We’re up to 357 D-1 NCAA Basketball programs and each of them is led by a head coach. How will we go about ranking these head coaches and which ones stand out?
A new NCAA Basketball season is on the horizon and the anticipation is as high as it’s ever been. The national pandemic threw sports into chaos, cancelled much of postseason play including the NCAA Tournament.
The upheaval leaves us with a somewhat shortened season, but at least we have any basketball at all at this point. Players like Cassius Winston and Obi Toppin never got their chance to shine in the postseason, but their programs remain, leaving their coaches much work ahead.
Especially in today’s day and age, it’s not easy coaching college basketball, but the nation is filled with a large supply of great coaches. With four new additions this past offseason, there are now 357 Division 1 programs and all of them have strong leadership.
Some coaches are living legends of the game while others are young men just getting their post-playing careers started. Rankings among the greats are commonplace, but once again we’re going to take a crack at something more difficult: ranking all 357 from top to bottom.
This is the third year of these comprehensive head coach rankings, and the methodology and approach remain quite similar to the last two seasons. There is no hard and fast rule, but there were several obvious considerations made, including winning percentage and success in the postseason.
There are other factors in play, of course, concerning a team’s recent success as well. A young coach who’s made great strides at his school will shoot up the rankings, while an experienced coach could certainly drop if his program fails to succeed.
There are no perfect rankings, though these are comprehensive and will touch upon each of the 357 D-1 head coaches. Sports Reference was the primary tool for gathering information and statistics, especially for undertaking a project of this scale.
Without further ado, let’s dive right into the marathon list of head coaches, starting from the very bottom of the list.