listen to his father — and Dave wanted me to talk to him about they’ve got to be better defensively.”

Jones shared a laugh, noting that sons will often listen to someone else other than their fathers. So Jones passed the message along and “Ryan was like, ‘Yeah, I know. He tells me all the time.’

“But as he evolved as a coach, anybody who watched his team this past year knows that they do pay attention to defense, but I think stylistically, it will be very different than what folks here have been accustomed to.”

Cofie makes it seven Cavaliers now in portal

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Photo by Nikolozi Khutsishvili

New Virginia basketball coach Ryan Odom may have to recruit an entire new team after three more Cavaliers have announced they will enter the transfer portal.

Promising freshman Jacob Cofie became the latest to go portaling on Tuesday, making a grand total of seven Cavaliers now in the portal. Only returning senior Elijah Saunders had not announced any intentions of leaving as of late Tuesday afternoon, meaning six of UVA’s top nine players are in the portal, along with TJ Power, who played sparingly. Senior Taine Murray exhausted his eligibility.

Cofie is likely a player that Odom would like to return. The 6-foot-9 West Coast forward could score inside and outside, starting 16 of 32 games as a true freshman this past season, averaging 20.8 minutes per game.

The Seattle native averaged 8.7 points per game, shooting nearly 50 percent from the field (49.5) on 90 of 182 field-goal attempts. He was also an effective shooter from the 3-point arc, making 39.7 percent of his attempts (10 of 41), along with 75 percent of his free throws to go with 4.6 rebounds and 27 blocked shots.

A total of seven Cavaliers have entered the portal, including the newest entries: freshman Cofie; redshirt freshman forward Anthony Robinson; and sophomore TJ Power. The trio joins guards Isaac McKneely, Dai Dai Ames, Andrew Rohde, and forward Blake Buchanan.

Of the seven players who participated in Virginia’s last game of the season, a 66-60 loss to Georgia Tech in the second round of the ACC Tournament, only Saunders remains. Neither Robinson nor Power played in the game.

Robinson appeared in 26 games and became a crowd favorite as he gave UVA a physical presence in the paint, something this team had lacked until he began to clock some meaningful minutes. The big man, who still needs footwork development, did make 72 percent of his field-goal attempts (31 for 43), many of them coming from powerful dunks, while averaging 3.6 points and 2.4 rebounds per game, along with 15 blocked shots.

Wahoo fans were hopeful that Power could rediscover the magic that made him a 5-star high school prospect, but it never arrived.

Virginia recruited him out of high school, but Power chose Duke, where he played sparingly (7 minutes per game over 26 games). He transferred to UVA after his freshman season in Durham and started the first five games this past season for the Cavaliers, but was never able to build his game.

For the season, Power was 9 of 44 on field goals (20.5 percent) and 6 of 33 from the 3-point line (18.2 percent). He made all 8 of his free-throw attempts.

McKneely, the team’s leading scorer, left the door open in his portal announcement, noting that he gave himself the option of returning.

Odom’s goal to make Virginia a Top 10 program

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Photos: UVA Athletics

The regular game day routine was that assistant coach Dave Odom, who lived two doors down from head coach Terry Holland, would stop outside the Holland’s, and yell, “C’mon Whistle,” to which Holland would come outside and they’d walk from their neighborhood, down Alderman Road, across the bridge and enter University Hall.

Ryan Odom, starting in third grade, was the coolest kid in town because he got to walk with the two Virginia basketball coaches to the games during one of the golden eras of Wahoo hoops. Students would line the opposite side of the street and shout to the coaches, “Kick their ass” no matter the opponent.

Those memories were rekindled Monday afternoon at John Paul Jones Arena where Ryan Odom, with his parents and family looking on, along with the Hoos Hoo of Virginia basketball, was introduced as the Cavaliers new head coach.

The younger Odom fondly remembered how his dad and “The Whistle,” would go to war against the likes of Dean Smith, Norm Sloan, Lefty Driesell, Jim Valvano and Bobby Cremins. He eventually graduated to becoming a ball boy and would sit behind the visitors bench where he would hand out water to players and eavesdrop into the huddles.

As a kid, he’d sit on future Hall of Famer Ralph Sampson’s knee, hang out with point guard and future boss Jeff Jones and as a 12-year-old, pose for the cover of a Virginia basketball camp brochure, draped in Cavalier gear.

After years of perfecting his craft, Ryan Odom came home on Monday, taking over a Virginia program that has dwindled the last couple of years, but has aspirations to returning to the upper echelon of the ACC and beyond.

Equipped with a rededicated warchest, one that AD Carla Williams termed as “a significant jump,” the goal is to push Wahoo basketball to greatness.

“We had to shift the culture,” Williams shared about the program’s new emphasis on NIL. “We have secured the funds we need to have a top 10 program.”

Wahoo fans can think Cavalier legend Barry Parkhill’s intense fundraising efforts for that deed. Now, it’s up to Odom to see it through.

The 50-year-old has already guided three programs to the NCAA Tournament — UMBC, Utah State and VCU — and won’t rest until Virginia is a regular winner, not just a participant, in the college basketball’s premier event.

Sixteen years ago, a relative unknown named Tony Bennett, received a warm welcome in the same building and shared philosophies he had learned from his father, also a coach, on how to build a program that would last: the Five Pillars, taking no shortcuts, focus on defense.

On Monday, Odom shared his beliefs on what it takes to win.

“My job is to love my players, whether a guy is scoring 18 a game or he never gets into the game,” Odom said. “My job is to help them grow. My job is to help them become men. My job is to challenge them and tell them when they’re wrong.

“My job is to be there for them when they’re down and help build them back up because we all have adversity, we all go through  it, every one of us. And how you respond to it, there’s no better lesson than that, the Virginia lesson, that united pursuit that has happened here. There’s no better lesson than that.”

The new coach addressed myriad of topics from roster building to his coaching staff, playing style, hiring a general manager, NIL and more.

For those accustomed to Bennett’s “first to 50, wins,” style of offense, hang on. Things are changing.

“It’s been well documented I love offense,” Odom said with a wide grin. “Coach [Tony] Shaver, my college coach (at Hampden-Sydney), is sitting back over there behind the cameras, and he was an amazing mentor. I learned so much from him.”

Shaver learned from Carolina’s Dean Smith and that meant playing fast, which his Hampden-Sydney teams did.

“So that’s where I learned the speed of the game,” Odom said. “And we pressed. We’re up full court at all times. It was hard to play 27 minutes.”

While he’s had a love affair with offense, he has put an emphasis on balance over the years and his recent VCU team was a prime example.

Having wasted no time in bringing on board his college teammate and former assistant, Longwood coach Griff Aldrich, as his associate head coach at Virginia, Odom said he has brought his previous coaching staff with him at all stops.

“I thought it was really important that I had guys from the VCU family join me there and join our staff there,” Odom said. “To watch them integrate and become a team with our staff was a great example for our team at VCU. It’s going to happen here, too. It’s really important that we do the same thing here.”

Odom and Williams both confirmed that it is in the plans to hire a general manager for basketball. Williams revealed that Virginia football had a GM this past year in Tyler Jones, that it just wasn’t publicized, and that women’s basketball recently appointed Armani Dawkins as its GM without fanfare.

The new coach is confident that he and his staff will be able to recruit and believes he has more to sell than ever before with a world-class education and one of the nation’s finest basketball facilities as lures to prospects and to transfers.

Recruiting and the portal are of major importance. The portal opened Monday and four UVA players were among the more than 500 players who entered on the very first day — Blake Buchanan, Dai Dai Ames, Andrew Rohde and leading scorer Isaac McKneely (although McKneely did not he left himself the option to return).

“We have to sit in a room and go and figure out who’s available, what do we need, and then start to attack recruiting,” Odom said. “We’re playing at an elite level, a top 10 level. In order to compete with the best of the best, you have to recruit well and you have to sign great players and you also have to sign guys that understand their role.”

In terms of players currently on the roster, Odom met with the team two nights ago and encouraged the players to be themselves.

“The best way to get to know one another is to have conversations,” the coach said. “Individual conversations. And then get on the court.”

In fact, not long before Odom and Aldrich entered the main part of JPJ Arena, they were observing Virginia players in the practice gym along with UVA coaches Kyle Guy, Isaiah Wilkins, Chase Coleman and strength coach Mike Curtis, putting the players through a workout.

“It’s not something we want to rush,” Odom said. “One thing that I told these guys is there’s no judgment if you put your name in the portal. That’s OK, because I made this decision, because this situation is what it is. They have to figure out what’s best for them.

“My job is to communicate and find out why did you choose Virginia? What do you like about this place? Ultimately, we’ll have to come to a decision. Do they want to stay? Do they want to find another situation? There are no hard feelings.”

Ryan Odom, who had other options, made his decision. He’s come home.

COMING TUESDAY: It was a homecoming celebration for the Odom family. Also, Jeff Jones and Wally Walker talk about what UVA is getting in Ryan Odom. Also, Griff Aldrich adds some insight to his coaching relationship with Ryan Odom. All at JerryRatcliffe.com.

Virginia backcourt mates McKneely, Rohde entering transfer portal

From Staff Reports

Both Isaac McKneely and Andrew Rohde announced Monday that they will be entering their names into the NCAA transfer portal.

McKneely, a native of Poca, W.Va., has one year of eligibility remaining after being a key member of the Virginia program over his first three collegiate seasons.

Rohde, who spent a year at St. Thomas in Minnesota before transferring to Charlottesville ahead of the 2023-24 season, will also have a year of eligibility left.

McKneely and Rohde join Blake Buchanan and Dai Dai Ames as UVA players with their names currently in the portal. The Cavaliers announced over the weekend that Ryan Odom will be the team’s new head coach.

McKneely was the Wahoos’ leading scorer this past season with an average of 14.4 points per contest, sinking 101 of 240 attempts from the 3-point line (42.1 percent).

Rohde averaged 9.3 points per game and led the Hoos with 4.3 assists per game, and shot at a 41.3-percent clip from long range (43 for 104).

BREAKING: Odom hires old teammate, Longwood head coach Aldrich

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Photo: Longwood University Athletics

As speculated on this site last week, new Virginia basketball coach Ryan Odom has lured a longtime friend and associate to the Cavaliers program.

Griff Aldrich, who guided Longwood University’s basketball team for the past seven seasons (2018-25), has accepted a role with Odom at UVA. Longwood immediately promoted assistant coach Ronnie Thomas to the head coaching position.

Aldrich and Odom were teammates at Hampden-Sydney, creating a strong bond that carried over to Odom’s head coaching job at UMBC, where Aldrich served as the Retrievers’ director of recruiting and program development. UMBC flourished under that leadership, transitioning from a cellar-dweller to American East champions and an NCAA Tournament team.

At Longwood, Aldrich directed the Lancers to a 127-100 record in Big South play, including NCAA Tournament appearances and back-to-back, 20-win campaigns.

Aldrich, 50, earned his Juris Doctorate from UVA Law School just prior to accepting a role as an assistant coach under his former Hampden-Sydney coach Tony Shaver for the 1999-2000 season, as the Tigers posted a 24-0 record, a No. 1 Division III national ranking and an ODAC championship, extending the season to the second round of the NCAA Division III Tournament.

Following that outstanding season, Aldrich began a 16-year career in law and business, becoming a partner at Vinson & Elkins, a leading international law firm, working in London and Houston. He later built a private oil and gas company in Texas, where he was managing director and CFO.

Odom convinced him to join him at UMBC and the rest is history.