NCAA Basketball: Ranking all 362 D-I head coaches for 2023-24 season

60. Matt McMahon (LSU) (Last year: 46)

• Overall record: 168-86

One of McMahon’s earliest influences was Buzz Peterson, who he played under at Appalachian State and coached under at a few schools, including as a graduate assistant at Tennessee. He was an assistant under Steve Prohm at Murray State before being promoted to the top job in 2015. McMahon’s biggest accomplishment has been finding Ja Morant and turning him into a star. He won a pair of games and a slew of OVC titles with the Racers before taking LSU’s head coaching job last offseason. McMahon inherited Will Wade’s mess and finished last in the league in his first year, winning just 14 games.

59. Darian DeVries (Drake) (Last year: 74)

• Overall record: 122-48

Successful in the MVC for most of his career, DeVries played his college ball at Northern Iowa before joining the Creighton staff as a graduate manager. He was later promoted to full-time assistant and would spend 20 years with the Bluejays, including their first five seasons in the Big East. In 2018 he was hired by Drake, beginning his head coaching career back in the MVC with the Bulldogs. He’s won at least 20 games in all five seasons, leading the Bulldogs twice to the NCAA Tournament, including in last year’s 27-win campaign.

58. Grant McCasland (Texas Tech) (Last year: 101)

• Overall record: 155-77

A former junior college head coach, McCasland played point guard at Baylor back in the late 90’s and would begin his D1 career on Scott Drew’s staff, with the Bears albeit in much different shape. His D1 head coaching career began with a 20-win season at Arkansas State before he was lured to North Texas in 2017. These last six seasons have been very prosperous for the Mean Green, as McCasland delivered a CBI title, an NCAA Tournament upset win, and last year’s NIT title. His coaching career began as director of operations at Texas Tech and he returned 22 years later as their new head coach.

57. Steve Forbes (Wake Forest) (Last year: 57)

• Overall record: 180-83

Forbes has bounced around between a long list of colleges throughout his career, including three different junior college head coaching jobs. He’s served on the staffs of Porter Moser, Billy Gillispie, Bruce Pearl, and Gregg Marshall, learning from some brilliant minds in this game. He spent five very successful years leading East Tennessee State, winning 130 games and making plenty of waves with the Buccaneers. He’s been at Wake Forest since 2020 and has done decent work turning these Demon Deacons around, including a 19-14 mark last season.

56. Fran Dunphy (La Salle) (Last year: 58)

• Overall record: 595-344

A player at La Salle more than half a century, it seemed oddly fitting when Dunphy took over the program last offseason. Formerly an assistant at several other colleges, he spent 17 years as head coach at Penn, taking the Quakers to nine NCAA Tournaments. Dunphy was then hired at Temple and made eight more trips to the Big Dance while leading the Owls before retiring in 2019. After three years out of the game, he took over at his alma mater and secured an 11th place finish in his first season back in the A-10.

55. Penny Hardaway (Memphis) (Last year: 69)

• Overall record: 111-52

Back in the early 90’s Hardaway a star guard at Memphis, becoming the 3rd pick in the 1993 NBA Draft before a long and successful NBA career. Several years later, he became a high school coach in the city of Memphis before the Tigers handed him their head coaching job back in 2018. This last half decade has been his first taste of coaching at the college level. He’s proven to be an elite recruiter, won the NIT in 2021 and has led Memphis to back-to-back trips to the Big Dance, winning 26 games last season.

54. Steve Pikiell (Rutgers) (Last year: 56)

• Overall record: 309-262

More than three decades ago Pikiell was a point guard and briefly an assistant at UConn at the beginning of his coaching career. He worked at Yale and George Washington and a few other schools before starting his head coaching journey at Stony Brook. Pikiell slowly built success for the Seawolves, leading them to their first ever trip to the NCAA Tournament. Hired to fix a broken Rutgers program in 2016, he has been unexpectedly successful with the Scarlet Knights, with multiple trips to the Big Dance, though last season saw their bubble burst as Rutgers headed to the NIT.

53. Pat Kelsey (Charleston) (Last year: 99)

• Overall record: 234-114

This past year was certainly the breakthrough season Kelsey was hoping to have in Charleston. He played point guard at Xavier under Skip Prosser and assisted him for several years at Wake Forest. Kelsey went back to Xavier as associate head coach before spending 9 seasons at Winthrop, securing four Big South titles. Kelsey was hired by the College of Charleston in 2021 and is coming off a masterful season, with the Cougars finishing 31-4 after winning the CAA and making the NCAA Tournament.

52. Porter Moser (Oklahoma) (Last year: 35)

• Overall record: 327-275
• Final Four in 2018

Moser has been around the game for quite some time, though we know his best breakthrough came at Loyola-Chicago. Long before that, he was an assistant at Texas A&M and a few other schools before brief head coaching stints at Little Rock and Illinois State. He aided Rick Majerus at Saint Louis before his decade at Loyola, leading the Ramblers to a wild Final Four run in 2018. A few weeks after a Sweet Sixteen in 2021, he bolted for Oklahoma and has struggled in his first two years, including last year’s disappointing 15-17 finish.

51. Anthony Grant (Dayton) (Last year: 52)

• Overall record: 317-174

A Miami native who coached high school ball in the area, Grant’s career really got going when he joined Billy Donovan’s staff at Marshall, later helping Florida to a national championship. Grant then spent stints as head coach at both VCU and Alabama, with varying levels of success, especially with the Rams. After a couple seasons on Donovan’s bench in the NBA, Grant was hired in 2017 at Dayton, his alma mater. His Flyers finished 29-2 in the pandemic-shortened season and unfortunately have yet to make the Big Dance, though they have finished 2nd in the A-10 in each of the last two seasons.