It’ll be official tomorrow – that Ryan Odom will be the next UVA Basketball coach.
And now you know why we kept sending Scott German to VCU to cover Rams’ games, and why we spent a seemingly inordinate amount of time covering the A-10 race that turned into a season-long battle between VCU and George Mason.
Yep, seems that we were maybe onto something with all of this all along.
ICYMI
- UVA Basketball search comes down to five finalists
- UVA Basketball coach search update: A new #1, and a new contender
- Scott German: VCU has something special in former U-Hall ball boy Ryan Odom
Odom, 50, emerged as one of the top candidates early in the search process initiated by Athletics Director Carla Williams after long-time head coach Tony Bennett stepped down on Oct. 18.
Initially, Odom and Marquette coach Shaka Smart, himself a former VCU coach, were considered the top two candidates, with the feeling in December and into January that the search committee, headed up by UVA Basketball alum and former NBA front-office head honcho Wally Walker, was leaning toward Odom, and that Williams was seen as being split between the two at that stage.
In the past three weeks, Odom took the spot at the top of the list, with the search committee eventually giving the nod to five finalists – including Odom, Smart, Iowa State coach TJ Otzelberger, Drake coach Ben McCollum and Furman coach Bob Richey.
Word behind the scenes last week was that Williams had settled on Odom as the choice, and I’ve not been given any indication that there were ever formal talks with anyone on the finalist list beyond Odom.
So, Ryan Odom, new coach.
We should probably be getting official word tomorrow, signifying that Odom is already on the job, which is important, because the transfer portal opens on Monday, and we’re going to want to have Odom and his staff in place ahead of that.
Indications are that UVA Athletics will also be appointing a general manager to head up an NBA-style front office, and what I’m hearing is that the GM will be Griff Aldrich, currently the basketball coach at Longwood.
Aldrich is a UVA Law alum who worked as an attorney for 16 years before joining Odom’s staff at UMBC in 2016 as the director of basketball operations and director of recruiting, before taking the job at Longwood in 2018.
I don’t have a sense on when the GM hire could be materializing, but it would make sense to have that job filled ahead of the opening of the portal as well.
I took a victory lap on behalf of #TeamAFP on the Odom news, so I have to concede here, I didn’t listen to my staff on the Aldrich part of this.
Scott wanted to write about Griff Aldrich being part of a package deal with Odom last week, but I nixed the column, because I wasn’t convinced on the sourcing.
Turns out, he was right on that part of the story.
Bad editor here.
Anyway, all we’re waiting on now is the press release from UVA Athletics making it official, and the announcement about when they’ll be rolling out Ryan Odom for an introductory press conference.
It makes sense to do that before Thursday, just to take advantage of the news cycle ahead of the Sweet Sixteen.
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Chris Graham
