Unlike UVA basketball’s most recent hire, Tony Bennett in 2009, Odom was the subject of immediate media and fan speculation when Bennett abruptly retired in October, thrusting Ron Sanchez into an interim head-coaching role for 2024-25.

According to CBS Sports, Virginia is set to hire the VCU coach as its next head coach. Odom was the coach at UMBC in 2018 when his Retrievers beat Virginia, 74-54, in the first round of the NCAA tournament. It was the first time a No. 16 seed had ever taken down a No. 1 seed since the tournament had expanded to 64 teams.

VCU coach Ryan Odom has emerged as the target for the Virginia job, and a deal is expected to come together in the upcoming days, sources tell me and Jeff Borzello. He’s led VCU, Utah State and UMBC to the NCAA tournament in his career.