Let’s meet a man who might be the man.
Yesterday we took a deeper look at Will Wade, and today we’ll examine one of the other top names to emerge early at NC State. Ryan Odom, a Durham native and the son of Wake Forest coaching legend Dave Odom, is expected to have several good options this offseason, State included.
1.) How old is this fellow? He won’t be hitting retirement soon, right?
Ryan Odom is 50 years old (he’ll turn 51 in July) and should be in for the long haul at whichever power-conference job he gets this cycle. Exactly how long “long haul” might be depends on his level of coachaholism, but this isn’t a concern.
2.) Does he have head coaching experience?
Odom has a decade of head coaching experience across four different schools, including a year at D-11 Lenoir-Rhyne. (He was also briefly the interim head coach at Charlotte in 2015, if you want to toss that in there.)
3.) Does he currently work for ESPN?
He absolutely does not. What are we even talking about here? Who comes up with these questions?
4.) To what extent has he elevated his program(s)?
Odom’s first full-time D-I gig came at UMBC, where you may recall he led the Terriers to the first-ever 16-over-1-seed win against UVA in 2018. His teams were .500 or better in league play in all five of his seasons there; the year before his arrival, UMBC finished at No. 334 in the Pomeroy Ratings and went 7-25. In his first year, the Terriers finished at No. 201 and went 21-13.
He was a little up-and-down there but clearly raised the floor of what is obviously a tough place to win. The program hadn’t had a winning league record in the eight seasons prior to his arrival, and had finished the previous seven outside the KenPom top 300. When he left, UMBC was No. 172.
He parlayed that success into the Utah State job where, like Will Wade at VCU, the task was to build on what was already a good mid-major program. His first Utah State team finished at 60 in KenPom, and his second vaulted to 29, and then he was off to VCU.
The Rams finished at 75 in KenPom his first season and are at No. 29 this year. VCU finished tied for first in the A-10 and should be safely in the NCAA field no matter what it does in its league tourney. (On a side note, Odom will become the sixth straight VCU head coach to move on to a bigger job. Pretty good program they have there.)
5.) Does he have a track record of getting teams to the NCAA tournament?
The track record is not extensive since he’s been hopping jobs rather quickly, but he’s taken UMBC, Utah State, and soon VCU to the NCAAs. This will be his third NCAA tourney appearance; he has yet to take a team beyond the second round.
6.) Is there evidence he can recruit blue chip players?
He hasn’t worked at places that tend to be high on the lists of elite recruits, though he’s landed a couple top-150 guys at VCU: forward Luke Bamgboye (No. 144 in ‘24) and forward Silas Barksdale (No. 88 in ‘25). Both are among the 10 highest-rated recruits ever to sign with VCU, according to the 247Sports database.
7.) How is he handling roster management in the NIL/portal era?
Odom’s first class at VCU was all transfers—a half dozen of them, including a couple of guys who made the move with him from Utah State. He added two more prior to the 2025 season, including our old pal Jack Clark (who is having a really good season, btw). At this point the core of the team is primarily transfers and his first full high school class.
8.) How do his teams perform offensively and defensively?
The Rams tended to struggle offensively under previous head coach Mike Rhoades, never finishing higher than No. 122 in efficiency. They finished at No. 121 in Odom’s first season, and are up to No. 40 this season. He also got Utah State back on track—No. 126 the year before he got there, No. 55 his first year, No. 16 his second.
In general his teams have played a down-tempo style (though nothing so extreme as Tony Bennett, mind) and they take a lot of threes. Over 47% of the Rams’ shots this year have come from beyond the arc, for example.
On the defensive side, we see solid results though not the same upward trajectory from his predecessors at Utah State or VCU. His two USU defenses were top-70 and he’s going to end up with a couple top-40 defenses at VCU, which is more than good enough for me. The Rams this year are highly disruptive, ranking ninth in block rate and 29th in steal rate. They have the nation’s sixth-best 2FG% defense, led by one of those recruits I mentioned above, Luke Bamgboye, who is second nationally in block rate.
9.) Any obvious red flags?
Does the Virginia job (probably) being open constitute a red flag? That would be a seamless transition, if UVA has the interest. Tony Bennett made an effort to name his own replacement when he retired right before the season, and I don’t know how committed UVA is to considering removing the interim tag from Ron Sanchez. Guess we’ll see soon enough.
He hasn’t had any NCAA trouble at any of his stops.