NCAA Basketball: Ranking all 358 D-I head coaches for 2021-22 season
By Joey Loose
Another NCAA basketball season is about to begin and it’s shaping up to be one of the best we’ve seen. Last season was special, giving us the NCAA Tournament we had been waiting two years for and seeing Baylor win their first national championship. Now, the NCAA has granted an extra year of eligibility because of the pandemic-shortened season, meaning there’s going to be a lot of returning talent in the country this season, a positive boost from top to bottom.
We progress forward, heading towards a 2021-22 season that could prove even more fantastic than last year, but one that certainly will show the mettle of the head coaches of these programs. Balancing some jam-packed rosters while adjusting to new conferences and lineups, there are now 358 Division 1 programs depending on the leadership of their head coaches.
The sport has everything from living legends to brand new head coaches, while the list of the latter will only continue to grow. Last season saw the final act for Roy Williams and Lon Kruger and we bid ado to Mike Krzyzewski next season after a fantastic Hall of Fame career.
As we did each of the last three seasons, we’ll be doing the unthinkable: ranking all 358 head coaches from top to bottom. There remains no rigid methodology for comprising these rankings, though they are based on several different criteria. A coach’s ability to win games is of course important, while things like postseason bids and wins are vital as well. A young head coach who succeeds immediately can shoot up the rankings, while a long-standing coach can see his ranking sink if his program starts to tumble.
The rankings are not perfect, and it’s guaranteed that someone will have issue with the placement of every single head coach on this list. Plenty of research was put into all 358 D-1 coaches and their programs, with Sports Reference and other resources used to gather statistics and information. With all of these things in mind, let’s get right into the rankings; after all we have 358 coaches to detail.