Coaching Rumors and Changes that Affect VCU

Current D1 vacancy and hire list (italics indicate schools supposedly interested in Ryan Odom per reputable media):

Miami (FL) (Jim Larrañaga retired) - hired Jai Lucas (Duke assistant)
Utah (Craig Smith fired)- hired Alex Jensen (Dallas Mavericks assistant)
Florida State (Leonard Hamilton retired) - hired Luke Loucks (Sacramento Kings assistant)
Louisiana-Lafayette (Bob Marlin fired) - hired Quannas White (Houston assistant)
Bellarmine (Scott Davenport retiring) - hired Doug Davenport (son/Bellarmine assistant)
La Salle (Fran Dunphy retired) - hired Darris Nichols (Radford HC)
Stephen F. Austin (Kyle Keller fired) - hired Matt Braeuer (Texas Tech assistant)

Indiana (Mike Woodson retired)
Virginia (Tony Bennett retired)
NC State (Kevin Keatts fired)
South Florida (Amir Abdur-Rahim passed away)
Louisiana-Monroe (Keith Richard fired)
Chicago State (Scott Spinelli fired)
Oral Roberts (Russell Springmann fired)
Murray State (Steve Prohm resigned)
Campbell (Kevin McGeehan fired)
Columbia (Jim Engles resigned)
Penn (Steve Donahue fired)
Radford (Darris Nichols to La Salle)

Villanova? (Kyle Neptune might be fired at the end of the season)
Texas? (Rodney Terry might be fired at the end of the season)
 
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WillWeaverRVA said:
Current D1 vacancy and hire list (italics indicate schools supposedly interested in Ryan Odom per reputable media):

Miami (FL) (Jim Larrañaga retired) - hired Jai Lucas (Duke assistant)
Utah (Craig Smith fired)- hired Alex Jensen (Dallas Mavericks assistant)
Florida State (Leonard Hamilton retired) - hired Luke Loucks (Sacramento Kings assistant)
Louisiana-Lafayette (Bob Marlin fired) - hired Quannas White (Houston assistant)
Bellarmine (Scott Davenport retiring) - hired Doug Davenport (son/Bellarmine assistant)
La Salle (Fran Dunphy retired) - hired Darris Nichols (Radford HC)

Indiana (Mike Woodson retired)
Virginia (Tony Bennett retired)
NC State (Kevin Keatts fired)
South Florida (Amir Abdur-Rahim passed away)
Louisiana-Monroe (Keith Richard fired)
Chicago State (Scott Spinelli fired)
Oral Roberts (Russell Springmann fired)
Murray State (Steve Prohm resigned)
Campbell (Kevin McGeehan fired)
Columbia (Jim Engles resigned)
Penn (Steve Donahue fired)

Villanova? (Kyle Neptune might be fired at the end of the season)
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Texas is also probably going to be added to that list.
 
@Wolfpack Ram since I haven't met you IRL yet..I always envision you bearing some resemblence to either 1970's Jimmy "The Greek"..complete with checkered polyester suit or Officer Taggart from "Beverly Hills Cop".

I myself have started to resemble Malvin from "War Games".

 
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jerryratcliffe.com

VCU's Ryan Odom jumps to top of UVA coaching search - Jerry Ratcliffe

Ryan Odom has leapfrogged over other candidates as the top choice to become Virginia’s next basketball coach, according to sources close to the search committee.
jerryratcliffe.com jerryratcliffe.com

There’s a non-zero percent chance that we miss the tournament. I really hope that’s not the case. If we do miss, is that really the fate of high level mid-majors now? Your coach doesn’t even have to prove himself, he just has to make us think he can win or get in the tourney.
 
New LaSalle Head Coach Darris Nichols played four years at West Virginia under Beilein back when it was in the Big East. Was an assistant at several schools including six seasons at Florida. Career overall record of 67-62 in his four years at Radford. Two winning and two losing seasons. Best year was in 2022-23 when his team tied for 2nd in the Big South at 12-6 and overall 21-15 with a CBI invite (won two games). Convicted (plead guilty) of DUI (BAC was measured at 0.25, triple the legal limit) in 2023.

LaSalle is not an attractive job and likely did not have a lot of great candidates. Still, this selection seems underwhelming at first glance.

Seems some Explorers fans on their forum are not much excited by the hiring calling it "meh".
 
WI.Ram10 said:
jerryratcliffe.com

VCU's Ryan Odom jumps to top of UVA coaching search - Jerry Ratcliffe

Ryan Odom has leapfrogged over other candidates as the top choice to become Virginia’s next basketball coach, according to sources close to the search committee.
jerryratcliffe.com jerryratcliffe.com

There’s a non-zero percent chance that we miss the tournament. I really hope that’s not the case. If we do miss, is that really the fate of high level mid-majors now? Your coach doesn’t even have to prove himself, he just has to make us think he can win or get in the tourney.
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Mason proved that a couple years ago. If we don't make the tournament and Odom leaves he would be the first VCU coach since the 90's not to make the tournament.
 
VCU Finance 2008 said:
Mason proved that a couple years ago. If we don't make the tournament and Odom leaves he would be the first VCU coach since the 90's not to make the tournament.
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Which would be considered a failure of a tenure. Failing up, potentially. Love it.

I really like Odom. He’s a great coach. Really hope we find a way to get in and win a few. If he leaves after that, so be it.
 
WI.Ram10 said:
Which would be considered a failure of a tenure. Failing up, potentially. Love it.

I really like Odom. He’s a great coach. Really hope we find a way to get in and win a few. If he leaves after that, so be it.
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Agreed, if we win the A10 or win in the NCAA tournament then it is what it is. Go to the NIT again and it has been a waste.
 
VCU Finance 2008 said:
Agreed, if we win the A10 or win in the NCAA tournament then it is what it is. Go to the NIT again and it has been a waste.
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If that happens, it would be a failure of scheduling and not so much a failure of coaching, which ultimately may push him out the door because he may decide he just can't get a good schedule here. Odom has had this team playing at a level we haven't seen for a while. Unfortunately, Seton Hall was unexpectedly crappy and we lost to them. Unfortunately, Miami and Boston College (to a lesser extent) were unexpectedly crappy and our wins over them don't mean anything. Colorado State is just shy of being a really nice win, but is just a good Q2 instead. And, the A10 as a whole was rather mediocre this year.
 
SteveMM said:
If that happens, it would be a failure of scheduling and not so much a failure of coaching, which ultimately may push him out the door because he may decide he just can't get a good schedule here. Odom has had this team playing at a level we haven't seen for a while. Unfortunately, Seton Hall was unexpectedly crappy and we lost to them. Unfortunately, Miami and Boston College (to a lesser extent) were unexpectedly crappy and our wins over them don't mean anything. Colorado State is just shy of being a really nice win, but is just a good Q2 instead. And, the A10 as a whole was rather mediocre this year.
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agree with your conclusion that it was a failure of scheduling but would limit it to for those 7 home OOC games.

MTE was fine, how we played was not (especially for a team that relies on MTEs to get our Quad 1 OOC opportunities - losing in the first round to SH was truly a killer (lacked the ability to play Vandy or Drake (one quad 1 and the other quad 2)

as far as SH, BC and Miami being unexpectedly crappy - they all lost their best 2-5 players to graduation or the portal - they were all picked at or near the bottom of their respective conferences - it was Forseeable .

BUT BC was the only one we really scheduled (to play at Navy which is a great event for the players) Miami and SH were just the luck of the draw in the MTE and not under any of our control that they were in that MTE

New Mex and Colo st were great as part of our OOC (kudos to Odom to get them)

go rams
 
SteveMM said:
If that happens, it would be a failure of scheduling and not so much a failure of coaching, which ultimately may push him out the door because he may decide he just can't get a good schedule here. Odom has had this team playing at a level we haven't seen for a while. Unfortunately, Seton Hall was unexpectedly crappy and we lost to them. Unfortunately, Miami and Boston College (to a lesser extent) were unexpectedly crappy and our wins over them don't mean anything. Colorado State is just shy of being a really nice win, but is just a good Q2 instead. And, the A10 as a whole was rather mediocre this year.
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A failure of scheduling is a failure of coaching. Odom, ultimately, controls who we play. Even if he is held to a certain number of home games they don't have to be buy games. There is a lot of space to operate between "No P4 will play us" and the home slate we put out.
 
IF we end up having to write up a new contract for our head coach.... be it brand new, or a renegotiation... perhaps we change any incentives from mere numbers of victories to a wins-vs-sos formula
 
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