VCU’s Ryan Odom jumps to top of UVA coaching search

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Ryan Odom has leapfrogged over other candidates as the top choice to become Virginia’s next basketball coach, according to sources close to the search committee.

Odom is the 50-year-old head coach at VCU with ties to UVA’s basketball program going back to the 1980s, when his father, Dave Odom, was the longtime assistant to Terry Holland. Ryan Odom was a ball boy in those days at University Hall and watched the rise of Cavalier hoops with Ralph Sampson.

Presently, Odom’s VCU Rams are 25-6 overall and sit atop the Atlantic 10 standings at 15-3, tied with George Mason heading into Friday’s conference tournament.

VCU is Odom’s third head coaching job and he’s won everywhere he’s been: UMBC, Utah State and the past two seasons at VCU. Over those 11 seasons, his teams are a collective 219-126 (.635 winning percentage).

There’s no question that Odom is ready for a major job. If Virginia doesn’t grab him, someone else will. Hopefully, UVA learned a lesson at the end of Holland’s regime when Holland announced he would leave at the end of the 1990 season and pushed for UVA to replace him with Odom.

However, then-AD Jim Copeland, who didn’t get along with Holland, decided to make a national search and botched it. Odom was scooped up by Wake Forest and led the Deacons to unprecedented success. Virginia got lucky and hired Jeff Jones, the second-youngest major college coach in the nation, and Jones kept the program at a high level until things unraveled.

Young Odom has been on Virginia’s radar for quite some time during its national search, which began last October. Marquette’s Shaka Smart was UVA’s top target, but may be out of the picture.

One source, when asked what happened to Shaka, replied: “Shaka is focused on his current position.” Normally that means, not interested. Thanks and goodbye.

Of course, that could also be a smoke screen, throwing media off course.

Other candidates under consideration, should the pursuit of Odom not work out, include T.J. Otzelberger, 47, the head coach at Iowa State, who we pointed out several weeks ago as a leading candidate, Ben McCollum, 43, from Drake, and Bob Richey, 41, from Furman.

It’s going to be tough getting Otzelberger out of Iowa State because of his allegiance to the school, a long-term contract and a high buyout, but it’s not impossible. The guy is a winner and has done wonders for the Cyclones. He would be an excellent choice.

McCollum is an interesting figure. He’s a Division II coach who is winning with several DII players he brought with him to Des Moines, where Drake is 30-3. He won two national titles in DII and won 395 games at Northwest Missouri State.

Who knows, he might be another John Wooden, but if you’re Carla Williams, can you afford to take that risk? She has to get this hire right, and we’re told is leaning heavily on former UVA star Wally Walker, who heads up the selection committee, and who had some influence in getting Tony Bennett to Charlottesville.

Walker was president and GM of the NBA’s Seattle SuperSonics, and has a strong background in finding talent.

Richey, like Odom, knocked Virginia out of the NCAA Tournament in the first round in 2023 (Odom’s UMBC squad delivered one of the worst blows in history to Virginia basketball in 2018, becoming the first 16 seed to oust a No. 1 seed).

Richey has been the Paladins’ coach for the past eight years.