Odom’s Wahoos dive into defense, pressing tactics

By Jerry Ratcliffe

While Ryan Odom is the first person to extol the joy of scoring lots of points, don’t overlook his appreciation of defense.

Asked this week if his team had dedicated any time to pressing, Odom didn’t hesitate.

“Right away,” Odom’s voice raised with excitement. “We call it Hammer Up. First practice.”

His teams have earned a reputation for slapping a suffocating press on opponents, forcing turnovers, creating offense in transition. No surprise that was addressed on the first day of fall practice when the team returned to Charlottesville.

“Coach (Matt) Henry and Coach (Darius) Theus have begun to implement [the press], along with other coaches,” Odom said. “Everyone’s involved in this, but you know, Darius is one of the best leaders that VCU has had in the history of its basketball program, and certainly was one of the best at stealing the ball and putting pressure on the other team’s point guard.”

Odom pointed out that while Theus is coaching Virginia’s guards on pressing tactics, everyone on the team, not just the guards, are important in his defensive scheme.

“[Pressing] is a big part of what we do,” Odom said. “It’s got to be what our identity is, and we’re working through it now to see if it’s even feasible for us. The guys are doing a nice job with hit so far, so I’ve been impressed.”

During his mid-summer meeting with media, Odom divulged that he purposely hadn’t really paid much attention to defense at that point, but would address it when fall practice began. True to his word, that has been an important piece in implementing his coaching philosophy.

“Day one, when we got here in the fall, we began to install and implement the defensive gameplan overall,” Odom said. “We do it through stations, we do it through film work, we do it through obviously, five-on-five. The guys have done a great job.”

The Cavaliers are working out four days a week, some days lighter than others.

“More install, less pounding, less five-on-five play than others, but I think the guys have done a good job so far.”