VCU head coach Ryan Odom will become the 13th head coach in UVa basketball history. Odom has spent the last nine years as a D1 head coach at three separate stops, leading all three to NCAA Tournament bids. Odom, who has a career record of 222-127, has won two regular-season conference titles and two more conference tournament titles, and has a 1-3 record in the NCAA Tournament. Odom replaces Tony Bennett, who had a historic 15-season run in Charlottesville that included multiple conference titles, 11 NCAA Tournament appearances and the 2019 National Championship.
Odom, 50, grew up around the Virginia program, serving as a ball boy in his youth, while his father, former Wake Forest and South Carolina head coach Dave Odom, served on Terry Holland’s staff. Odom played college basketball at nearby D3 program Hampden Sydney, and has spent nearly all of his coaching career in the mid-Atlantic area in Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland or Washington, D.C. He has worked for one former UVa player and coach, and another former UVa assistant at multiple stops. Odom and Virginia were already tied together in college basketball history, as he led UMBC to their historic upset victory over UVa in the 2018 NCAA Tournament.
Odom has spent the last two seasons at VCU, and this year, became the sixth-consecutive coach to lead the Rams to the NCAA Tournament. VCU went 24-14 in Odom’s first year, making a run to the A-10 Tournament title game, but losing by six to Duquesne. The Rams then beat Villanova and USF in the NIT to advance to the Quarterfinals, before losing at Utah. In 2024-25, Odom’s Rams took a big step forward. After being picked to win the conference in the preseason, VCU did just that, going 15-3 in conference play to win a share of the regular-season title, and then going on to win the A-10 Conference Tournament and earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament. Odom’s top player at VCU, guard Max Shulga, was named A-10 Player of the Year. VCU fell in the first round of this year's tournament, losing to 6-seed BYU 80-71. Odom finished his two-year tenure in Richmond with a 52-21 record.
Prior to VCU, Odom spent two years at another successful mid-major program, Utah State. In his first year in Logan, Odom and the Aggies had a bit of a rebuilding year, going 18-16 and 8-10 in the Mountain West. The Aggies, who led the nation in assist rate that year, lost in the second round of the Mountain West Tournament, and the first round of the NIT. In year two, Odom got the Aggies back to the NCAA Tournament. Finishing #28 in Kenpom and winning 26 games, Utah State went 13-5 in conference play and lost in the conference tournament title game to eventual national runner-up San Diego State. Utah State then lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament 7-seed Missouri. Utah State finished 16th nationally in offensive efficiency in 2022-23.
Odom’s first permanent job as a D1 coach came at UMBC, where he spent five years. Prior to his arrival, UMBC was a program that had experienced very little success. Odom took a program in 2016-17 that hadn’t won double-digit games in a season since winning 15 in 2009, and had won just 11 total games over the previous two seasons. Odom engineered a major turnaround, winning 21 games in his first year with the Retrievers and earning a bid to the CBI, where UMBC won three games before bowing out. UVa fans are certainly familiar with Odom’s second year at UMBC, when they won 25 games, won the America East title after going 12-4 in conference play, and then becoming the first 16-seed to beat a 1-seed in the NCAA Tournament, at UVa’s expense. Odom never got UMBC back to the NCAA Tournament, but he did have two more winning seasons in his remaining three years there, including a share of the regular-season title in the 2020-21 season before departing for Utah State. In his final season with UMBC, Odom was named America East Coach of the Year.
Odom had a bit of head coaching experience prior to getting his first D1 job. Odom had been an interim coach at Charlotte after head coach Alan Major stepped down to handle health issues, in the 2014-15 season. Odom went 8-11 and 7-11 in C-USA play during his time leading the 49ers. He then left to become the head coach at D2 Lenior-Rhyne for one year, going 21-10, and leading the program to the second round of the D2 Sweet Sixteen. Following that season, he was off to UMBC.
Odom began his coaching career in the mid-90’s, following his playing career at Hampden-Sydney. His first job was as a grad assistant at South Florida under then head coach Seth Greenberg, who had worked with Odom’s father on Terry Holland’s staff at Virginia. He then spent a couple years as an assistant at Furman and then at UNC Asheville, before spending three seasons as an assistant for former UVa coach Jeff Jones at American. Odom then reunited with Greenberg at Virginia Tech for his longest-term role as an assistant, spending seven years in Blacksburg, before going to Charlotte to serve in an associate head coach role.
Odom and his wife, Lucia, have two sons. The oldest, Connor, played for his father as a walk-on at Utah State and VCU.
