Odom’s UVA press conference set for Monday

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Life has come full circle for Ryan Odom, from Virginia team ball boy at University Hall to becoming the program’s 13th head coach and from riding his bike to practice, where his father, Dave, was an assistant coach, to now directing practices for the Cavaliers.

UVA made the 50-year-old former VCU coach’s hiring official with an announcement by athletic director Carla Williams on Saturday morning. An introductory press conference is scheduled for Monday at 3 p.m. on the court at John Paul Jones Arena. The public is invited to attend.

Odom has deep roots in coaching. Dave Odom was an assistant under Terry Holland, the program’s winningest coach until Tony Bennett surpassed that record two seasons ago. Dave Odom was Holland’s assistant from 1982 to 1989, which coincided with Ryan Odom’s youth (3rd through 10th grades).

During those early years, Ryan’s future boss, Seth Greenberg, temporarily lived in the Odom’s home, while he was an assistant coach on Holland’s staff. Ryan went on to work for Greenberg as an administrative assistant at South Florida, then later became a member of Greenberg’s coaching staff at Virginia Tech (2004-2010).

Between his first gig with Greenberg in 1997 and taking over the VCU program in 2023, Odom was an assistant coach at Furman, UNC Asheville, American, then to Virginia Tech. From there, he became assistant coach, then associate head coach at Charlotte before being named interim head coach in 2015.

Moving on to the head-coaching job at Division II Lenoir-Rhyne, Odom turned the Bears’ program around in 2015-16, with a 13-win improvement and a 21-10 record. He led the program to its first-ever NCAA Sweet 16 appearance, while the Bears led the nation in 3-point field goals made per game and finished ninth the the nation in scoring (90.2 points per game).

He was quickly scooped up by UMBC in 2017 and directed the Retrievers to a 97-60 mark in five seasons, and won the America East Tournament championship in 2018 and in 2021, earning the league’s coach of the year honors, along with NABC District 1 Coach of the Year.

Odom’s UMBC teams posted three consecutive 20-win seasons, including a school-record 25 in 2017-18. The 2016-17 team made it to the CollegeBasketballInsider.com (CIT) semifinals, becoming the first America East team to win three games in the postseason, and it earned him the Joe B. Hall Award, presented to the top first-year coach in Division I.

In 2018, Odom orchestrated UMBC’s major upset of Virginia in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament in Charlotte, as the No. 16 seed Retrievers became the first to stun a No. 1 seed in tournament history.

Odom moved on to Utah State, where he posted a 44-25 record and led the Aggies to an NCAA Tournament berth his second season with a 26-9 record in 2022-23. His squad was ranked 16th nationally in offense that season.

When VCU searched for a coach in 2023, Odom licked his chops to return to the East, and directed the Rams to a 24-14 mark, reaching the Atlantic-10 championship game and to the NIT quarterfinals, beating Villanova and South Florida in that postseason march.

This season, Odom’s VCU team rolled to a 28-7 record, won the A-10 championship and moved on to the NCAA Tournament as a No. 11 seed before losing Thursday against No. 6 seed BYU. His Rams’ team boasted the A-10 player of the year and the conference tournament’s MVP.

For his two seasons at VCU, his squads went 52-21, raising his 10-year record as a head coach to 222-127, leading VCU, UMBC and Utah State to the NCAA Tournament in the second season at each school.

Odom was a solid college player as well, graduating from Hampden-Sydney in 1996 with a bachelor’s degree in economics. He was a starting point guard for four seasons at H-S and was team captain his senior campaign.

During his career there, Hampden-Sydney went 80-30, including two berths in the NCAA Division III Tournament. He finished his career as H-S’s all-time leader in 3-pointers made and fourth in assists.

His father Dave was ACC Coach of the Year in 1991, 1994 and 1995 at Wake Forest, where he coached Tim Duncan, then was SEC Coach of the Year in 2004 at South Carolina, where he retired after the 2008 season.

Ryan Odom and his wife, Lucia, have two sons: Connor and Owen.