NCAA Basketball: Who are the best D-I coaches who have played professional basketball?

There seems to be a trend developing in NCAA basketball where programs are turning more and more to former pro basketball players.

The Georgetown Hoyas selected former Hoya and New York Knick great Patrick Ewing to replace John Thompson III as head coach on April 3. Ewing is the 28th head coach currently in NCAA D-I basketball who has also played professionally, either in the NBA or overseas. Of the 28 coaches who have played professionally, 23 have played in the NBA.

Ewing is arguably, though there is not much of an argument, the best player of the 30 coaches who have played professionally. Ewing spent 17 years in the NBA after being selected with the No. 1 overall pick by the New York Knicks in the 1985 NBA Draft. The 7-footer is in both the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and College Basketball Hall of Fame.

Ewing averaged 20.2 points and 10.3 rebounds per game while shooting 50.4 percent from the field in 1,183 career games. The 11-time NBA All-Star ranks in the top 26 all-time in points (24,815), rebounds (11,607) and blocks (2,894). In addition to playing in New York, he played one season in Orlando.

Chris Mullin is the only other current head coach that has been selected to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame as a player. There are several other head coaches, however, who had successful NBA careers such as Terry Porter, Damon Stoudamire, Dan Majerle, Donyell Marshall, Michael Curry, Danny Manning, Avery Johnson, and Kevin Ollie.

Allen Edwards (Wyoming), Mike Hopkins (Washington), Matt Lotich (Valparaiso), Jason Gardner (IUPUI)  and Dan Earl (VMI) are coaches that did not play in the NBA. They either played in the CBA, D-League or overseas.

The rest of the article will look at who the best college basketball coaches that played professional basketball are. Ewing is among the players not eligible on this list as he has never been a head coach before. Marshall (Central Connecticut State), Edwards, Hopkins, Lotich, and Stoudamire (Pacific) are also not eligible for this list as each has one or fewer years of experience as a head coach.