Theus Excited About New Chapter in Coaching Career

By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — He played professionally in Holland and Germany and he’s worked briefly in Texas and New York, but Darius Theus is a Virginian through and through.

He’s spent most of his 34 years in this commonwealth—first in his native Portsmouth, then in Richmond and now in Charlottesville. And that, says head coach Ryan Odom, is among the many reasons Theus adds value to the University of Virginia men’s basketball program.

A Virginia Commonwealth University graduate, Theus is in his first year as a UVA assistant coach. His colleagues include associate head coach Griff Aldrich, who grew up in Virginia Beach and played at Hampden-Sydney College.

“It helps a ton,” said Odom, who came to UVA from VCU in March. “You have to go everywhere to recruit, but when you think about our footprint and where we want and need to be very strong, these guys have spent a lot of time there. Deep relationships have been forged, and that’s really, really important when you’re trying to recruit in those states.”

An ultra-quick point guard, the 6-foot-3 Theus starred at I.C. Norcom High School in Portsmouth, where as a junior in February 2008 he found himself matched against Bethel High’s Jontel Evans in the Eastern Region semifinals.

Theus came into the game averaging 28 points in the postseason. “He was going on a scoring tear, giving everybody buckets,” Evans recalled, “and that’s all you heard, Darius Theus this and that.”

Evans helped limit Theus to 20 points in their battle, and Bethel pulled out a 58-53 win. Each graduated from high school in 2009, after which Evans headed to UVA and Theus, whom Tony Bennett had recruited at Washington State, to VCU.

Sixteen years later, Theus’ office is in the building—John Paul Jones Arena—where Evans harassed countless ball-handers in his four seasons as a Cavalier point guard.

“Great guy,” Evans said. “I’m so happy for him.”

Theus had a legendary career at VCU, where he totaled 462 assists and 237 steals in his four seasons. As a sophomore, playing for head coach Shaka Smart, he helped the Rams reach the Final Four, and Theus later worked at his alma mater under three head coaches: Will Wade, Mike Rhoades and Odom.

As a player, Theus was “one of the best leaders ever in VCU history,” Odom said, “and then to see him go from that to all of a sudden being a tremendous leader as a coach, that was really rewarding for me to watch him grow.”

Had he wanted to stay at VCU after Odom left for UVA in March, Theus said, there would have been a place for him on the new staff. But he didn’t hesitate to join Odom in Charlottesville.

“Coach Odom is the reason I’m here,” Theus said. “I love everything he’s about. Love him as a person, as a coach, and I really respect how he approaches the day to day. I wasn’t ready to not be a part of that anymore. I wanted to just be here with him.”

After winning the Atlantic 10 tournament in 2024-25, the Rams cut down nets in celebration, and “I want to help him do that here,” Theus said. “I know how much that would mean to him to cut down nets here, win a championship here, and that’s the main reason why I came here.”

Under Smart, the Rams’ trademark was the full-court press they called Havoc. Odom wants the press to be a weapon for Virginia, too, and Theus and fellow assistant coach Matt Henry have taken the lead in installing that in practice this semester.

Theus excelled “at stealing the ball and putting pressure on the other team’s point guard,” Odom said. “And so having him back there coaching our guards on that, and just everybody in general, is really, really important. That’s a big part of what we do.”

It’s not unusual to see Theus taking part in drills with the players during practice. Can he still hoop?

“Oh, he can play,” UVA guard Dallin Hall said, smiling.

Hall transferred from BYU to Virginia after the 2024-25 school year, and Theus played a key role in his recruitment.

“When I first came on my visit, we had a really quick connection,” Hall said. “He cares a lot about us as the players on and off the court. He’s a guy who just brings great energy into the gym every day. He’s played at a level that we all want to play at, the Final Four, and he’s a legend around Virginia. And so he’s just super fun to work with, knows the game really well, and he pushes us all to a really high level. That’s what I really respect about him.”

After playing professionally in Europe for three years, Theus came back to the United States in 2016 and took a job as director of student-athlete development on Wade’s staff at VCU. He spent the 2017-18 season at Texas as Smart’s director of player development, then returned to Richmond to take that same position under Rhoades at VCU.

Theus wanted to be a full-time coach, however, and when an opportunity for him to join Carmen Maciariello’s staff at Siena University as an assistant in 2022, he relocated to New York.

“Albany was great,” Theus said. “It was my first assistant job, my first time running drills, my first time presenting in front of the team, presenting a scout, recruiting, calling parents, calling players, calling coaches. So all of that was just like a breath of fresh air for me, and Carm gave me this freedom.

“He showed me how to do it. He showed me how to be organized. It was my rookie year as an assistant, and I was allowed to make mistakes, and I made some mistakes. But it was a great learning experience, and when I came to VCU, I felt like I was confident with it and I was ready.”

After two seasons as head coach at Utah State, Odom took over the program at VCU in March 2023. Several of the staffers who were with him in Logan, Utah, followed him to Richmond, but Odom had an assistant’s slot to fill, and VCU director of athletics Ed McLaughlin recommended Theus. So did Rhoades and Smart.

“I talked to each one of them about Darius, and then also his coach at Siena,” Odom recalled. “I know Carm was hoping to keep him longer than he did, but it was too good of an opportunity for him to come home.”

Theus and Odom met for the first time at the Final Four in Houston that spring.

“I was just really impressed,” Odom said. “It was right after I accepted the job, and we just talked for a long time about VCU and what the place meant to him and how excited he and his family would be to be back there. And it was just easy to tell you know smart he was and dedicated to helping the players get better.”

His staff members complement each other well, Odom said. The on-court assistants are Aldrich, Theus, Henry and Bryce Crawford. Kelsey Knoche is director of operations, Matt Hart is director of analytics, Billy Bales is video coordinator, Ahmad Thomas is director of recruiting, Michael Crowder is director of culture and alumni engagement, Mike Curtis is head strength and conditioning coach, and Ethan Saliba is head athletic trainer.

“It’s no different than the players on a team,” Odom said. “They all have to work together, and that’s something that we take a lot of pride in. We have to be the best example for our players, and if your staff is cohesive and really cares about one another and wants to see one another grow and makes it all about UVA being its best, that takes sacrifice.

“The head coach can’t do everything, and you can’t be involved in every little thing as it relates to a program. We have a lot of different things that we have to cover and buckets that have to be filled. And when your staff is cohesive and your staff is willing to sacrifice and work together and let others shine and play a supporting role at times and say, ‘OK, it’s your turn,’ then all of a sudden you got something special, and it’s something that your players can easily look to and point to and say, ‘Hey, they’re doing it. We need to be able to do it.’ ”

Theus and his wife, LaDonna, have two children—daughter Laila, 12, and son Emory, 4—and they’re excited about this new chapter in their lives. Theus is equally pumped about the players who’ll will take the court for the Cavaliers this season.

“I think we’ve got a chance to be special, if they buy in,” he said. “That’s what happened in our two years at VCU, they bought in. It’s a formula that works. You just gotta buy into it. You gotta be committed to being unselfish.”

Theus likes what he’s seen from the Cavaliers since they began workouts in June.

“No entitlement at all,” he said, “and a great level of appreciation, which I love. That’s how Coach Odom recruits, though. He’s not going to recruit any [jerks]. He’s gonna recruit the right guys, and it’s been working.”

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