Unsurprisingly, this year’s coaching-change cycle has schools in the Power Five basketball conferences dipping into the men’s NCAA tournament bracket to locate new hires with a recent track record of regular-season and postseason success.
Of the nine major-conference hires with previous college experience as a head coach, eight led teams into this year’s tournament. That led to some awkwardness involving new North Carolina State coach Will Wade and new Villanova coach Kevin Willard.
But the hiring approach is solid. Of the head coaches in this year’s Elite Eight, six had previously led a different school into tournament; the exceptions were Michigan State’s Tom Izzo and Duke’s Jon Scheyer, who were promoted as assistants.
Time will tell if this year’s new hires will repeat this success in a new environment. With two open positions remaining in Texas A&M and West Virginia, here’s our ranking of the major-conference coaching changes:
1. Will Wade, North Carolina State
Wade comes with serious baggage, as he readily admitted during the McNeese State’s tournament run. He was given a two-year, show-cause order and suspended for the first 10 games of his tenure there after the NCAA found him guilty of rules violations at LSU. But he also wins: McNeese went 58-11 in his two seasons, losing just twice in Southland Conference play, and previously led Virginia Commonwealth and LSU into tournament play. The road back to the Final Four won’t be easy even in an ACC that took a step back this year, but Wade will recruit at a high level and implement a style of play that should provide North Carolina State with an immediate boost next season.
2. Kevin Willard, Villanova
The way he handled the departure from Maryland has overshadowed Willard’s impressive résumé. Iona went 2-28 in the year before his arrival but won 21 games in his third season. That earned Willard the job at Seton Hall, which went 49-48 in his first three years but reached the tournament in five of his final seven seasons — accounting for over a third of the tournament appearances in program history. Maryland was floundering when he was hired in 2022. Willard is back in more familiar territory at Villanova and will have a healthier amount of NIL at his disposal to rebuild the Wildcats.
3. Sean Miller, Texas
After being fired after a dozen years at Arizona amid a widespread NCAA investigation, Miller returned to Xavier and made a pair of tournament appearances in three seasons. While his second run with the Musketeers didn’t quite meet expectations, Miller’s extensive experience overall and three Elite Eight berths with the Arizona makes him a strong fit for a Texas program fighting for a toehold in the deep SEC.
4. Buzz Williams, Maryland
The now former Texas A&M coach has led each of his three power-conference stops to the tournament, including an Elite Eight trip with Marquette in 2013. While his Aggies never advanced out of the opening weekend, Williams is one of two coaches in program history to win 20 or more games in four seasons in a row. He has a coaching method that has yielded consistent results and brings to Maryland a sense of stability in the wake of Willard’s departure. It will be interesting to see how Williams will fare at a program with a strong history and a firm commitment to basketball success and whether his style can produce the deep tournament success Terrapins fans crave.
5. Ben McCollum, Iowa
After winning four Division II national championships at Northwest Missouri State, McCollum had a terrific single season at Drake, leading the Bulldogs to a Missouri Valley championship and 31 wins, including an upset of Missouri in the tournament’s opening round. His potent offensive style, familiarity with the area and extended history of high-level success makes McCollum a strong hire for the Hawkeyes.
6. Ryan Odom, Virginia
In 2018, Odom famously led No. 16 Maryland-Baltimore County past No. 1 Virginia in the first such upset in tournament history. Seven years later, he’s the Cavaliers’ permanent replacement for Tony Bennett. Odom has expanded his résumé by leading another two programs to the tournament in the meantime, landing Utah State an at-large berth in 2023 and leading VCU to the Atlantic 10 championship this season.
7. Richard Pitino, Xavier
Not every successful coaching career follows a straight line. Pitino got started with a bang, leading a depleted Florida International team in 2013 to the finals of the Sun Belt tournament. That earned him a quick promotion to Minnesota, where he went just 54-96 in the Big Ten in eight seasons. But Pitino did very good work during four years at New Mexico, making a pair of tournaments culminating in this year’s 27-win finish and trip to the second round.
8. Niko Medved, Minnesota
Medved is a Minnesota native who kickstarted Drake’s current run in 2018 before spending the past seven seasons at Colorado State, making three tournament appearances in the past four years and winning this season’s Mountain West tournament. Before that, he took over a Furman program in 2013 with one winning finish in the previous six years and won a combined 42 games in his final two seasons. While Minnesota is one of the tougher jobs in the Big Ten, Medved has the coaching chops and rebuilding experience to steadily build the Golden Gophers into a winner.
9. Darian DeVries, Indiana
The longtime Creighton assistant went 150-55 over six seasons at Drake, taking the foundation poured by Medved to put together maybe the best stretch in program history. DeVries then spent this past season at West Virginia, which finished 19-13 and was somewhat controversially left out of the tournament. Will the pressure and expectations at Indiana be too much for a head coach with just one year of major-conference experience? Maybe, but going with a lower-profile hire might be just what the Hoosiers need, too.
10. Alex Jensen, Utah
As at rival Brigham Young, where first-year coach Kevin Young had a terrific debut, Utah sees Jensen’s background as an NBA assistant coach as an asset during this era of free agency-like roster turnover. Another positive is his knowledge of the program: Jensen was a standout forward for the Utes, playing for the 1998 team that reached the national championship game and earning WAC player of the year honors in 2000. He also was an assistant to his former Utah coach Rick Majerus for four seasons at Saint Louis.
11. Luke Loucks, Florida State
Loucks is another former NBA assistant, most recently with the Sacramento Kings, who logged major minutes across multiple season as a Florida State point guard under his predecessor, longtime Seminoles coach Leonard Hamilton. Loucks and Jensen brings similar strengths to the table but will have to prove themselves as first-time head coaches.
12. Jai Lucas, Miami
The former Texas guard has established himself as one of the top recruiters in the country since entering into coaching nine years ago. Lucas has also worked under some of the biggest names in the sport: Rick Barnes, Shaka Smart, John Calipari and Jon Scheyer. Miami has quickly disappeared from the national picture after making the Elite Eight in 2022 and the Final Four a year later. Whether Lucas can install his vision, rebuild the roster and bring the Hurricanes back to relevance is one of the biggest questions of the offseason in the ACC.
