How to track the UVA Basketball search finalists in March Madness

All five of the finalists in the UVA Basketball coaching search made the 2025 college basketball postseason – four getting NCAA Tournament bids, the fifth getting an NIT bid.

Ryan Odom, widely assumed to be the top candidate for the job, has his VCU team as the 11 seed in the East.

The Rams (28-6) will face six seed BYU (24-9) on Thursday at 4:05 p.m. on TNT.

Shaka Smart has his Marquette team as the seven seed in the South. Marquette (23-10) will face #10 seed New Mexico (26-7) on Friday at 7:25 p.m. on TBS.

Of note: some in the national media have tried to link New Mexico coach Richard Pitino to the UVA job. No one in my list of contacts, which includes a member of the search committee, has noted any actual interest from UVA in Pitino, but anyway.

Iowa State coach TJ Otzelberger has his team as the three seed in the South. Iowa State (24-9) will face #14 seed Lipscomb (25-9) on Friday at 1:30 p.m. on TNT.

The challenge for Otzelberger: he’ll have to make do without star guard Keshon Gilbert, who will have to miss the NCAA Tournament with a groin injury.

Gilbert, a senior, averaged 13.4 points per game this season.

Iowa State has gone 3-4 in its last seven games, and Gilbert was out of the lineup in three of the four losses.

The final NCAA entrant among this group is Ben McCallum at Drake (30-3), the 11 seed out West.

Drake will face six seed Missouri (22-11) on Thursday at 7:35 p.m on truTV.

I expect McCallum to get a long look from Iowa for its open job, for what it’s worth, relative to the UVA search.

The final coach on our finalists list is Bob Richey at Furman (25-9), which got a bid to the NIT, where the Paladins will face North Texas (24-8) on Wednesday at 8 p.m. on ESPN+.

Schedule

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Wednesday

• Furman (Bob Richey) at North Texas, 8 p.m. ET, ESPN+

Thursday

• VCU (Ryan Odom) vs. BYU, 4:05 p.m. ET, TNT
• Drake (Ben McCallum) vs. Missouri, 7:35 p.m. ET, truTV

Friday

• Iowa State (TJ Otzelberger) vs. Lipscomb, 1:30 p.m. ET, TNT
• Marquette (Shaka Smart) vs. New Mexico, 7:25 p.m. ET, TBS