VCU coach Ryan Odom has emerged as the target for the Virginia job, and a deal is expected to come together in the upcoming days, sources told ESPN.

VCU’s season ended on Thursday with an 80-71 loss to BYU in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

Odom has guided three different programs to the NCAA tournament, most notably leading 16-seed UMBC to an unprecedented win over 1-seed Virginia in the first round of the 2018 tournament.

After five seasons and one NCAA tournament appearance at UMBC, Odom spent two seasons at Utah State, leading the Aggies to the tournament in 2023 before going back across the country to replace Mike Rhoades at VCU.

In two seasons with the Rams, he went 52-21 overall and 26-10 in conference play. They won the Atlantic 10 regular-season and conference tournament championships this season, winning 18 of their final 20 games en route to an 11-seed in the NCAA tournament, where they lost to 6-seed BYU on Thursday.

Odom is a Durham, N.C. native who has ACC experience from his seven seasons as an assistant coach at Virginia Tech under Seth Greenberg. His father is Dave Odom, the former South Carolina, Wake Forest and East Carolina head coach.

Odom replaced Tony Bennett, who abruptly retired back in October. Bennett was set to begin his 16th season with the Cavaliers when he stepped down, pointing to the “current environment” in college sports as one of the driving forces behind his sudden decision. During his time in Charlottesville, he earned two national coach of the year awards and led Virginia to the national championship in 2019. The Cavaliers won six ACC regular-season titles and made 10 NCAA tournament appearances with Bennett at the helm.

Associate head coach Ron Sanchez served as Virginia’s interim head coach for the 2024-25 season, with the Cavaliers finishing 15-17 and missing the postseason. Athletic director Carla Williams announced shortly after their loss to Georgia Tech in the ACC tournament that Sanchez would not be retained as the full-time head coach.

VCU looms as perhaps the best basketball job outside the power conferences, as it projects to have, by far, the most money for NIL and revenue share in the Atlantic 10.

Athletic director Ed McLaughlin will be making his fourth hire at the school. The first three all reached the NCAA tournament and went on to bigger jobs — Will Wade (LSU), Mike Rhoades (Penn State) and Odom (UVA). Since reaching the final four under Shaka Smart in 2011, VCU has missed only three NCAA tournaments.