NCAA Basketball: Ranking all 353 D-I head coaches for 2019-20 season

310. Mike Morell (UNC Asheville) (Last year: 287)

• Overall record: 4-27

Morell’s coaching career got a boost from his work with Shaka Smart, spending time as an assistant at VCU and Texas for seven seasons. A relatively young head coach, he just began his career at UNC Asheville, though things were off to a rocky start. He’s basically starting from scratch, but four wins was still a poor start for this program. Expect things to look up moving forward or he might be returning to one of Smart’s staffs sooner rather than later.

309. Dan Engelstad (Mount St. Mary’s) (Last year: 335)

• Overall record: 9-22

Engelstad enters his second year at Mount St. Mary’s, returning to the school after beginning his coaching career as an assistant there a decade earlier. He dominated at D3 Southern Vermont, though clearly the jump to D1 is no joke. A nine-win debut isn’t awful, though he’ll be judged on he builds the team moving forward.

308. Mark Madsen (Utah Valley) (Last year: N/A)

• Overall record: 0-0

Brought aboard as another former NBA player and coach, Madsen is set to energize a Utah Valley program that just lost their coach to BYU. Madsen played nine years in the NBA and spent his last six seasons on the Lakers’ coaching staff. His only previous coaching experience came in one season on the Stanford staff. The adjustment to the college game will be the toughest thing for Madsen, though the former NBA champion might have the ability to bring solid talent to the Wolverines.

307. Bryan Mullins (Southern Illinois) (Last year: N/A)

• Overall record: 0-0

Mullins is a really young head coach, but the Southern Illinois graduate returns to his alma mater highly anticipated. He just played a critical role on Porter Moser’s staff at Loyola, helping lead the Ramblers to the Final Four in 2018. The Salukis have struggled for the past decade and turning things around won’t be easy. Fortunately, Mullins has familiarity both in the conference and area and should be able to put together some competitive teams at Southern Illinois very soon.

306. Tony Pujol (North Alabama) (Last year: 349)

• Overall record: 10-22

Pujol’s career has taken him all over the place, from long stints as a high school coach to spending time as an assistant at Alabama. He came to North Alabama as their first D1 head coach last season and did a solid job helping the Lions transition. They won just 10 games, but 7 of those wins came in A-Sun play, with plenty more potential on the horizon for this team.

305. Mark Prosser (Western Carolina) (Last year: 315)

• Overall record: 7-25

The son of the legendary coach Skip Prosser, Mark’s head coaching career got off to a somewhat rocky start last season, though there is hope for the future. He’s a former assistant at schools like Wofford, Bucknell, and Winthrop. His Catamounts should take a step forward in year two. He certainly isn’t his father, but his experience gives him a great chance for at least some success at Western Carolina.

304. Jared Grasso (Bryant) (Last year: 316)

• Overall record: 11-42

Grasso bounced around at places like Hofstra, Hartford, and Quinnipiac before a long stint as associate head coach at Iona. He began his head coaching career at Bryant last season, though gets credited for a rough 1-22 stint as interim head coach at Fordham. The record looks much worse than it is, but Grasso has done a fine job with the Bulldogs. They’ll look to build on last year’s 8th place finish.

303. Greg Gary (Mercer) (Last year: N/A)

• Overall record: 16-44

After a long stint on Matt Painter’s staff at Purdue, Gary finally gets his second shot as head coach at Mercer. He spent two less than stellar years at Centenary before they departed D1 and has experienced on the staffs of Tulane, Miami, and South Florida on his resume. There’s potential for a rebuild at Mercer, though the SoCon has gotten much tougher in recent seasons. He helped bring success to Purdue, but can he resurrect his head coaching career?

302. Tommy Dempsey (Binghamton) (Last year: 310)

• Overall record: 176-266

Dempsey has already spent seven years as Binghamton’s head coach after seven years at Rider, though with very little success to show for it. He had a few postseason bids with Rider but has yet to win more than 5 games in America East play with the Bearcats. Historically, Binghamton isn’t exactly a great program, though he’s at least seen his win total increase steadily these past few seasons.

301. Darrell Walker (Little Rock) (Last year: 346)

• Overall record: 10-21

A former NBA head coach and player without any college experience, Walker took over at Little Rock last season after a brief stint at D2 Clark Atlanta. Believe it or not, the former Raptors and Wizards head coach has introduced improvement with a 10-win season. These Trojans are years removed from Chris Beard’s mastery, but Walker still has a rough rebuild ahead.