Ryan Odom and Will Wade are Polar Opposites, Perfect Fits

Photo Credit: Matt Riley, University Communications

With nearly the entire conference sitting at home during the NCAA tournament, it makes sense that some of the biggest news stories coming from the ACC this March involve the coaching carousel. So far this offseason, Miami and Florida State were the latest to move on from longtime coaching legends by hiring Jai Lucas and Luke Loucks, respectively. Both hires come with a little more added risk as neither has head coaching experience, with Jai Lucas being a top assistant and recruiter at Kentucky/Duke and the former FSU player Loucks continuing the current trend of NBA assistants taking college jobs.

Well this weekend news broke of Virginia and NC State both hiring their next head coaches; Ryan Odom at UVA and Will Wade at NC State. Both coaches are currently in their 40s. Both have track records of winning at several different stops. Both will be a much needed shot in the arm for their programs and ACC basketball as a whole. That's about where the similarities end. Thanks to the ACC Network actually doing what they're supposed to do for once and providing live action, I was able to tune in to both introductory pressers the last two days. To say the vibe between the two was night and day would be an understatement, and that's not a bad thing.

Odom was first on Monday, taking us on a stroll down memory lane with stories of his childhood years spent in Charlottesville with his legendary father-coach Dave Odom. He spoke slow, eloquently and made connections as a UVA man. The whole thing just felt like you were in the living room talking life with your slightly cool but slightly goofy dad. It felt very Tony Bennett-esque.

Watching that, Odom seems like the perfect transition from the wildly successful Bennett era. He's going to run his program in a way that feels familiar to Wahoo fans while giving the on-court product a necessary modernization. Chance Mallory re-committing after originally committing to Tony Bennett is evidence of that. It's what's helped his rapid ascension, winning 26 games in year 2 at Utah State before moving to VCU, then winning 28 games in year 2 there before ending up on the podium in JPJ Arena Monday.

Photo Credit: Robert Willett / News & Observer

Will Wade stepped up to a different podium Tuesday with a similar start, thanking administration, family and his past program. He even addressed his troubles at LSU and owned it very early on. And then BOOM! At the snap of a finger Wade was shot out of a cannon. He got on a roll and was really feeding off the crowd at times; making statements like "This is not a rebuild" "The Pack is back and not to be messed with" and it being "a reckoning for the ACC and college basketball", guaranteeing a top half of the conference finish and an NCAA tournament appearance in Year 1.

Throughout the press conference he emphasized building a consistent winner and how quickly they were going to do it. NC State fans, both in attendance and watching from afar, ate it up. And you know what? I walked away believing every bit of it. How could you not? The dude has won big at all levels; power conference (LSU), high mid-major (VCU), true mid-major (Chattanooga) and a historically bad low-major (McNeese). I've not seen a hire be so celebrated by the media like this one and it's easy to see why.

Ryan Odom and Will Wade are both damn good basketball coaches with wildly different ways of carrying themselves. Neither of their demeanors is the wrong one and neither would work at the other school. The marriages are in the early stages of the honeymoon phase, but they feel like ones that have the compatibility to last... as long as it involves winning. Time (and NIL money) will tell, but both coaches ended up at the perfect spot and the ACC is going to be better for it.