PRESS RELEASE
BALTIMORE– Ryan Odom has accepted the position of head men’s basketball coach at Utah State University, the Aggies’ program announced today.
“It is difficult to say goodbye to someone who has meant so much to this athletics department and to this university,” UMBC Director of Athletics Brian Barrio said. “But Ryan Odom, by helping elevate this program to a new level of expectations and success, has certainly left UMBC Retriever Men’s Basketball in a better place than where he found it. That is the most important thing we can ask of any coach in their tenure here. Ryan has led our program with integrity and passion, and has given UMBC students and alumni the absolute signature moment in our athletics’ history to date. We wish him all the best in his next challenge at Utah State.”
A national search for Coach Odom’s successor will begin immediately.
Odom posted a record of 97-60 in five seasons in Baltimore and has a 126-81 record in seven total seasons as a head coach. He completed his tenure at UMBC as the third-winningest coach in program history, leading the Retrievers to three straight 20-win seasons during his first three seasons.
Odom piloted the Retrievers to an America East Tournament title in 2018 en route to a historic win in the NCAA Tournament, becoming the first No. 16 seed to defeat a No. 1 seed, with a 74-54 win over Virginia.
This past season, the Retrievers earned a share of the America East regular season championship for the first time since 2008. He was named America East Coach of the Year in 2021 and previously won the Hugh Durham Award in 2018 as the nation’s top mid-major coach and the Joe B. Hall Award for the top NCAA Division I first-year coach in 2017.
Utah State has experienced recent success, qualifying for the last three NCAA Tournaments and winning two of the last three Mountain West Tournament championships. They have a 74-24 overall record and 42-13 Mountain West record over that span.
“Between the success the team has had on the court over the last few years, and the beautiful UMBC Event Center that opened in 2018, this program is on an entirely different level than it was in 2018, and our coaching search will reflect that evolution,” Barrio said. “We want Retriever Nation to know that, while we were not looking forward to this day, we have certainly been preparing for it. We are excited to start writing the next chapter in UMBC Men’s Basketball, and we will identify the right leader for that chapter over the coming weeks.”
