Virginia hired Ryan Odom as its next men’s basketball coach, Athletic Director Carla Williams announced in a press release Saturday morning. The bulletin came roughly 16 hours after CBS Sports reported Friday evening that Odom had signed a deal.
Odom and No. 11 seed VCU exited the NCAA Tournament in the first round Thursday with an 80-71 loss to No. 6 seed BYU.
Odom becomes the program’s first non-interim head coach since Tony Bennett abruptly retired in October. Ron Sanchez finished with a 15-17 record as interim coach this season, the program’s first losing record since 2009-10, and was relieved of duty a couple hours after the season-ending ACC Tournament loss.
Odom, 50, has amassed a 201-117 record in nine seasons as a Division I head coach. He leaves VCU after two seasons. This year, the Rams won the Atlantic 10 Tournament and compiled a 28-7 record, their most wins since 2011-12.
Odom spent two years at Utah State before moving to VCU, reaching the tournament in his second season there. Before that, he coached five years at UMBC, where in 2018 he engineered the biggest upset, at the time, in tournament history. His No. 16 seed squad conquered No. 1 seed Virginia.
But his ties to Virginia run deeper than that upset. His father, venerated former coach Dave Odom, served seven years on Terry Holland’s Virginia staff. The period bridged Ryan Odom’s single-digit and early-teen years. He used to ride his bike over to University Hall to watch practice. Now he’ll be running it.
Odom’s introductory press conference will be held Monday on the court at John Paul Jones Arena at 3 p.m. and is open to the public. The conference will also be live streamed at VirginiaSports.com.
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