After a lifetime of growing up in and around the Atlantic Coast Conference, Ryan Odom is making the most of his first head coaching opportunity in the same league — even at the same university — where his father became a highly successful college coach decades ago.

Odom even was a legitimate candidate for 2026 ACC coach of the year, an honor his father, Dave Odom, captured three times in the 1990s.

Ryan Odom was born in Durham, N.C., back when Dave was still a high school coach. Ryan was just a toddler when Dave moved the Odom family to Winston-Salem upon accepting an assistant coaching job at Wake Forest. Ryan was in elementary school when Dave accepted his first college head coaching job, at East Carolina, in 1979.

Then came long stretches when Dave was an assistant under coach Terry Holland at Virginia (1982-89) and then the head coach at Wake Forest (1989-2001). Ryan started high school in Charlottesville, finished in Winston-Salem, then stayed in “ACC country” for college and more basketball, as a point guard at Hampden-Sydney.

Now Odom, 51, is off to a fantastic start as the first-year leader at UVa, after successful head coaching stints at Lenoir-Rhyne (one season), UMBC (five seasons), Utah State (two seasons) and VCU (two seasons).

His time at UMBC included the #16 seed Retrievers’ shocking first-round NCAA Tournament upset of coach Tony Bennett and #1 seed Virginia in 2018, a legendary game that marked the first time a #16 seed had ever defeated a #1 seed.

“This (UVa) is the place that I fell in love with basketball,” Odom, once a ball boy at UVa home games, said at his introductory press conference last March. “This is the place where I was shaped in so many ways by the former players, the former coaches. … For me, it was just an amazing, amazing childhood, and I’m thankful for Coach Holland. I’m thankful for the decision that you made to bring us here, Dad. And, Mom, you for agreeing to go along for the ride.

“I’m so thankful to be home here at UVa. I’m motivated to help continue to build this place and hopefully return it to greatness, and I couldn’t be more humbled and thankful and grateful to be here.”

Perhaps the most stunning aspect of the Cavaliers’ 29-5 record and #9 national ranking this season is that all 10 rotation players (see below) from last year’s UVa squad departed, nine for the NCAA transfer portal and one for the professional ranks. Odom essentially had to start his 2025-26 club from scratch.

Odom quickly built a solid foundation for this season via the portal. He signed two important role players from other Power Five programs (BYU point guard Dallin Hall, Kansas center Ugonna Onyenso) and scoured lower-profile leagues for highly experienced system fits, such as sharp-shooting wing players Malik Thomas (San Francisco), Sam Lewis (Toledo) and Jacari White (North Dakota State).

Along the way, Odom also convinced local point guard prospect Chance Mallory, who had committed to Bennett in 2024, to follow through on his dream to play for the hometown Cavaliers.

Ultimately, UVa’s 2026 outlook went from “good” to “great” because Odom tapped a brand-new form of the international talent pipeline. For the first time in NCAA history, programs could offer prospects both revenue-sharing money and Name-Image-Likeness opportunities, and nobody in the ACC capitalized on that “new world order” more than the Wahoos did.

Last spring and summer, Odom added two young European professionals to an extremely experienced lineup that already included four graduate students and two other upperclassmen. In late April came 7-foot, 238-pound German center Johann Grunloh. In mid-July came 6-9, 238-pound Belgian forward Thijs De Ridder.

Now the 23-year-old De Ridder is UVa’s best player and a first-team All-ACC candidate, Grunloh is a fellow starter and one of the best shotblockers in the league, Mallory is one of the half-dozen best freshmen in the conference, and the Cavaliers are challenging #1 Duke for ACC supremacy.