Big East Basketball: Ranking all head coaches going into 2023-24 season

By Caleb Hall | Sep 19, 2023

Mar 9, 2022; New York, NY, USA; St. John's Red Storm guard Posh Alexander (0) dribbles up court during the first half during the Big East Conference Tournament against the DePaul Blue Demons at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports /

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Head coach Shaka Smart of the Marquette Golden Eagles looks on during the Quarterfinal round of the Big East Basketball Tournament (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images) /

No. 5: Shaka Smart, Marquette Golden Eagles

Number 5 and 6 on this list could probably be the ones that could switch on a week to week basis. But as of today Shaka Smart falls at number 5.

Smart is one of the younger coaches in the Big East while also having a lot of assistant and head coaching experience. Smart was an assistant for 20 years for multiple teams, most notably Clemson and Florida, until he got his first coaching gig at VCU. Smart then coached at Texas from 2015-21 where he would never make it out of the round of 64 and when his job security was questioned he left to become the head coach at Marquette.

Smart made the final four with VCU in his second season coaching and he would never get back to that stage in the postseason or even make it past the first weekend since that 2011 season. Smart’s teams just do not seem to have that postseason factor when it comes to March. However, in the regular season his teams do extremely well, especially in his first two years at Marquette. Smart has a 48-20 (48-11) record with Marquette and even though that is extremely good for a Big East team, they just have not had postseason success, which is worrying.

Smart needs more tourney success if he wants to move up on this list, and if he can win more in March he may even move into the top three. That is how good Shaka Smart can be if the Golden Eagles can just win in March.

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