The NCAA Tournament often doubles as a scouting ground for athletic directors trying their luck in college basketball’s coaching carousel. For proof, here are some numbers about the coaches of the 79 schools from the high-major basketball conferences (SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, ACC and Big East) during the 2024-25 season:
- Forty of the 79 coaches were head coaches outside the high-major leagues at the time of their hiring for their ’24-25 job.
- Among those 40 hires, only six had never coached in the NCAA Tournament.
- Of the 34 who had coached in the NCAA Tournament, almost half (16) had won a game in the tournament.
- And among the 39 who were not hired directly from a non-high-major head coaching job, only 19 had never coached at the mid-major level.
A shift in where ADs find their coaches is underway. Three high-major hires have already been made this cycle — Jai Lucas at Miami, Luke Loucks at Florida State and Alex Jensen at Utah — and neither were sitting college head coaches. (Lucas was an assistant at Duke, Loucks was an assistant for the Sacramento Kings and Jensen was an assistant for the Dallas Mavericks.)
Last year saw 13 head coach openings at the high-major level, and only four of the eventual hires came from the mid-major level: Mark Byington at Vanderbilt, Pat Kelsey at Louisville, Dusty May at Michigan and Steve Lutz at Oklahoma State. What did all four have in common? They coached in the 2024 NCAA Tournament.
Byington, Kelsey and May have been resounding success stories, all bringing in double-digit newcomers and making the NCAA Tournament in Year 1. While making the tournament isn’t a guarantee a coach is about to get a bigger job, it often gets him on the lists athletic directors keep of future coaches to consider once they need to make a hire.
The 11 coaches below are on those lists and will be worth keeping an eye on these next few cycles. But first, they’ll be trying to make runs with their current teams when the NCAA Tournament tips off this week.
Ryan Odom, VCU
Odom is the Dusty May of this cycle. Depending on whom you ask, he could end up being the first choice at several of the top openings. (A year ago, May was considered a favorite to land at Ohio State, which was only kind of open — the Buckeyes retained interim coach Jake Diebler — after which he was the favorite at Louisville, Vanderbilt and Michigan.) Odom seems to be the favorite at both Virginia and Villanova. My bet is he ends up at Virginia, but I’m not sure I would have ticketed May for Michigan at this time a year ago.
The son of longtime Wake Forest and South Carolina coach Dave Odom made a name for himself at UMBC as coach of the first No. 16 seed to beat a No. 1 seed. What a bizarre world that he could now be the next coach at Virginia, the team at the wrong end of that historic upset. After UMBC, Odom coached two years at Utah State, making the tourney in his second season, and has VCU back in the field in Year 2. He has won with a several types of rosters — playing slow, playing fast, winning with offense (at Utah State) and winning with defense (now at VCU).
Ben McCollum, Drake
McCollum could be one-and-done at Drake, with both Iowa and Indiana eyeing the four-time Division II national champion. McCollum brought four of his starters with him from D-II Northwest Missouri State, and their success has been one of the best stories of the season. The Bulldogs are 30-3 and have three wins over high-majors. Bennett Stirtz is one of the best guards in the country, and he still has a year of eligibility, which only adds to McCollum’s potential value to interested teams.
Years before his first D-I chance, he was a well-known name in coaching circles for the way his teams play offense. He’s a whiz when it comes to designing ball-screen offense and instilling optimal shot selection in his players. The Bulldogs do not take average or good shots; they wait for a great one. McCollum considers himself a defense-first coach, and that has translated up a level. The Bulldogs rank 46th in adjusted defense, 10th in turnover rate and 24th in defensive rebounding percentage. That last one is pretty impressive, considering McCollum’s tallest player is 6-8.
Eric Olen, UC San Diego
The Tritons have won 30 games with four starters who transferred up from D-II, knocked off tournament team Utah State on the road, rank 36th at KenPom and made the NCAA Tournament in the program’s first year of eligibility after making the transition to Division I. Olen’s teams play a bit faster than McCollum’s but also emphasize shot selection, with a preference for 3s and at-the-rim 2s. The Tritons took almost half their shots from deep this season. Olen has also done a masterful job leaning into his players’ strengths, turning Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones, a former Division II post player without much of a jump shot, into a primary ballhandler who dominates at the rim and gets to the foul line more than any player in the country.
Olen never won a D-II title, but he did take UC San Diego to four straight NCAA Tournaments at that level and was on track for a fifth before the pandemic canceled the 2020 tournament. His last D-II team went 30-1.
Niko Medved, Colorado State
Medved has been a candidate at high-majors in previous years, but he’s been picky because he has a great setup at Colorado State, where he has now made three of the last four NCAA Tournaments. This cycle, he’s considered the favorite to return home to Minnesota, where he worked as a student manager and later as an assistant coach.
Medved’s motion offense counts Johnny Orr’s spread, John Beilein’s 2-guard attack and Lennie Acuff’s version of the Princeton as influences. “Maybe one day it’ll be the Medved system,” he joked in a profile last year. Medved has also had a good eye for talent. He has developed pros in David Roddy and Isaiah Stevens (currently on a two-way contract with the Miami Heat), and current Rams star Nique Clifford is a candidate to get drafted in June. If Colorado State goes on a run, Minnesota might have some competition for Medved.
Bryce Drew, Grand Canyon
Drew and Richard Pitino are this cycle’s boomerang coaches, who didn’t work out at their first high-major stops but have been so good at their next ones that they likely make it back to the high-major level. Drew’s three-season tenure at Vanderbilt looks better in hindsight. He made the NCAA Tournament in his first year but got fired after his third when he went 0-18 in the SEC, in part because lottery pick Darius Garland was lost for the year after only five games.
In five years at Grand Canyon, Drew has made four NCAA Tournaments. Last year the Antelopes knocked off Saint Mary’s in the first round. Drew has reason to be picky when it comes to his next stop because Grand Canyon’s resources and fan support make it one of the best mid-major jobs in the country. He gives his players a lot of freedom on offense, which has helped him land talented players, including current stars Tyon Grant-Foster and JaKobe Coles, who both transferred from high-major programs.
Another former high-major coach who has reemerged at the mid-major level with great success is John Groce, the Akron coach who coached for five seasons at Illinois. The Zips are in the NCAA Tournament for the third time in the last four years.
Alan Huss, High Point
The longtime Creighton assistant is 56-14 in two seasons at High Point and has the Panthers in the NCAA Tournament for the first time. Huss lost his leading scorer off last year’s team — Duke Miles, who transferred to Oklahoma — but found a way to retain his other starters, and this year’s group has performed even better. Like his old boss Greg McDermott, Huss’ teams push the pace and then run intricate sets, looking for quality 3s and putting pressure on the rim. High Point ranks 25th in adjusted offensive efficiency and ranked 36th last year, rare air for a team from a league like the Big South. (The conference’s next-best offense ranks 103rd.)
Takayo Siddle, UNC Wilmington
The 38-year-old Siddle worked for Kevin Keatts at Hargrave Military Academy, UNC Wilmington and NC State. After a losing campaign in his first year replacing C.B. McGrath, the Seahawks have won 20-plus games in four consecutive years and never finished worst than 12-6 in the CAA.
Siddle’s teams mix in some full-court press but play slower than his old boss Keatts’ did. Much like some of the best defenses at the high-major level, the Seahawks try to make opponents make plays off the bounce and limit catch-and-shoot jumpers. Siddle hasn’t been a name I’ve heard for high-major jobs, but he could be a name to watch moving up levels somewhere in the American or A-10.
Jerrod Calhoun, Utah State
Poor Utah State. Its coaches keep winning at such a high level that they don’t stay in Logan for long. Craig Smith lasted three years and then went to Utah; Ryan Odom spent two years before leaving for VCU; Danny Sprinkle was off to Washington after just one year. After a 26-7 record in his first year, Calhoun is now seeing his name floated for bigger jobs.
The 43-year-old got his start as a head coach at Division II Fairmont State, where current Boston Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla was an assistant on his staff. Calhoun prides himself on running a modern, pro-style offense. He didn’t enjoy playing against Northern Kentucky’s zone defense when he was at Youngstown State, and so he hired Eric Haut off the Northern Kentucky staff to install the same defense at Utah State. Calhoun has now proven he can both rebuild a losing program — Youngstown State was coming off three straight losing seasons when he got the job — and keep a good thing going, as he’s done at Utah State.
Will Wade, McNeese
Wade is almost too obvious for inclusion. The former LSU coach will reemerge at the high-major level soon. (NC State, maybe?) Wade has won everywhere he’s been, with stops at Chattanooga, VCU, LSU and now McNeese. He’s a terrific recruiter, but what gets lost in the “strong-ass offer” he was caught discussing on a federal wiretap is that he also seems to have a good eye for talent. Wade knows a recruiting budget matters, and he also knows he doesn’t need to be in a rush to jump for another job because he can keep dominating the Southland, allowing him to ensure wherever he lands is set up to win.
Randy Bennett, Saint Mary’s
Bennett was on this list last year, and at 62, he may coach out the rest of his career at a place where he knows he can win. If he’s ever going to make a move, this feels like his window. Bennett’s name is mentioned regularly for openings, especially out west, and for good reason. In 24 seasons at Saint Mary’s, he has been to 11 NCAA Tournaments. He just won back-to-back WCC regular-season titles over Gonzaga. His defense ranks 15th in adjusted efficiency, the fifth straight year ranking in the top 20. The other programs that have pulled that off: Houston, Tennessee and Kansas.
Bennett is one of the best tacticians in the sport, and he also has found a niche in recruiting — Saint Mary’s has become a landing spot for some of the best Australian players who decide to play college ball. The Gaels play slow, with great ball movement, and they crush you on the offensive glass. It’s a formula that works and will keep working, whether Bennett stays or finally decides to go elsewhere.
Chris Crutchfield, Omaha
Crutchfield was considered one of the best high-major assistants, with stops at Oklahoma, Arkansas and Oregon. He’s now in his third season at Omaha and has the Mavericks in the NCAA Tournament for the first time. Crutchfield, who recruited Buddy Hield to Oklahoma and current Michigan State wing Frankie Fidler to Omaha, has always found diamonds where no one else is looking, and he has another one this year in Summit League player of the year Marquel Sutton, a junior college product who has been at Omaha for three years. Crutchfield’s biggest influence is Lon Kruger, and he has built an efficient offense with lots of shooting and playing with pace. He has also built a culture where his guys play loose and enjoy being around each other. Case in point: His team destroys trash cans after wins.
(Photo of Takayo Siddle: Tyler McFarland / Getty Images)
