CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA - FEBRUARY 21: Associate head coach Griff Aldrich of the Virginia Cavaliers reacts to a play in the first half during a game abasing the Miami Hurricanes at John Paul Jones Arena on February 21, 2026 in Charlottesville, Virginia. (Photo by Ryan M. Kelly/Getty Images)
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Getty ImagesGriff Aldrich had a highly successful and lucrative career, first in law and then in finance, when he made a change a decade ago. He joined the men’s basketball staff at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, where his close friend and former college teammate, Ryan Odom, was head coach. Aldrich’s title? Director of recruiting and program development. The salary? $32,000.
Ten years later, Odom and Aldrich are back together. They are in their first season as head coach and associate head coach at the University of Virginia, where Odom’s father, Dave, was once an assistant and where Aldrich graduated from law school.
On Sunday night, the No. 3 seed Cavaliers face No. 6 seed Tennessee in an NCAA tournament Midwest Regional second round game in Philadelphia. They are coming off a first round win over No. 14 seed Wright State Friday, the program’s first victory in the NCAAs since UVA won the national title in 2019. Virginia (30-5) has 30 victories for just the sixth time in program history and is thriving under the tutelage of two men who have known each other for nearly 35 years.
“They’re always making jabs at one another, talking about who would win one-on-one and whatever,” Virginia guard Dallin Hall said. “They’re great. They complement each other super well, and they prepare us well.”
Odom And Aldrich Remain Close As Careers Diverge
Aldrich and Odom met in the fall of 1992 when they arrived as freshmen at Hampden-Sydney College, a Division III, all-male school in Virginia, about 65 miles south of UVA’s campus. Odom, a 5-foot-9 guard, and Aldrich, a 6-foot-2 guard, became fast friends and played together for all four years.
After graduating, Odom got into coaching, while Aldrich planned on doing the same and joining Dave Odom’s staff at Wake Forest while attending law school. Instead, Aldrich enrolled at UVA, where he graduated with a law degree in 1999. During the 1999-2000 season, Aldrich was an assistant coach at Hampden-Sydney, earning $24,000, before accepting a job as an associate at the Vinson & Elkins law firm in Houston, making more than $100,000.
Aldrich became a partner at Vinson & Elkins, advising clients on mergers and acquisitions, capital markets transactions and private equity deals. In 2012, he left the firm to start his own company. Two years later, he became managing director and chief financial officer at Atinum Energy Investments, a private equity firm.
As Aldrich worked in law and business, he regularly communicated with Odom, although they rarely discussed basketball and how Odom’s teams were faring. But when Odom in 2015 took over as head coach of Lenoir-Rhyne, a Division II school in North Carolina, Aldrich started paying close attention.
“He would call me after games (and say), ‘Billy Bales, you need to play him more,’” Odom said. “Or he’d be, ‘Man, that was a great win over Wingate.’ I was like, ‘Griff, nobody’s watching this game. Why are you texting me? What’s up?’’”
Aldrich Returns To Basketball And Leans On Odom
Around that time, Aldrich was coaching youth basketball in the Houston area and seriously considering getting into coaching at the college level. He knew the long hours and travel could be a hardship on his family, but his wife encouraged him to follow his dreams. Naturally, he reached out to Odom.
“He and I started talking more about, ‘Was it the right move? Did it make sense?’” Aldrich said.
When Odom accepted the UMBC job in 2016, he offered Aldrich an entry-level position with low pay and few perks. That didn’t bother Aldrich. It invigorated him to be around and learn from Odom,
In 2018, Odom and Aldrich were on the UMBC staff when the Retrievers pulled off a stunning 20-point upset victory over Virginia in the first round of the NCAA tournament, becoming the first No. 16 seed to defeat a No. 1 seed.
Later that month, Aldrich accepted the job as head coach at Longwood University, a Division I school that’s about five miles from Hampden-Sydney. Aldrich became a fixture at Longwood, leading the Lancers to their first two NCAA tournament appearances in program history in 2022 and 2024.
“He took over a program that, similar to UMBC, had very little hope and just rejuvenated and built a program that’s lasting,” Odom said. “The community is really proud of it now. It’s really cool to see where that has gone.”
Odom And Aldrich Reunite At UVA
Even though Aldrich and Odom didn’t work together for seven years, they spoke or exchanged text messages every day or two. During that time, Odom became head coach at Utah State and then VCU, spending two seasons apiece at each school. He sometimes brought up working together again with Aldrich if he ever got a job at a major conference program. When Odom took over at Virginia last March, one of his first calls was to Aldrich.
“Not that he needs my help, but it was like, ‘I really want you to come partner with me on this,’” Aldrich said. “That was a different thing. It was the right time for us, family-wise, as well as the right time professionally. I wouldn’t have done it with anybody other than Ryan.”
Odom knew Aldrich was the perfect fit, particularly with Name, Image and Likeness deals, revenue sharing and the transfer portal a constant presence.
“I needed someone with his experience and needed a right-hand man at this level to do it, especially in this climate,” Odom said. “His background is really helpful for Virginia as we enter the transfer portal, as we enter contracts and negotiations and all the different things that we go through. He’s just done a phenomenal job, as has our whole staff.”
Soon after Odom and Aldrich arrived, they revamped UVA’s roster. Desmond Roberts, a reserve who has played in only 13 games this season, is the lone player back from a year ago.
The Cavaliers added transfers in Hall (BYU), guard Malik Thomas (University of San Francisco), guard Sam Lewis (Toledo), guard Jacari White (North Dakota State), forward Ugonna Onyenso (Kansas State) and forward Devin Tillis (UC Irvine). They also signed two international players with professional experience in forward Thijs De Ridder from Belgium, who is 23 years old, and center Johann Grunloh from Germany, who is 20. And they received a commitment from high school guard Chance Mallory, who grew up near UVA’s campus in Charlottesville.
Most of the players got together over the summer for practices and workouts. They spent most days bonding on and off the court.
“I feel like we figured out our stuff right away,” Onyenso said. “I believed we were going to be good as soon as we started playing. That wasn’t an issue gelling with each other.”
Said Hall: “It did take us a second just to learn each other’s games on the floor. But what we learned really quick was we’ve got a lot of high character dudes who care about each other and care about this program. That allowed us to mesh really fast.”
Virginia Exceeds Preseason Expectations
With so many new players, Virginia was unranked in the Associated Press poll and was selected to finish fifth in the ACC. But the Cavaliers won 11 of their 12 nonconference games in November and December and carried over that success into league play. Aldrich said he could tell UVA was onto something when it rallied from a 19-point deficit and defeated Notre Dame on the road in double overtime in January. The next game, the Cavaliers trailed Boston College at halftime before coming back to win by seven points.
UVA went 15-3 in the ACC during the regular season, finishing second behind No. 1 Duke, and lost to the Blue Devils by four points in the conference tournament championship game. This season has reminded Aldrich of Longwood’s 2021-22 season when the team went 26-7, finished first in the Big South Conference and made the NCAA tournament. The Lancers won eight league games by six points or fewer and needed overtime to win their first round conference tournament game.
“We had a very special year,” Aldrich said. “You look back and you go, ‘There’s a couple of games, something else was going on, providential or otherwise.’ That's kind of how it felt a little bit this year with some of those (close victories). I think a lot of that’s the chemistry coming together.”
Earlier this week, the UVA coaches showed the team the “One Shining Moment” montage from when the Cavaliers won the 2019 national championship. And before Friday’s game, the players watched a highlights video that Virginia video coordinator Billy Bales compiled of some of their best plays and moments throughout the season.
“That was super cool, just to help me reflect on what it’s taken to get to this point, the sacrifices, the experiences we’ve had thus far,” Hall said.
Said Onyenso: “It was cool. It was motivation for us. We have a team that could make a run in March. We’ve just got to stay locked into the little things and keep being us.”
On Friday afternoon, UVA played a closer than expected game against Wright State, which held a three-point lead with 5:32 remaining. The Cavaliers then went on an 11-0 run over the next four minutes and held on for an 82-73 victory, setting up Sunday’s matchup with Tennessee, which has made the Elite Eight the past two seasons. UVA, meanwhile, missed two of the past five NCAA tournaments and lost its first game in the event in the other three years. This season, the Cavaliers have broken that streak and are looking for much more.
In the Virginia locker room on Thursday, Dave Odom, Ryan’s father, sat on a chair next to his son’s freshman year roommate at Hampden-Sydney, who now works in real estate in California. They didn’t want to miss the special weekend.
Aldrich stood nearby, too. Nearly 35 years after meeting as freshmen teammates, he and his good friend are back together every day, working side-by-side, a position both men cherish as they seek to keep UVA near the top of college basketball and chase conference and national titles.