Virginia has apparently found her new headbasketball trainer in a crazy sense of irony.
Cavaliers have reportedly hired VCU head coach Ryan Odom, who was on the UMBC side line seven years ago when they became the first 16-seed to ever beat a # 1 team in March Madness. This team was Virginia.
Cavaliers participated in this competition in 2018 as 20.5-point favorites, but the end result was the opposite; Retreivers Throttled Virginia, 74-54, after leaping them out in the second half.
CLICK HERE for more sports cover at Foxnews.com
UMBC Retriever’s main coach Ryan Odom during the practice day before the first round of the NCAA tournament in 2018 at the Spectrum Center. (Bob Donnan-usa Today Sports)
Odom did not have similar magic in March when his No. 11 VCU team fell to the sixth seeded Byu in the first round of this year’s tournament.
The 50-year-old lasted at UMBC until 2021, when he went to Utah State; He joined the VCU ahead of the 2023 campaign and is now ready to staff Cavaliers, according to CBS Sports.
Ron Sanchez, as the team’s temporary head coach after Tony Bennett’s sudden pension in October, took over just weeks before the season started. Bennett was quick to point his finger to Nil and said he was “no longer the best coach to lead this program in the current environment.”
If you want to do that, you need to be all in. You have to give everything. If you make it half -hearted. It is not fair to the university and the young men. That’s what made me go away, ”Bennett said at his pension conference.
Virginia Cavaliers Head Men’s Basketball Coach Tony Bennett (R) responds to a press conference announcing his immediate retirement in John Paul Jones Arena. (GEOFF BURKE-FORIVED PICTURES)
Trump misses the coincidence of March Madness Bracket predictions say he can backdate a
“I think it is right for students athletes to receive revenue, but the game in college -athletics is not in a healthy place. It is not. And it should be changed. It will not go back. I think I was equipped to do the job here in the old way – it is who I am and that is how it was – and my staff has bent me together to come to this point, but it must be changed.
“Will I miss the game? Do I love the game? Absolutely,” he added. “But I don’t think I’m equipped in this new way of training and it’s a bear service if you keep doing it. I’m very sure this is the right step. I wish I could have been longer. I really do. But it was time.”
Bennett and his cavaliers came back with a revenge after being upset by Odom (now Bennett’s successor) and UMBC, but drove the table to win it all next year. In recent years, however, has not been friendly to Virginia; They were upset as No. 4 seeds in 2021 and 2023 and failed to get out of the first four last year. By 2022 they were in NIT and they could not do the tournament this year.
VCU Ram’s main coach Ryan Odom during a press conference in Ball Arena. (Isaiah J. Downing-IMAGN PICTURES)
Odom went 52-21 with VCU and owns a lifetime 222-127 record. His father, Dave, served as Virginia assistant in the 1980s.
Fairigh Dickinson joined UMBC five years later and defeated Purdue; The other 158 1 vs. 16 matchups have gone the favorite.
