CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW)- UPDATE 3/22 1030AM:  “We got our guy”. That’s the announcement UVA has made in naming now former VCU Head Coach Ryan Odom the program’s 13th head coach. He’s back in Charlottesville after starting high school here when his dad was an assistant under Terry Holland, and even spent time as a ball boy before that. The University will have a 3pm Monday press conference at JPJ and the public is invited. Click here  for all the information on the press conference and the new Hoos’ head coach. 

ORIGINAL:

Multiple media outlets including Fox, CBS, and ESPN are reporting that sources have confirmed that current VCU Head Coach Ryan Odom will be named the next Head Men’s Basketball Coach at the University of Virginia.  There has been rampant speculation about the University’s interest in Odom ever since it was announced that then interim Head Coach Ron Sanchez would not be retained following the Cavaliers’ loss to Georgia Tech in the ACC Tournament.  Odom grew up in Charlottesville because his father, legendary ACC Head Coach Dave Odom (Wake Forest) was an assistant to Terry Holland.  Odom’s VCU Rams went 28-7 this year and won the A-10 regular season title as well as the conference tournament.  However, Thursday they fell 80-71 to BYU in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, and within 24 hours of his postgame press conference with the Rams, sources confirmed that the University had reached an agreement with Odom.  Of course the irony is thick in Charlottesville, because Odom spent 5 seasons at UMBC, and was the head coach of the Retrievers in 2018 when they produced the first upset victory of a No. 16 seed over a No. 1 seed in NCAA history.  The University is expected to make an official announcement on Saturday, and will likely have an introductory press conference next week.

Odom has been a division 1 head basketball coach for 9 seasons, with a record of 193 and 109, but only has one NCAA Tournament win in his tenure at UMBC, Utah State and then VCU and it is against the school that will now hire him.  He will have a significant task to restore a program that reached great heights under his predecessor Tony Bennett, who is the all time leader in wins at UVA and produced the school’s lone national championship as well as two ACC tournament titles.  In this new landscape of NIL, and an active transfer portal, UVA is hoping Odom can navigate a college basketball world that caused Tony Bennett to leave the game.  Known as an excellent recruiter and tactician, Odom gets his first shot in the power conference his family has been a part of for most of his life.  Stay tuned to WINA throughout the weekend as well as early next week regarding the situation.