CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — Ryan Odom was raised on Virginia basketball. Now, he’s being tasked with raising the Cavaliers back among the national elite.
“This is the place that I fell in love with basketball,” the Cavaliers' new coach said Monday during his introductory news conference. “This is the place where I was shaped in so many ways.”
Odom spent a good portion of his childhood in Charlottesville while his father, Dave, worked as an assistant for Virginia’s Terry Holland from 1982-89. Odom’s picture graced the cover of Holland’s camp one summer and Odom even served as a ballboy for the team.
On Monday, in a homecoming party replete with fans, the pep band and cheerleaders, Virginia introduced Odom as the permanent replacement for Tony Bennett, who led the program to its only national championship, in 2019.
That title came a year after one of the most stunning upsets in college basketball history. Odom’s Maryland-Baltimore County team beat Virginia in the first round of the 2018 NCAA Tournament, becoming the first 16-seed to defeat a 1-seed.
“I feel very prepared to take on what everyone knows is a daunting task, following coach Bennett, following a legend,” Odom said. “I’ll be honest. I’m at peace with that. I’m not afraid of it. I wouldn’t be standing here if I was afraid of it.”
Ron Sanchez, Virginia’s interim coach this year after Bennett’s surprise retirement three weeks before the season, went 15-17 and was not retained.
While Odom’s connection to Charlottesville certainly helped him as a candidate, Virginia athletic director Carla Williams made it clear Odom wasn’t simply the choice because of that, or the fact that, for the past two seasons, he’s been coaching an hour's drive away at VCU in Richmond.
Williams said Odom’s proven track record as a head coach — he’s 221-127 over 11 years — combined with his character and adaptability, made him the right fit for the Cavaliers.
“We trust him with this program,” Williams said. “Which is saying a lot because so many have put so much into this program. We trust Ryan with it.”
Odom led VCU to a 28-7 mark this season, winning the Atlantic 10 championship and taking his third school to the NCAA Tournament. He had previously guided UMBC and Utah State into the March Madness field.
The Rams’ season ended Thursday with a first-round loss to BYU.
With the NCAA transfer portal opening Monday, Virginia wasted no time in reaching an agreement with the 50-year-old Durham, North Carolina, native, announcing his hiring Saturday.
Williams said Odom’s contract is still being finalized and she declined to divulge details.
Odom said much of his staff at VCU would join him at Virginia, a group that includes assistants Matt Henry and Bryce Crawford. Odom indicated that longtime Virginia strength and conditioning coach Mike Curtis would remain with the program.
Longwood coach Griff Aldrich, a longtime friend of Odom’s, stepped down from his position with the Lancers on Sunday and will be Virginia’s associate head coach.
Walking out onto the John Paul Jones Arena court, through a tunnel of blue and orange balloons to the AC/DC anthem “Thunderstruck,” Odom smiled as the crowd cheered, this new beginning overtaking some of the painful Virginia loss many fans associate Odom with.
Odom's loose, confident UMBC team overwhelmed Bennett's methodical Virginia squad in a 74-54 March Madness shocker.
It’s a topic Williams and Wally Walker — a member of the search committee that selected Odom — said didn’t come up much during Odom’s job interviews.
“It hasn’t left any of our memories,” Walker said. “That was a hell of a coaching job.”
Odom, wisely, did not mention it in his introductory remarks.
Instead, he talked at length about his deep connection to the Virginia program.
“I may have babysat him when I was at Virginia,” Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle, who played at Virginia, said Monday, adding: “It’s a great hire. You look at what he’s done everywhere he’s been, success has followed. And I don’t see this being any different.”
Jim Larrañaga, who retired this past season after 41 seasons as a college head coach, was an assistant on the Virginia staff under Holland. He shared an office with Dave Odom.
“He was always around the gym,” said Larrañaga, whose son Jay became childhood friends with Odom.
Larrañaga said his memories of the young Odom — who would ride his bicycle to University Hall when elementary school let out to attend practices — aren’t as vivid as his impressions of Odom as a coach in recent years.
In fact, a 77-70 loss to Odom’s VCU squad was one of the 12 games Larrañaga coached this season for Miami before retiring.
“One of my last losses was against VCU,” Larrañaga said. “They beat us. You could tell they had a good team and they’d be very competitive in the A-10.”
Odom, who also served as the interim coach at Charlotte for 19 games in 2015 and spent a year at Division II Lenoir-Rhyne in 2015-16, has won over 20 games in six of his nine full seasons as a Division I coach.
He’ll be hard pressed to change the fact that most of the nation knows him as the coach who historically upset Virginia.
Of course, as Bennett showed, winning a national championship with the Cavaliers can go a long way toward changing how a coach is perceived.
