Tag: VCU basketball

Utah State Basketball: Ryan Odom To Be Hired At VCU, Per Reports

The Aggies’ head coach has been a hot commodity in the head coaching market after leading Utah State back to the NCAA tournament.

[mm-video type=playlist id=01fb7dafw2b08817yr player_id=none image=https://mwwire.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]

Utah State Basketball: Ryan Odom To Be Hired At VCU, Per Reports

The Aggies’ head coach has been a hot commodity in the head coaching market after leading Utah State back to the NCAA tournament.

Contact/Follow @MattK_FS & @MWCwire

The expected departure appears imminent.

After leading the Utah State Aggies to their third Big Dance appearance in the last five years, head coach Ryan Odom became the focus of rumors that his days in Logan could be numbered as suitors came calling. Now, it appears his next destination has become clear.

Following Mike Rhoades’s move from VCU to Penn State, the Rams will turn to Odom to replace him, according to multiple reports. If confirmed, it would become Odom’s fifth coaching stop after serving as an interim head coach at Charlotte back in 2014-15, which was followed by a Sweet 16 appearance at Division II Lenoir-Rhyne, five years at UMBC which included the first win by a 16-seed in NCAA Tournament history, and two years at Utah State.

Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic noted that a deal could be finalized by tomorrow while pointing out that Odom also has a connection with current VCU athletic director Ed McLaughlin from their time together at American University in Washington D.C.:

The resolution would appear to end speculation which also tied Odom to the USF job recently taken by Kennesaw State’s Amir Abdur-Rahim. It would also take him back to the mid-Atlantic region where he played as a student at Hampden-Sydney and served as an assistant for programs like American and Virginia Tech.

In two years at Utah State, Odom accumulated an overall record of 44-25. The 26-9 mark his Aggies posted in 2022-23 represents the single-best season of his nine-year career as a head coach, through which he has a 170-106 record.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1361]

Advertisement

[protected-iframe id=”f7652191f99ba13728097498e8a79cd8-137729785-123448869″ info=”https://open.spotify.com/embed-podcast/show/48681pqFq0kB9dhrtPPoNd” width=”100%” height=”232″ frameborder=”0″]

Men’s NCAA tournament history repeats with two mid-majors, UConn set for Final Four in Houston

Two mid-majors playing in the Final Four in Houston. UConn also competing for a title. Is this 2023 or 2011??

One of the 2023 men’s NCAA tournament Final Four matchups is set in stone, and it’s the round’s first battle of non-major conferences since 2011.

No. 9 Florida Atlantic and No. 5 San Diego State are now set to square off in the Final Four of this year’s tournament. They’ll join Butler and VCU as the only other two mid-major teams to ever battle in March Madness’ last weekend.

Funny enough, that Butler/VCU matchup in 2011 was in Houston, Texas, and the winner of that game went on to face Connecticut.

Twelve years later, we’ve got a Final Four in Houston with two mid-major teams squaring off on one side of the bracket and Connecticut playing on the other side.

History might fully repeat itself in the most fascinating way if UConn wins the whole thing. It already is repeating itself with a few key parts.

We’ll see who else will join FAU, SDSU and UConn in the 2023 Final Four once we know the outcome of Texas/Miami.

UConn played Kentucky in its 2011 Final Four game, and the Huskies will get to play a Power Five team in Texas or Miami.

History really does repeat itself.

Could Texas and these teams be on upset alert?

We look at some of the most dangerous potential Round of 64 upsets.

March Madness is underway in Dayton, Ohio with two Tuesday play-in games. They call it madness for the upsets that are about to ensue.

A handful of schools have put themselves on the map in recent seasons. Miami head coach Jim Laranaga made the George Mason Patriots famous in a Final Four run as a No. 11 seed in 2006. Shaka Smart took his No. 12 seeded VCU Rams as far a few years later.

The more shocking upsets come from higher seeds. Last season, St. Peter’s made history as the first No. 15 seed to reach the Elite 8. Before they could start the run, the Peacocks had to get past No. 2 seeded Kentucky.

While the Longhorns could fall prey to No. 15 seed Colgate, I wouldn’t anticipate Texas to lose. The most likely upsets usually occur with teams ranked between No. 9 and No. 13 seeds. Let’s look at some of the teams who can pull off potential upsets.

[gambcom-standard rankid=”3003″ ]

[gambcom-standard rankid=”3006″ ]