The speculation on Dave Odom appears to be false. A couple of reliable sources are saying that UVa president Casteen has met with a candidate, and it is NOT Odom.

Odom has released a statement saying he had spoken on the phone with UVa AD Littlepage, partly about SEC schools in the NCAA tournament, and partly about Virginia basketball in general. My interpretation of his statement was that Craig was gauging Dave's interest (and vice versa). The end result being that Odom will not be offered the job.

Who could it be? A lot of UVa fans (not me) were pretty unhappy with Odom's candidacy. The A-list candidates don't seem to be interested. The B+ list probably includes Dave Laitao and Marc Iavaroni. Laitao has a decent resume, except for a 4-24 season his second year at Northeastern. Mulligan, anyone? Plus he is black, and Casteen has the biggest case of jungle fever this side of Julia Stiles. He made Gillen hire a black assistant, and crowed about hiring the first black AD in the ACC in Littlepage. (Just forget about that Kevin White business.) All joking aside, Littlepage has done fairly well and made a couple good hires in lesser sports. But the men's basketball position will define his tenure. Miss badly with another single NCAA bid in seven years, and he will be the first black AD fired in ACC history.

Iavaroni on the other hand has a long coaching career, but in the pros, a much different game. He does have the advantage of being an alum (and the interest in the job). But he would have to recruit and schmooze. Hopefully any interview with Littlepage and/or Casteen would clear up his skill and interest in those areas.

The third most likely candidate at present seems to be Mike Brey at Notre Dame. He has a decent record but his teams look to have regressed in his five years there.

If a bunch of people come out of the woodwork to declare their NON interest in the UVa job in the next couple days, that means an offer has been made and accepted. If Dick Vitale gets on TV and starts shouting about how great the Virginia job is, that means a former Dukie got the job, probably Brey.