Aldrich Joins UVA as Associate Head Coach
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – University of Virginia Dean and Markel Families Men’s Head Basketball Coach Ryan Odom has named Griff Aldrich as associate head coach, announced Tuesday (April 1).
Aldrich, who has a law degree from UVA, reunites with Odom after serving as head coach at Longwood University the past seven seasons. Aldrich was Odom’s Director of Recruiting and Program Development at UMBC from 2016-18. Odom and Aldrich were also college teammates at Hampden-Sydney from 1993-96.
“I am excited to announce Griff as associate head coach,” Odom said. “Griff is an experienced head coach who strategically built and established Longwood as a nationally relevant mid-major program that only had one winning season in its Division I history before his arrival. He led Longwood to multiple NCAA tournaments and averaged 21 wins per year over the last four seasons. Griff is a highly-relational coach that is focused on the holistic development of our players.”
Aldrich posted a 127-100 mark in seven seasons at Longwood, guiding the program to its first two Division I NCAA Tournament appearances, two Big South Championships, a Big South regular-season title and three consecutive 20-win campaigns for the first time in team history. The 67 wins from 2022-24 are the most in a three-year span in school history.
At UMBC from 2016-18, Aldrich helped Odom engineer one of the great turnarounds in college basketball. He served as chief of staff for Odom and was involved in all aspects of UMBC’s turnaround from NCAA cellar-dweller to America East Champion and NCAA Tournament giant-killer with its historic win over No. 1 seed Virginia.
Aldrich left a successful 16-year career in law and business to join Odom at UMBC. He became a partner at Vinson & Elkins, a leading international law firm, working in Houston and London. Later, he established and built a private oil and gas company in Texas and held the position of Managing Director & Chief Financial Officer in a national energy-focused private investment firm.
Aldrich graduated from Hampden-Sydney in 1996. He and Odom helped lead the Tigers to a 79-31 record during their four-year careers, which included two NCAA Tournament appearances, and was team captain his senior year.
After earning his Juris Doctorate from the University of Virginia School of Law, he rejoined his former college coach Tony Shaver on the Hampden-Sydney bench for the 1999-2000 season. Aldrich helped the Tigers to their best season in school history with a perfect 24-0 record in the regular season, a No. 1 Division III national ranking, the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) Championship and a trip to the second round of the NCAA Division III Tournament.
