April 4, 2005

USC Head Coach Dave Odom released this statement on Monday afternoon.

“Craig Littlepage (Virginia A.D.) and I have been close friends since we were both assistant coaches at the University of Virginia in the mid-80s. Over the past several weeks, I have had a number of telephone conversations with Craig. We spoke only about the NCAA Tournament and teams that the tournament committee should be considering. The conversation centered on SEC teams only. One of Craig’s responsibilities to the tournament committee was to evaluate SEC teams and he was interested in gathering information about a number of teams in our league.

“Upon arriving in St. Louis at the Final Four on Saturday morning, I received a call from Craig asking if I would talk with him about my impressions of the University of Virginia and its basketball program, about the ACC as a league and the landscape of college basketball nationally. There was absolutely no discussion about my potential interest in the head coaching position at University of Virginia.

“Further, the University of Virginia has not asked Dr. McGee (USC A.D.) for permission to talk to me about their vacancy.”