SMITHFIELD – In the middle of March, euphoria enveloped Bryant University over its men’s basketball team.
Phil Martelli Jr., fresh off of being named
the 2024-25 America East Conference Coach of the Year, led the Bulldogs to both the conference championship and their second NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament appearance in the last four years.
Now, Martelli is heading south to lead another program that also recently paid “March Madness” a visit.
Virginia Commonwealth University formally announced Wednesday that Martelli will become its new head men’s basketball coach after leading Bryant for the past two seasons. VCU, the reigning Atlantic 10 Conference champions previously led by Ryan Odom, advanced to the NCAA tournament before losing to Brigham Young University in the first round last week.
Odom left VCU recently to become head coach at the University of Virginia. A formal press conference introducing Martelli at VCU will take place Thursday morning.
Martelli led Bryant to its first 20-win season since the 2021-22 campaign. That year, the Bulldogs, under then-coach Jared Grasso, qualified for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament for the first time ever after winning the Northeast Conference Tournament.
Martelli’s Bulldogs went 20-11 overall and 14-2 in America East play, winning both the regular season conference title and also the conference championship on Bryant’s home floor to go to the NCAA tournament. Bryant subsequently lost to Michigan State University on March 21 in Cleveland.
VCU says Martelli first joined Bryant in the 2018-19 season as an assistant coach and was promoted to associate head coach in 2020. Martelli subsequently became Bryant’s head coach during the 2023-24 season after former coach Jared Grasso
resigned as coach before last season. Grasso was first suspended by Bryant in September 2023 for reasons that are still unknown.
In a statement posted to X on Wednesday, Bryant Vice President of Athletics and Recreation Bill Smith, along with wishing Martelli well, said he assures the fanbase that Bryant’s men’s basketball program “will continue to compete for championships year in and year out.”
The search for a new coach is “already underway,” Smith said.
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on X at @James_Bessette.
