While the NCAA Tournament winds its way to the Final Four, the coaching carousel is fully spinning already. That includes the Virginia basketball program.
A year ago, the Hoos were in the market for a head coach when they hired Ryan Odom to take the helm. When he accepted the job, he brought in Griff Aldrich with him as as associate head coach. Aldrich had been at Longwood where he compiled a 127-100 record with two NCAA Tournament bids.
Join Hoo Fans In Sacramento!After one year with UVA, which rattled off a 30-5 record for the 2025-2026 season, Aldrich is on the move. It’s a long move too. Aldrich accepted the head coaching position at Pepperdine so he’ll head across the country to Malibu for a job overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The Waves have not made the NCAA Tournament since 2002 and are coming off an 8-20 season.
"The opportunity to build a championship-caliber program within a university that promotes faith, academics, and excellence is tremendously exciting for our family," Aldrich said per this ESPN article.
Virginia fans reacted to the news in message board threads here, here, here, and here.
That’s not the only coaching news in the ACC, though. There’s actually a lot of movement happening in the conference this offseason.
Most recently, Will Wade left NC State for LSU after just one season in Raleigh. There appear to be some hard feelings going on with that one. Also in the triangle, North Carolina parted ways with Hubert Davis after some seesawing reports early in the week. That means the two rivals will be in a coaching search at the same time.
Earlier in the cycle, Georgia Tech fired Damon Stoudamire, Syracuse fired Adrian Autry, and Boston College fired Earl Grant. The Yellow Jackets have not yet picked a replacement, but the Orange brought in program legend Gerry McNamara and BC turned to UConn assistant Luke Murray.
This all comes one year after Odom came to Virginia, Miami hired Jai Lucas, and Florida State hired Luke Loucks. The previous year, Louisville hired Pat Kelsey and Stanford hired Kyle Smith. In other words, there are a lot of new faces on the ACC basketball block in the last two years.
Fan(s) Of The Week
UVA did Beat Tech!
Student Fan(s) Of The Week
Smile if you love the Wahoos.
Feature Photo Of The Week
Virginia recognized the 1976 ACC Tournament Championship team at a game.
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