CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – University of Virginia Dean and Markel Families Men’s Head Basketball Coach Ryan Odom announced Tuesday (April 8) the additions of Director of Operations Kelsey Knoche, Director of Analytics Matt Hart, Video Coordinator Billy Bales and Director of Recruiting Ahmad Thomas.

Knoche, Hart, Bales and Thomas served in similar roles under Odom at VCU the past two seasons. The Rams posted a 52-21 record from 2023-25 and played in the 2025 NCAA Tournament. VCU finished 28-7, won the Atlantic-10 Tournament and shared the A-10 regular-season championship in 2024-25. VCU’s Max Shulga earned A-10 Player of the Year honors and Jack Clark was the A-10 Tournament MVP. In 2023-24, the Rams advanced to the NIT quarterfinals and finished with a 24-14 record.

In addition, Odom announced the return of Head Strength and Conditioning Coach Mike Curtis for his 17th season and Associate Athletic Director for Sports Medicine Ethan Saliba for his 43rd season.

Kelsey Knoche
Knoche is in her fifth season overall with Odom. She served two seasons as the director of operations at VCU (2023-25) and two seasons as the director of operations and external relations at Utah State (2021-23).

Knoche was one of 15 women to hold the title of Director of Basketball Operations on a men’s coaching staff in NCAA Division I in 2024-25.

In her role with the Rams, Knoche oversaw all logistics related to the day-to-day operations of the men’s basketball program, including non-conference scheduling, team travel, managing the program’s operating budget and coordinating recruiting visits. The Fairfax, Virginia, native also served as the program’s liaison to the athletic department.

Prior to her time in Logan, Knoche worked as an assistant coordinator with the University of Maryland men’s basketball program from 2015-21. With the Terrapins, Knoche worked closely with the team’s recruiting efforts, including coordinating on-campus visits and organizing all staff recruiting travel. She also arranged basketball specific fundraising efforts, alumni reunions, and assisted with team travel. Prior to her full-time role, Knoche spent four seasons as an undergraduate with the program as a student operations assistant.

Matt Hart
Hart served as the director of analytics on Odom’s staff at VCU from 2023-25 and was a graduate student manager under Odom at Utah State in 2022-23. The Aggies won 26 games and received an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament during that season.

Hart previously served as an assistant coach at Daemen University in the 2021-22 season, where he assisted in recruiting and was responsible for scouting, and leading on-court workouts for guards and perimeter players.

Hart was the director of player development/director of video operations at George Washington from 2018-19. He played professionally in the United States, Canada, Ireland and Serbia from 2017-18 and 2019-21.

Billy Bales
Bales is in sixth season overall with Odom, having served as the director of video at VCU from 2023-25, director of player development at Utah State from 2021-23 and volunteer assistant at UMBC in 2020-21. He also played for Odom at Lenoir-Rhyne in 2015-16.

While Bales was at Utah State, the Aggies earned a 2023 NCAA Tournament berth and made a 2022 NIT appearance. Three Utah State players received All-Mountain West Conference honors during Bales’ tenure, including 2023 first-team selection Steven Ashworth.

Bales assisted Odom at UMBC with daily scheduling and social media content during his one year with the Retrievers from 2020-21,

Prior to his time in Baltimore, Bales spent two seasons (2018-20) at his alma mater, Lenoir-Rhyne University. The Bears received an at-large bid to the school’s seventh NCAA D-II Tournament, advanced to their first South Atlantic Conference Championship game since 2005 and reached as high as No. 17 in the D-II rankings.

Bales was a four-year letterwinner for the Bears and while playing for Odom led the team to an NCAA Division II Regional Final appearance during the 2015-16 season.

Ahmad Thomas
Thomas, who is a native of Danville, Virginia, spent the past two seasons (2023-25) at VCU under Odom as the coordinator of player development.

As the director of recruiting and development at UNC Greensboro in 2022-23, Thomas’ efforts helped the Spartans to a 20-12 mark, including a 14-4 conference record. Thomas was the associate head coach of Team Loaded North Carolina, a premier grassroots basketball program. His primary responsibilities with Team Loaded NC included coaching, recruiting, player development, organization and travel logistics.

From 2015-18, Thomas was a four-year standout for UNC Asheville, where he finished his career as the only player in Big South men’s basketball history with 1,500 points (1,626), 700 rebounds (705), 250 steals (251) and 250 assists (256). Thomas was the two-time Big South Defensive Player of the Year and two-time first team All-Big South performer.

Thomas played three years of professional basketball overseas in Luxembourg, England, Finland, and Canada before returning to North Carolina to begin working with Team Loaded NC.

UVa is hosting Stanford transfer Emmett Mosley V on Grounds today, first reported by Greg Madia of the Daily Progress. Mosley went in the portal after Stanford fired Troy Taylor the other day. He was a standout freshman WR for the Cardinal last year catching 48 passes and 6 touchdowns. The Chicago native has a lot of connections to Notre Dame and its close to home for him, so I'd still have to say they should be the favorites if they make a push, but getting him to Charlottesville is a good first step.

UVa landed their third transfer commitment in as many days, with sixth-year senior guard Duke Miles committing to Virginia. Miles began his career at Troy, where he played three years including a year he ended up getting a redshirt for, then another at High Point in 2023-24, before transferring to Oklahoma last offseason. Miles was a starter for the Sooners but was ultimately a rotational player that scored 9.4 points per game this season, shooting 51.4% from the floor and 43% from three (93 attempts). At High Point, Miles scored 17.5 points per game and shot 36.1 percent from three.

Miles, a Montgomery, Alabama native, picked UVa over interest from Vanderbilt, Mizzou, Memphis, Creighton, Virginia Tech and many others. He has one year of eligibility remaining. I think he slots in as your first guy off the bench, but he can certainly compete with Jacari White for playing time, and could play along side him in a smaller lineup, perhaps.

-first reported by The Athletic

What a meltdown by the Dukies

UVa lands their second commit in as many days out of the portal, landing North Dakota State guard Jacari White. UVa wasn't even in his final five, which was Houston, VT, Ole Miss, Texas and WVU, but the Hoos clearly made a move here behind the scenes and this came together quickly. White averaged 17.1 ppg for NDSU this year and was part of one of the nation's best shooting offenses. White is typically a SG but has played PG during his career; originally from Orlando.

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UVa picked up their first transfer commit of the cycle, landing Toledo guard Sam Lewis. A Chicago native, Lewis scored 16.2 points per game, added 4.7 rebounds and 1.2 assists per contest and was Second-Team All-MAC. Lewis also shot 44.4% from three. At 6-foot-6, he can play at the SG or SF spot and has two years of eligibility remaining. His other top schools were Gonzaga, Villanova and Xavier but he had a lot of interest. First reported by Jeff Goodman.

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Meltdown in Raleigh. Team blew an 8-2 lead after 7. Loses on a three run walkoff HR with two outs. Just a brutal way to blow a much needed ACC series. This team just can’t put it all together consistently

Blew a 6 run lead. Led 8-6 going into bottom of the 9th. Two outs and no one on. Single, walk, walk-off homer. Outhit State 14-6, but allowed a 2 run homer, a grand slam, and the walk-off. Team can’t get any momentum, and the bullpen keeps struggling.

We were sitting on a 8-2 lead and once Tomas walked two guys with one out, O'Connor panicked and put in basically The 6-6 pitcher who basically throws 95-98 mile an hour fast balls.

Now you want the good news or the bad news? Good news is throws 95-98 mile an hour fast balls. Now the bad news. He was all over the place and he loaded the bases and then threw right down the middle to let a small guy that made good contact; a guy that doesn't have a HR all year hit a grand slam.

Then we bring in other pitchers, and in fairness to the last Pitcher the UMP was home cooking in the last two innings. Anyone watching will agree and the announcers were saying he had put that strike zone down to a real small area when we were up pitching. Had players on base and served up another home run to collapse with two outs in the last inning.

Also that was the WORST fielding at the fence by Nunnallee that pulled up, mistimed his jump and the ball creep just over the fence. That was the weakest attempt I've seen from a DIV I outfielder. Had he been just a little athletic he could have snagged it before it went over. His flop on the ground said it all. Zero athletic ability at all. Mistimed and no attempt to climb the wall. Regardless had he had any hops and timing it would have been caught. It barely cleared the foam on the fence but he mistimes his jump and smacks into the wall and the ball heads over as he is sliding down the wall.

O'Connor panicked is the bottom line. with an 8-2 lead, I would have let Tomas stay in with the one out and two guys on base for atleast a couple of pitches and not allow a fast ball pitch get embarrassed.

The problem with a fast ball only pitch is the NERDEST guy as the one that hit the home run with no HR in his resume just needs to make contact and it's going bye bye.

Bailey committed to Indiana on Sunday. Indiana men's basketball secured its third transfer portal addition Sunday, as former Davidson College forward Reed Bailey committed to the Hoosiers,

Have been able to confirm a few visitors for this weekend...

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Men's tennis defeated Georgia Tech 4-0, and the women's team took BC by the same score.. The softball team edged league leading FSU 2-0 thanks to a 2 run home run by Hylton. The baseball team made it interesting. The Hoos were trailing 4-1 after 5 innings but scored 4 runs in the 6th and 3 runs in the 7th and held on for a 8-6 win over NCSU. Ference had 3 hits including a home run and 4 rbi while Teel, Becker, Ford, and Nunnallee had 2 hits each with home runs by Teel and Becker. Woolfolk started and gave up the first 4 runs, only 1 of which was earned. Buchanan relieved him and was credited with the win.

Bryn Greenwaldt is a grad transfer from Division II Augustana where she was an All-American in track (high jump) and swimming (freestyle and back). Lawson Ficken will arrive at Virginia from Auburn in the fall as a junior. Her best events are free and butterfly.

Really disappointing start to the season so far for the women. Before the tournament in Puetro Rico this week they were completely destroyed by Oklahoma by 44 points and easily won the other games (all home games against very weak competition). This week was going to be a good indicator of where they are and whether the OK loss was an aberration or not. They barely beat Green Bay by 5 in the first game on Thursday, lost to Washington State by 1 yesterday while coming back to within one point with over two minutes to go and finished final two minutes plus with 5 or 6 missed shots including a number of layups and a turnover and then today lost to Wyoming who had recently lost to Norfolk State. They were missing Lattimore today and Noyan has been out a few games, but everyone else (Clark and Vaughn) is back. Not a great start to the season and so far looks like of the transfers only Lattimore is going to really do much for the team this year. At least they have a solid 1st year in Hurd and McGhee is improving so something to build on.

these were the three players that didn't play last night. Sanchez said that Bliss is still dealing with a foot issue (of course nobody asked him about an expected timeline for his return) and Lang will redshirt, but did not say anything about Robinson so have to assume his not playing was a DNPCD. That is worrisome for Bliss to still be dealing with a foot issue and missing valuable time early in the season. It seems like an injury he's had linger for some time and likely will continue to.

Interesting decision for Lang after Sanchez said after taking over that there were no discussions on red shirting anyone other than Gertrude. Of course it could have been something Lang came to him with. I wonder if he was given Warley's open scholarship since he was a preferred walk on. He was going to provide some solid depth in case of injury or extreme foul trouble, but likely wouldn't have played much.

Robinson to me is the interesting one. He's already redshirted and waited a year to play and didn't play in the first game even with the foul trouble Saunders was in so you have to assume he is only going to play in garbage time mostly. I would not be surprised to see him transfer before the 30 day window closes if he has been told he's not going to play, but that would mean sitting out another year so who knows. When Saunders and Buchanon can stay out of foul trouble plus with the trust they already have in Cofie and of course Power who can play the 4 there will likely be very little opportunity for Robinson to play this year barring an injury to someone.

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Keep an eye out for news today….not necessarily a transfer addition.

UVa lands their second commit of the still-young Ryan Odom era, flipping 3-star forward Silas Barksdale from VCU. Barksdale picked the Rams initially over offers from Butler, Miami and other power-conference programs. He's UVa's second commitment in the 2025 class, joining fellow in-state prospect Chance Mallory.

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Coastal Carolina with a brilliant move to offer free concessions. Falcons cut prices by 50% and drove higher revenue due to fans coming earlier and spending on merchandise and other items. Hope UVa is paying attention. I still think they should give away upper bowl tickets which would drive a lot of concession and merchandise revenue in addition to improving crowds and game day experience.

As expected, UVa announced the arrivals of assistant coaches Matt Henry, Bryce Crawford and Darius Theus from Ryan Odom's VCU staff. Henry and Crawford were with Odom at UMBC and Utah State, while Theus, a VCU alum, joined his staff there. They join former Longwood head coach Griff Aldrich on Odom's initial staff---there could be further additions as well to be announced later.


CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – University of Virginia Dean and Markel Families Men’s Head Basketball Coach Ryan Odom announced Wednesday (April 2) the additions of assistant coaches Matt Henry, Bryce Crawford and Darius Theus to his staff.

The trio of assistants helped VCU to a 52-21 record from 2023-25 and an appearance in the 2025 NCAA Tournament. VCU finished 28-7, won the Atlantic-10 Tournament and shared the A-10 regular-season championship in 2024-25. VCU’s Max Shulga earned A-10 Player of the Year honors and Jack Clark was the A-10 Tournament MVP. In 2023-24, the Rams advanced to the NIT quarterfinals and finished with a 24-14 record.

Henry and Crawford served as assistant coaches under Odom at Utah State from 2021-23, while Theus was an assistant coach at Siena in 2022-23.



Matt Henry

Henry’s efforts at Utah State helped steer the program to an NCAA Tournament appearance in 2023, as well as an NIT berth in 2022. Utah State's 2022-23 squad won 26 games and reached the Mountain West title game before falling to eventual NCAA runner-up San Diego State.

“Matt is a high-character coach who brings invaluable experience to our staff,” Odom said. “He is a relentless worker with a strong basketball mind.”

Henry followed Odom to Utah State after spending three years on his staff at UMBC. Henry helped the Retrievers to their historic win over top-ranked Virginia in the 2018 NCAA Tournament and America East regular-season conference championship in 2020-21.

Prior to his three years at UMBC, Henry was an assistant coach at St. Peter’s for five seasons, helping the Peacocks capture the 2017 CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT) title, the program’s first-ever national postseason tournament championship.

The Alexandria, Virginia, native graduated from Trinity in 2001 with a degree in urban studies and political science.



Bryce Crawford

Crawford spent two seasons with Odom in Logan, where he worked closely with the Aggies' guards. In addition to Utah State's 2023 NCAA and 2022 NIT appearances, Crawford's efforts helped the Aggies' guard-friendly offense rise to No. 16 nationally in offensive efficiency in 2022-23.

“Bryce is an outstanding coach with infectious energy,” Odom said. “He possesses a versatile skill set of teaching, recruiting and mentoring for our players.”

Prior to his time at Utah State, Crawford spent five seasons at UMBC under Odom. With the Retrievers, Crawford helped the squad to the America East Conference regular-season title in 2020-21 along with three-straight 20-plus win seasons. Crawford helped UMBC record its historic NCAA Tournament victory as the first No. 16 seed to defeat a No. 1 seed with the win over Virginia.

Crawford was also a member of Odom’s staff at Lenoir-Rhyne, serving as an assistant and helping the Bears to the NCAA Division II Regional Finals for the first time in school history.

Crawford graduated from Ohio State in 2011 with a degree in communication analysis and spent four years as a student manager for the Buckeyes’ men’s basketball program.



Darius Theus

Theus served as an assistant coach during the 2022-23 season on Carmen Maciariello's staff at Siena, where he helped the Saints to a 17-15 mark.

“Darius is a gifted coach with Final Four experience as a player,” Odom said. “He is elite at developing players and helping them grow their skills and character.”

Prior to his stint at Siena, he worked as VCU's director of player development from 2018-22, where he helped the Rams secure a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances. He was also integral in the development of future NBA draft picks Bones Hyland (2021) and Vince Williams (2022).

Theus spent the 2017-18 season as director of player development at Texas, where he helped the Longhorns to an NCAA Tournament berth. He also worked as VCU’s director of student-athlete development during the 2016-17 season, when the Rams won 26 games and reached the NCAA Tournament.

As a player, Theus appeared in three NCAA Tournaments with VCU, including the Rams' historic Final Four run in 2011. The Norfolk, Virginia, native finished his career ranked third in school history in steals (237) and sixth in assists (462), and fourth in single-season steals (85) as a senior in 2012-13.

Looks like commit imminent. Any guesses?

Interesting hire. The recruiting in the area remains difficult to navigate, it seems.