Virginia hired Ryan Odom, who once led UMBC to one of the NCAA Tournament’s greatest upsets, as its new men’s basketball coach, the school announced Saturday.

Odom spent the last two seasons at Virginia Commonwealth University, posting a 52-21 record and a berth in the NCAA Tournament this year. The Rams lost to BYU 80-71 in the first round on Thursday.

The 50-year-old Odom replaces Tony Bennett, who retired in October, just weeks before the season. Ron Sanchez was named the interim coach and led the Cavaliers to a 15-17 record, missing the postseason, and it was announced he would not be retained as the next coach.

Odom, whose father Dave was a head coach at South Carolina, Wake Forest, and East Carolina and was an assistant at Virginia in the 1980s, has also coached at Charlotte and Utah State.

His biggest success was with UMBC, when the 16-seeded Retrievers upset No. 1-seed Virginia in the first round of the 2018 tournament.

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2025 NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships

Women’s 400 Medley Relay

• NCAA Record: 3:19.58 – Virginia (Curzan, Walsh, Walsh, Moesch), 2025
• Championship Record: 3:21.01 – Virginia (Walsh, Nocentini, Walsh, Parker), 2024
• American Record: 3:19.58 – Virginia (Curzan, Walsh, Walsh, Moesch), 2025
• U.S. Open Record: 3:19.58 – Virginia (Curzan, Walsh, Walsh, Moesch), 2025
• 2024 Champion: Virginia (Walsh, Nocentini, Walsh, Parker) – 3:21.01

TOP 8 FINISHERS:

1. Virginia (Curzan, Walsh, Walsh, Moesch) – 3:20.20 (Meet Record)
2. Tennessee (Fuller, McSharry, Stotler, Spink) – 3:24.99
3. Florida (Sims, Bottazzo Peoples, Cronk) – 3:25.18
4. Indiana (DeWitt, Crawford, Grana, Paegle) – 3:25.83
5. Texas (Bray, Enge, Sticklen, Nesty) – 3:26.11
6. Stanford (Parkhe, Thomas, Huske, Nordmann) – 3:26.34
7. USC (Famous, Dobler, Sasseville, Abraham) – 3:26.82
8. Louisville (Murray, Cheatwood, Welch, Dennis) – 3:27.76

The Virginia women’s 400 medley relay of Claire Curzan, Alex Walsh, Gretchen Walsh, and Anna Moesch swam to a new NCAA meet record posting a 3:20.20. The relay also swam the #2 performance of all-time sitting right behind their own NCAA and American Records of a 3:18.58 that they swam at ACCs last month.

Split Comparison

The biggest difference today was Gretchen Walsh as she split a 47.35 on the fly leg, faster than the 49.15 that sister Alex Walsh swam in the previous meet record.

Notably, Curzan and Gretchen Walsh were all slower in their relay swim tonight compared to their individual wins earlier in the session in their respective stroke 100s. Curzan won the 100 back in a 49.11 while Gretchen Walsh was off her winning time of a 46.97.

Spring football is in full swing for Virginia Tech and there are a lot of newcomers to the program. The Hokies have 12 enrollees as freshman and 19 transfers and as they begin their first season in Blacksburg, they are going to be wearing new jersey numbers as well:

WR Donavon Greene – No. 3

DB Christian Ellis – No. 4

LB Jordan Bass – No. 6

DB Sherrod Covil – No. 7

WR Cameron Seldon – No. 9

QB Kelden Ryan – No. 12

RB Jeff Overton – No. 16

DB Tyson Flowers – No. 17

QB A.J. Brand – No. 18

DB Isaiah Cash – No. 18

DB Joseph Reddish – No. 21

WR Micah Matthews – No. 22

RB Braydon Bennett – No. 24

CB Isaiah Brown-Murray – No. 26

RB Marcellous Hawkins – No. 27

CB Knahlij Harrell – No. 28

CB Jahmari DeLoatch – No. 29

DL Ben Bell – No. 33

CB JoJo Crim – No. 35

LB Brett Clatterbaugh – No. 44

DL Sherrod Henderon – No. 52

OL Tomas Rimac – No. 55

OL Lucas Austin – No. 57

DL Zeke Chinwike – No. 58

OL Kyle Altuner – No. 62

DL James Djonkam – No. 66

OL Carter Stallard – No. 70

DL Christian Evans – No. 88

DL Arias Nash – No. 92

DL Jahzari Priester – No. 95

Earlier this week before practice got underway, Hokies head coach Brent Pry talked about how this spring will be different compared to past years due to having so many new faces:

“You know the spring to me is always a reload you know it’s about fundamentals it’s about guys you know identifying strengths and weaknesses, it’s about planning, schemes, attempting to master your craft, do we have more questions this spring than last? You know, as thorough as you are in evaluating talent, whether it’s a transfer or a high school player, there’s still more to know once they’re on your campus to get a closer look at these guys and how they can help us, how quickly they can help us. That’s a big piece of it this spring.”

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