I love the move by Ryan Odom with the open position on his UVA Basketball staff, with the news Thursday being that he’s hired former Syracuse head coach Adrian Autry to take the spot left open by the departure of Griff Aldrich.
It’s rare that you can lose your right-hand man and best friend and maybe actually upgrade, but I think that’s the case here.
ICYMI
Now, yes, Autry was fired from his job at Syracuse after going 49-48 in his three seasons at the school, his alma mater, where he played and was a long-time assistant under Jim Boeheim.
But what that means is: Autry spent the last three years game-planning against the rest of the ACC – particularly Jon Scheyer at Duke.
We’ve had a lot of movement in the head coach ranks in the ACC just in the past couple of weeks – in addition to Autry, North Carolina fired Hubert Davis, Boston College fired Earl Grant and hired Luke Murray, Georgia Tech fired Damon Stoudamire and hired Scott Cross, NC State got lucky that Will Wade slinked back to LSU and hired Justin Gainey.
That’s still Scheyer and 10 other coaches that Autry has had to prepare a team to play against.
“We are thrilled to add Adrian Autry to our coaching staff at Virginia,” Odom said. “His integrity, extensive experience, commitment to player development and knowledge of the game make him an invaluable addition to our program. I am confident he will help us continue our pursuit of excellence at Virginia. We look forward to welcoming Adrian, his wife, Andrea, and their family to Charlottesville.”
Odom and Autry had a history together – they served on the staff of Seth Greenberg at Virginia Tech from 2008-2010.
You tend to hire people you know, in this or any other business.
“I’m excited and grateful for the opportunity to join Coach Odom and the Virginia men’s basketball program,” Autry said. “This is a new chapter for me, and I am ready to get to work.”
The press release from UVA Athletics announcing the news didn’t spell out the terms of Autry’s employment contract.
I’ll track that down ASAP.
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Chris Graham
