The University of Virginia introduced Ryan Odom as the school’s new men’s basketball coach Monday.
Odom comes to UVA after two seasons at Virginia Commonwealth University – where that team just won the 2025 Atlantic-10 Tournament and earned a spot in this year’s NCAA tournament. The Rams also won a share of the A-10 regular season title and went 52-21 during Odom's two-year tenure. Before his stop at VCU, Odom also held the top coaching positions at Utah State, UMBC, Lenoir-Rhyne and Charlotte.
During his introductory press conference, he talked about his previous coaching experience and taking the reins following former head coach Tony Bennett’s retirement last fall.
“The expectation is to win championships," he said. And so, I feel very prepared to take on what everyone knows is a daunting task – following Coach Bennett, following a legend – 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. I’m excited about it.”
While at UMBC, Odom's team upset top-seeded UVA as a 16-seed in the 2018 NCAA tournament – the first time that ever happened. UVA then went on to win the national championship in 2019 – it’s first and only one in school history.
