NCAA Basketball: Top head coaches under 40 Years old entering 2020-21

6. Richie Riley – South Alabama

Riley has spent the last four seasons as a D1 head coach, but also put together quite an impressive assistant coaching career despite his age. He’s worked under Cliff Ellis and Jerod Haase among others, while also spending a pair of seasons on staff at Clemson. In 2016, he took the top job at Nicholls State, while that success led him to South Alabama just two years later.

Riley inherited a Nicholls State team that had stagnated for quite some time and led them to success, winning the Southland regular-season title in his second year. He left that program in way better shape as he moved onto South Alabama. The Jaguars had really struggled the previous decade, but things are already looking up in just two seasons. This past year, South Alabama finished second in the Sun Belt and won 20 games, their most in eleven seasons.

Not since 2008 has South Alabama made the NCAA Tournament but Riley has put this program in their best shape since that season. The Jaguars are trending in a great direction and it’s impossible to ignore that success at Nicholls as well. Riley has shown himself capable of turning around these programs, building talented and competitive rosters in a quick time.