UVA MBB: Griff Aldrich Officially Announced as Associate Head Coach

Former Longwood head coach Griff Aldrich has been officially announced as Ryan Odom’s associate head coach for Virginia men’s basketball. The announcement reunites Aldrich with Odom as the two coached together at UMBC from 2016-18 and played together at Hampden-Sydney from 1993-96. 

“I am excited to announce Griff [Aldrich] as associate head coach,” Odom said in a press release by UVa Athletics. “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 brings a unique skill set, graduating from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1999 before returning to basketball as an assistant coach for Hampden-Sydney during the 1999-2000 season, where he helped the Tigers achieve a perfect 24-0 record in the regular season, the No. 1 national ranking at the Division III level, and the Old Dominion Athletic Conference Championship.

After that, Aldrich put his law degree into practice, serving as a partner at Vinson & Elkins, a leading international law firm, while also building a private oil and gas company in Texas before returning to collegiate basketball in 2016 when Odom acquired his first Division 1 head coaching job at UMBC. Aldrich served as the Director of Recruiting and Program Development for two seasons while with the Retrievers.

After UMBC pulled off its historic upset over No.1 Virginia in the NCAA tournament, Aldrich received his first Division 1 head coaching job at Longwood University, where he served as the head coach for the last seven seasons, notching a 127-100 mark which included two NCAA tournament appearances, two Big South Championships and one Big South regular-season title. From 2022-24, Aldrich led the Lancers to three consecutive 20-win seasons for the first time in school history.

Aldrich is the first official addition to Ryan Odom’s staff, although CBS Sports insider Jon Rothstein has cited sources that Matt Henry, Bryce Crawford, and Darius Theus are set to join Odom as well. The trio were all assistants under Odom at VCU.