We know that Ryan Odom got a nice bump in salary when he took the UVA Basketball job. Now we know what he was able to do for the staff that he brought with him from VCU.
First, to refresh: Odom will make $3.25 million in Year 1 of his six-year deal, with $100,000 annual raises that will take his salary in the final year of the deal, the 2030-2031 season, to $3.75 million.
Odom, at VCU, was set to make $1.9 million for the 2025-2026 season, with $100,000 annual raises that would have taken his pay to $2.2 million for the final year of his contract, the 2028-2029 season.
OK, so, now that we’re all on the same page, let’s look at what the assistants are getting.
We’ll start at the top, with Griff Aldrich, the associate head coach, who took that job after giving up his job as the head coach at Longwood.
Aldrich still hasn’t signed a contract or offer sheet, according to the Freedom of Information Act office at the University of Virginia, so we don’t know what he’s going to make at his new job.
We know, from the FOIA folks at Longwood University, that Aldrich was paid $315,000 in base salary for his work in the 2024-2025 season, under the terms of a 10-year contract extension signed in 2023 and set to expire in 2033.
He was due to get $5,000 annual raises, so, he would have been due $355,000 for the final year of that deal, way out into the 2032-2033 season.
ICYMI
- UVA Basketball: Griff Aldrich ‘excited’ about chance to rejoin Ryan Odom
- UVA Basketball: Odom fleshes out staff with more from his VCU posse
- UVA Basketball: Ryan Odom hires three former VCU assistants to new staff
Next, we’ll look at the three full-time assistants added to the Odom staff at UVA to this point.
Thanks, of course, to the FOIA folks at UVA, for getting us the information on the UVA numbers.
The VCU numbers come from a simple email back-and-forth with the VCU Athletics communications folks.
- First up, Matt Henry, who was with Odom at VCU and, before that, at Utah State and UMBC, will be paid $350,000 a year on a two-year deal with UVA, an increase from the $235,000 a year that he was getting on Odom’s staff at VCU.
- Bryce Crawford is next: Crawford, who was on Odom’s staffs at VCU, Utah State and UMBC, is getting $275,000 a year from UVA on his two-year deal, an increase from the $205,000 a year that he was getting at VCU.
- Finally, Darius Theus, who was with Odom for just the two years at VCU, will get $250,000 a year from UVA on his two-year deal, an increase from the $140,000 a year he was getting at VCU.
And now, the support staff:
- Kelsey Knoche, the director of basketball operations, and was on Odom’s staffs at VCU and Utah State in similar capacities, is getting $130,000 a year on a one-year deal from UVA, a modest increase from the $105,000 a year she was paid at VCU for this past season.
- Matt Hart, the director of analytics, who served in a similar role under Odom at VCU, and was a grad student manager for Odom for one season at Utah State, will be paid $130,000 on a one-year deal at UVA, a healthy increase from the $80,000 that he was paid at VCU for this past season.
- Billy Bales, the video coordinator, who served in a similar role under Odom at VCU, and was Odom’s director of player development at Utah State, will be paid $85,000 on a one-year deal at UVA, an increase from the $60,000 that he was paid at VCU for this past season.
- Finally, Ahmad Thomas, the director of recruiting, and was Odom’s director of player development at VCU, will be paid $85,000 on a one-year deal at UVA, an increase from the $54,000 he was paid at VCU for this past season.
I’ll be blunt here: the assistants and support staffers aren’t getting that much more at UVA relative to VCU.
Let’s look back at what Tony Bennett’s staffers were getting:
- Ron Sanchez was due to make $450,000 last season as an assistant last season.
- Jason Williford, the other long-time assistant on the full-time staff, was paid $433,328.
- Assistant Orlando Vandross was paid $355,535.
- Assistant Brad Soderberg was paid $204,0000.
- Assistant Isaiah Wilkins was paid $150,000.
- Director of basketball operations Ronnie Wideman was paid $221,537.
- Special assistant Kyle Guy was paid $100,000.
- Director of player development Larry Mangino was paid $96,181.
- No employment contract existed for grad assistant Chase Coleman.
Bennett’s guys got a good bit more, line by line.
What we’re still going to look for:
- What Aldrich ends up getting. Guessing here, it’s going to be in the range of what Sanchez and Williford were getting as Bennett assistants, maybe a smidge lower.
- If Odom actually ends up filling the fifth full-time spot. He’s at eight total paid staffers right now, which is what Bennett had when he stepped down.
Share
Chris Graham
