The Skip Prosser Man of the Year Award is awarded annually to the Division 1 basketball coach who "who achieves success on the basketball court, while displaying great moral integrity off of the court, as well." For the second time in recent history, not one, but two Hampden-Sydney alumni are on the short list to receive the honor presented by CollegeInsider.com.
Utah State University head men’s coach Ryan Odom ’96 and Longwood University head men’s coach Griff Aldrich ’96 are among the 25 finalists for the award named for the late Skip Prosser, former coach at Wake Forest, Xavier, and Loyola.
Odom is in his second season with the Aggies, arriving in 2021 after a landmark tenure at University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) where he led the no. 16 seed Retrievers to a historic win over no. 1 University of Virginia in the 2018 NCAA D1 Men’s Basketball Championships.
Aldrich began his college coaching career at UMBC with Odom, who lured him away from a lucrative profession as a lawyer—a move that seems to be paying off. Now in his fourth season at Longwood, Aldrich is responsible for the most successful run of the team’s D1 era, having led the Lancers to the big dance in 2022 for the first time in program history.
This is Odom’s second Prosser Award finalist nod, his first being in 2017 along with fellow alumnus Russell Turner ’92.