Virginia Men’s Basketball | ODOM announces additional support staff

Charlottesville, go. -The male basketball coach of the University of Virginie and Markel Families, Ryan Odom, announced on Tuesday April 8 the additions of operations director Kelsey Koche, director of analytics Matt Hart, video coordinator Billy Bales and recruitment director Ahmad Thomas.

Knoche, Hart, Bales and Thomas have played similar roles under Odom to VCU in the past two seasons. The RAMs displayed a record of 52-21 of 2023-25 ​​and played in the NCAA 2025 NCAA tournament. VCU finished 28-7, won the Atlantic-10 tournament and shared the regular season championship A-10 in 2024-25. Max Shulga of VCU won the honors of player of year A-10 and Jack Clark was the MVP of the A-10 tournament. In 2023-24, the RAMs qualified for the nit quarter-finals and finished with a 24-14 file.

In addition, Odom announced the return of the strength and packaging coach, Mike Curtis, for his 17th season and associate sports director for Ethan Saliba sports medicine for his 43rd season.

Kelsey Knoché
Knoche is his fifth season with Odom. She served two seasons as Director of Operations in VCU (2023-25) and two seasons as Director of Operations and Relations External to Utah State (2021-23).

Knoche was one of the 15 women to hold the title of director of basketball operations on male coach staff in NCAA Division I in 2024-25.

In its role with the RAMs, Knoché supervised all the logistics linked to the daily operations of the male basketball program, including planning without conference, team trips, management budget management and the coordination of recruitment visits. The native of Fairfax, in Virginia, was also the connection of the program with the Sports Department.

Before his stay in Logan, Knoché worked as assistant coordinator in the male basketball program of the University of Maryland from 2015 to 21. With the Terrapins, Knoche worked in close collaboration with the recruitment efforts of the team, in particular by coordinating visits to the campus and by organizing all the staff recruitment trips. She also organized efforts to collect basketball specific funds, meetings of former students and helped team trips. Before its full -time role, Knoché passed Four Seasons as the first cycle with the program as a student operational assistant.

Matt Hart
Hart was director of ODOM staff analysis in VCU from 2023-25 ​​and was a graduate student director under ODOM in the Utah state in 2022-2010. The AGGIES won 26 games and received a large offer at the NCAA tournament during this season.

Hart previously was deputy coach at Daemen University during the 2021-222 season, where he helped recruitment and was responsible for screening and training on the field for guards and scope players.

Hart was director of players’ development / video operations director at George Washington from 2018 to 29. He played professionally in the United States, Canada, Ireland and Serbia from 2017 to 2018 and 2019-21.

Billy bullets
Bales is in sixth season in the general classification with ODOM, having been director of video at the VCU of 2023-25, director of players development at Utah State of 2021-2023 and volunteer assistant at the UMBC in 2020-2021. He also played for Odom in Lenoir-Rhyne in 2015-2016.

While Bales was in the state of Utah, the AGGIES obtained a place in the NCAA tournament in 2023 and made an appearance in 2022 NIT. Three Utah State players received the honors of the All-Mountain West conference during the Bales mandate, including the selection of the first 2023 Steven Ashworth team.

Bales helped Odom to the UMBC with daily planning and social media content during its first year with the retrievers of 2020-2021,

Before his visit to Baltimore, Bales spent two seasons (2018-2020) to his Alma Mater, Lenoir-Rhyne University. The Bears have received a major offer at the seventh NCAA D-II tournament from the school, qualified for their first championship match of the South Atlantic Conference since 2005 and reached No. 17 in the D-II ranking.

Bales was a four-year winner for the Bears and, while playing for Odom, led the team to a regional regional appearance of Division II of the NCAA during the 2015-2016 season.

Ahmad Thomas
Thomas, from Danville, in Virginia, has spent the last two seasons (2023-25) in VCU under ODOM as a coordinator of players’ development.

As Director of Recruitment and Development at UNC Greensboro in 2022-2010, Thomas’ efforts helped Spartans to a 20-12 brand, including a 14-4 conference record. Thomas was the associate head coach of the North Carolina team, a leading basketball program. Its main responsibilities with NC charged by the team included coaching, recruitment, players’ development, organization and travel logistics.

From 2015-2018, Thomas was a four-year star for UNC Asheville, where he ended his career as the only player in the history of male basketball in Big South with 1,500 points (1626), 700 rebounds (705), 250 interceptions (251) and 250 assists (256). Thomas was the double defensive player of the year of Big South and the double team of the first All-Big South team.

Thomas played three years of professional basketball abroad in Luxembourg, England, Finland and Canada before returning to North Carolina to start working with the NC team.