How VCU Connects NC State’s Wade and Virginia’s Odom
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RALEIGH — The University of Virginia and NC State both decided it was time to make changes to their men's basketball programs after the 2024-25 season.
The Cavaliers landed on a coach with deep ties to the school in Ryan Odom, while the Wolfpack made a splash hire by luring Will Wade to Raleigh after his return to college basketball at McNeese State.
Odom and Wade will face off twice in the 2025-26 season as coaches for their new programs, as Virginia is one of NC State's home-and-away opponents in ACC play. Both had different paths to their new roles, but they shared a common stop as head coaches: VCU.
Different Backgrounds, Similar Situations
Odom's return to Virginia is a fulfillment of a childhood dream. His father, Dave, spent nearly a decade as an assistant coach for the Cavaliers. Ryan was a ball boy in Charlottesville while his father served in his role. Years later, he led his UMBC team to the first 16-seed over 1-seed upset in the history of the NCAA Tournament over the 2018 Virginia Cavaliers.
"Every day that I walk in there, I kind of have to pinch myself because it is a special place," Odom said. "But it's the first place that was in my heart before I came to work there. The memories from '82 to '89, you know, they're real things. They're real memories from my childhood."
Wade didn't have the same childhood connections to NC State, but it was a homecoming of sorts for him. After being fired from LSU in 2022 as a result of NCAA investigations into recruiting violations, Wade disappeared from the power-conference coaching ranks.
Now back with a program filled with history, he wants to return the Wolfpack to its former glory, just as Odom is trying to do with Virginia in Charlottesville.
NC State and Virginia were picked fourth and fifth in the Preseason ACC poll. Both should be competitive in the conference despite being led by new coaches.
'Secret Sauce'
Virginia Commonwealth University became a well-known name for most college basketball fans during the early 2010s, in large part due to a Final Four run in 2011. Led by head coach Shaka Smart, the Rams stormed through the tournament, but Smart wasn't alone.
Wade was his assistant coach, fresh off a stint at Harvard University in the Ivy League. The Rams made four postseason appearances while he was an assistant before he took off for a head coaching job at Chattanooga.
He returned to Richmond, Virginia, to lead the Rams as the head coach for two seasons from 2015 to 2017, helping the Rams to a pair of tournament berths. Wade returned to play against VCU when he was coaching LSU, a trip he doesn't remember fondly.
"Yeah, we went up there and got our a** whipped with LSU," he said.
Like Wade, Odom spent just two seasons as the head coach of VCU, beginning in the fall of 2023. He led the Rams to an Atlantic-10 conference championship and an NCAA Tournament berth in 2025. Odom became a member of a deep fraternity of former VCU assistants and head coaches now members of staffs across the country at notable programs.
"Will said to me the other day ... 'We got through there and we didn't mess it up,'" Odom said, laughing. "He's right in a lot of ways because VCU is built to win. It always has been. It's such an impressive place and culture that's been created there."
Went to VCU with no direction or purpose, and was lucky to stumble into my purpose & passion. I was going through one of the toughest times in my life, and was extremely naive, but I was learning from the absolute best.
— Brandon Chambers (@chambershoops) October 7, 2025
The common coaching cliché is, "I got really lucky", etc.,… https://t.co/xi4bVHBIIz
Odom went on to say that something unique about the VCU program is that it survived by being different. The Rams had coaches from Smart's tree in Wade and Mike Rhoades, now at Penn State. Before Smart, current Dayton head Anthony Grant led a very different program.
The fact of the matter is, there's something special about the program. There's also another ACC head coach, Pitt's Jeff Capel, who coached the program in Richmond. Odom thinks he figured it out during his two seasons in Richmond.
"I think there certainly is some secret sauce and I think it's just the care they have for the program," Odom said. "The investment obviously is important, but the community there really supports VCU and I think it's really helpful in continuing that tradition."
Wade went ahead and scheduled a series against his former program for the Wolfpack. NC State is set to take on the Rams on Nov. 17 at the Lenovo Center.
The Cavaliers, just down the road from VCU, won't play against the Rams in 2025 under Odom. However, both new ACC coaches will continue a proud tradition of success that started in Richmond.
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Tucker Sennett graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in Sports Journalism from the esteemed Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. A former basketball player, he has gained valuable experience working at Cronkite News and brings a deep passion for sports and reporting to his role as the NC State Wolfpack Beat Writer On SI.
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