Remember back when the SoCon had its big annual meeting and we all expected to hear big conference realignment news? But then they had absolutely no conference realignment news and announced that they were going to hire a basketball coordinator to help the conference not suck at basketball anymore…well

They have hired that basketball coordinator, and his name is Dave Odom. He started off at ECU but ACC basketball fans should remember him as the guy who made Wake Forest not suck (back before they started sucking again). He coached Tim Duncan way back when. He reached the Sweet 16′s twice and the Elite 8 once. He also won the NIT one year.

Then he moved on to South Carolina where his biggest achievement was winning the NIT twice in a row. Overall he was a 3x ACC coach of the year and a 1x SEC coach of the year. He retired from coaching in 2008.

These days he’s the tournament chairman of the EA SPORTS Maui Invitational. Now he will also try to somehow get multiple SoCon teams into the NCAA tournament every year. His job description is to:

…work with Commissioner John Iamarino, league basketball coaches and administrators to address such matters as non-conference scheduling, participation in exempt tournaments, the operation of the conference tournament and institutional recruiting efforts.

Good luck with that. Last year the SoCon finished 23rd out of 31 Div-I conferences in Men’s basketball. He was a good coach, but I’m not really sure how he’s going to make a difference. I guess we need all the help we can get.