Utah State head men’s basketball coach Ryan Odom has announced the additions of Billy Bales and Noah Ralby to his staff, with both expected to fill administrative roles with the Aggies. Bales will serve as the Director of Player Development, while Ralby will be the Director of Analytics.
Bales is following Odom from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, where he assisted with daily scheduling, created social media content and fulfilled other duties where assigned. During his one year with the Retrievers, UMBC captured the America East regular season title, finishing with an overall mark of 14-6, including a 10-4 ledger in league play.
Prior to his time in Baltimore, Bales got his coaching start at his alma mater, Lenoir-Rhyne University. He spent two seasons (2018-20) as the graduate assistant under head coach Everick Sullivan. During his tenure, the Bears received an at-large bid to the school’s seventh NCAA D-II Tournament, advanced to their first South Atlantic Conference Championship game since 2005 and reached as high as No. 17 in the D-II rankings.
Bales, originally from Elizabethton, Tenn., earned a bachelor’s degree in sports management and a master’s degree in university leadership from Lenoir-Rhyne. He was a four-year letterwinner for the Bears basketball team and led the team to an NCAA D-II Regional Final appearance during the 2015-16 season, under Odom.
Ralby is also joining the Utah State staff after serving as a graduate assistant at UMBC under Odom each of the past two seasons, where he helped guide the Retrievers to their second regular season championship in school history in 2020.
Ralby joined the UMBC staff after playing at Johns Hopkins University, helping the Blue Jays to a 71-32 mark, including a Centennial Conference regular season and tournament title in 2018. JHU advanced to the second round of the 2018 NCAA D-III Tournament as Ralby earned NABC Honors Court accolades following the season.
Ralby graduated from Johns Hopkins with a bachelor’s degree in economics and earned a master’s in entrepreneurship, innovation and leadership from UMBC.
