2019 NCAA Tournament: Ranking all 68 head coaches in the Big Dance
By Joey Loose
36. Nate Oats (Buffalo)
3 NCAA Tournaments (1-2)
When Bobby Hurley left for Arizona State, Oats was promoted to the top job at Buffalo in one of the smartest coaching hires of the year. He’s won 95 games already in four seasons in the MAC and leads his Bulls after a stellar season, an unprecedented 6-seed. Oats’ team crushed 4-seed Arizona in last year’s Tournament and are primed to do even more damage this season. He’s put together an incredibly potent group of players and the next wave of recruiting will bring even more success to Buffalo.
35. Bobby Hurley (Arizona State)
2 NCAA Tournaments (0-2)
Hurley finds himself back in the NCAA Tournament still looking for that elusive Tourney win. He put together a potent team with Buffalo but couldn’t pull an upset. He took these Sun Devils to the First Four last year, but finds himself playing in Dayton once more. He’s a great and relatively young coach with a lot of success on the horizon, but he’s yet to prove it in postseason play. His team stumbled at times in a weak Pac-12, but this is easily one of the best coaches left in the conference.
34. Kermit Davis (Mississippi)
5 NCAA Tournaments (2-5)
Davis is in his first year at Ole Miss and he’s already gotten the Rebels into the NCAA Tournament. He got Idaho to a pair of Big Sky titles, but his biggest accomplishments came during his tenure at Middle Tennessee. He won games as a 15-seed and 12-seed with the Blue Raiders and has recently established himself as a very solid coach. He’s already making progress in a tough SEC and his program should be even more potent when he can start getting his own recruits in town.
33. Fran Dunphy (Temple)
16 NCAA Tournaments (3-16)
Their First Four date with Belmont could be the end of the road for Dunphy’s coaching career as he’s set to retire at the end of the year. Regardless of how Temple does in the Tourney, Dunphy has had a successful coaching career at both Penn and Temple, though he’s struggled when he’s gotten into the postseason. He made 9 trips with the Quakers, upsetting 6-seed Nebraska back in 1994, but hasn’t had much luck in March. The door is literally closing for Dunphy and maybe things will change this year.