SEC Basketball: Ranking all 14 head coaches for 2019-20 season

1. John Calipari (Kentucky)

There isn’t a lot of explanation necessary to understand that Kentucky is the best program in the SEC. In addition to those 8 national titles, they’ve employed a long line of successful coaches and Calipari is certainly the latest in a fine line.

After a brief assistant coaching career, Calipari became head coach at UMass in 1988. By 1996, he was leading a Final Four squad, though it was vacated later due to Marcus Camby’s ineligibility. He then spent three years coaching the New Jersey Nets, eventually ending up back in the college game at Memphis. He rode Derrick Rose (later ruled ineligible) to another Final Four in 2008. By 2009, Kentucky grew quite dissatisfied with Billy Gillispie, rolling out the red carpet for Calipari.

The Wildcats were rewarded for their hire. Calipari led Kentucky to the national title in 2012 and has already accumulated four Final Fours and seven Elite Eights in a decade. He has consistently brought top-notch recruits to the Wildcats and will have Kentucky in the national title conversation every season he remains. It’s almost ridiculous to say that the last four years have been disappointments, though Kentucky hasn’t made a Final Four since 2015.

Calipari is the unequivocal king of the current SEC coaches. He’s the only one with a national title and his six Final Fours trample everyone else’s accolades. He’s built a longtime power at Kentucky and will continue to rack up wins and accomplishments.

Each of these fourteen SEC schools have themselves a solid coach at the helm. This is one of the deepest leagues with some incredible head coaches leading these programs. We’ve already taken a good look at how they rank for this upcoming season, though it’ll be interesting to see how things change in the coming years.