Griff Aldrich is leaving UVA Basketball after one season as college teammate Ryan Odom’s right-hand man, to take the head coaching job at Pepperdine.
This one, I don’t get.
I never did pin down what UVA Athletics was paying Aldrich – I submitted multiple FOIA requests for a copy of his contract last spring and into the early summer, but was told each time there were no records responsive to my request, before I just gave up.
ICYMI
I know he made $315,000 in base salary for his work in the 2024-2025 season as the head coach at Longwood, where he was 127-100 with two NCAA Tournament appearances in his seven seasons there.
My best guess, based on what UVA Athletics paid to Tony Bennett’s staff, is that Aldrich was getting somewhere in the $425,000 to $450,000 range annually.
He would seem to be due for a substantial raise at Pepperdine, which paid former coach Lorenzo Romar $824,000 before Romar and the school parted ways.
I can’t find what Romar’s replacement, Ed Schilling, was getting.
Pepperdine parted ways with Schilling on March 9 after his Year 2 ended with a 9-23 record.
Pepperdine is not a plum job, to say the least – I’m talking, one NCAA Tournament appearance this century, all the way back in 2002, six head coaches ago.
Money aside, Aldrich would seem to have been in a better situation on Odom’s staff at Virginia, if nothing else, to wait for a better opportunity than Pepperdine.
But hey, this opens a position on the Odom staff.
Bring back Isaiah Wilkins, stat.
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Chris Graham
