Livescore
VCU is wasting no time getting its next coach in place. With Mike Rhoades accepting a seven-year offer to move to Penn State, the Rams are planning to hire Utah State coach Ryan Odom, sources told CBS Sports.
A deal is not yet done, but the transition is not expected to take long.
Odom made his name in coaching at UMBC, when in 2018 he guided the Retrievers to the first 16-over-1 upset in NCAA Tournament history against Virginia. Odom spent the past two seasons at Utah State, going 44-25. He took the Aggies to this year’s NCAA Tournament, earning a No. 10 seed.
Odom is 170-106 in his career. The hire makes sense on two fronts, the first being that Odom was always expected to eventually move back East, where he’s been in basketball his entire life, with the exception of his brief stint at Utah State. The second being his specific ties to the greater-Virginia region. Odom played at Virginia-based Hampden-Sydney (a Division III program) in the early-to-mid 1990s, then worked as an assistant at American University and Virginia Tech from 2000-2010. The 48-year-old is 158-100 in his career.
VCU athletic director Ed McLaughlin has a longstanding relationship with Odom and, per sources, made overtures earlier this week, once it became a possibility that Penn State could lure away Rhoades. Odom was a hot commodmity coming off Utah State’s tournament appearance. He held off on an offer from South Florida once VCU signaled interest.
VCU is set to hire its sixth coach in 17 years. The previous five (Jeff Capel, Anthony Grant, Shaka Smart, Will Wade, Mike Rhoades) all left for power-conference jobs after making the NCAA Tournament.
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