200. Brian Earl (William & Mary) (Last year: 202)
Overall record: 113-118
Unquestionably a smart mind in the game, Earl played at Princeton during a prosperous era in the 90’s and later served as an assistant with the Tigers for nearly a decade. After that work in the Ivy League, rival Cornell handed him their head coaching job in 2016. Earl would slowly turn things around for the Big Red, culminating in a 22-win campaign and NIT bid in 2024. That would be his final year with the Big Red, as he’d take the William & Mary job last offseason, winning 17 games in his first season with the Tribe.
199. Joe Jones (Boston University) (Last year: 203)
Overall record: 320-315
While his earliest work came at the high school level, Jones was hired as an assistant for Jay Wright at Hofstra and would later work under him with Villanova. Since then, he’s spent more than two decades as a head coach, with seven years at Columbia before taking Boston University’s job back in 2011. While he’s still hunting for that elusive NCAA Tournament appearance, his Terriers did win the Patriot League Tournament in 2020 before the pandemic wiped everything out and he’s coming off another Top 3 finish in this league.
198. Nathan Davis (New Hampshire) (Last year: 197)
Overall record: 153-154
Davis has numerous years of head coaching experience under his belt but now he’s trying to change the tide at New Hampshire. His first lead gig came at Randolph-Macon, his alma mater, taking that program to several D3 Tournaments and plenty of success. Davis hopped to Bucknell in 2015, winning four Patriot League titles with a pair of trips to the Big Dance before fizzling out with the Bison. Year one with New Hampshire was solid, but the Wildcats won just eight games in Davis’s second season last year.
197. Luke Loucks (Florida State) (Last year: N/A)
Overall record: 0-0
Leonard Hamilton’s successor with the Seminoles is one of his former players, as Loucks was part of the Florida State backcourt back in the early 2010s. After graduation, he spent a few years playing professional basketball before getting an internship with the Golden State Warriors. Over the next decade, Loucks would work the pro scene with the Warriors and Sacramento Kings and now arrives back in Tallahassee without any collegiate coaching experience.
196. Brian Barone (SIU Edwardsville) (Last year: 277)
Overall record: 86-103
Barone has risen through the coaching ranks in an unusual manner, though he wasn’t wasted this chance in Edwardsville. He’s a former guard at Texas A&M and Marquette and gained experience working under Tom Crean, Porter Moser, and Brian Wardle among others. He was actually out of coaching when SIU Edwardsville hired him as an assistant in 2017 before ascending to head coach two seasons later. The overall record doesn’t inspire, but Barone just took the Cougars to the first NCAA Tournament appearance in program history.
195. Todd Phillips (Utah Valley) (Last year: 275)
Overall record: 41-25
At the junior college level, Phillips won a ton of games leading Salt Lake Community College and has spent his entire coaching career in the state of Utah. 2019 saw him join Mark Madsen’s staff at Utah Valley before getting promoted to the head coaching job when Madsen departed four years later. After solid work as an assistant, he’s making his mark form the head coach’s chair, coming off a 25-win season and WAC regular season title for the Wolverines.
194. King Rice (Monmouth) (Last year: 201)
Overall record: 220-228
A former North Carolina point guard over three decades ago, Rice got into coaching, really catching on with a long stint under Kevin Stallings at both Illinois State and Vanderbilt. He had previously coached the national team of the Bahamas, but Monmouth was his real first head coaching experience. Suddenly, Rice enters his 15th season with the Hawks and despite three MAAC titles still lacks a trip to the NCAA Tournament. Still, the work in the CAA hasn’t been terrible since he led Monmouth into their new league in 2022.
193. Jai Lucas (Miami FL) (Last year: N/A)
Overall record: 0-0
The Hurricanes found their new head coach in Lucas, giving the keys to the kingdom to someone without any head coaching experience. After playing point guard at Florida and Texas and briefly overseas, Lucas has made a career out of finding and recruiting high-level talent. He’s spent time as an important assistant at Texas, Kentucky, and Duke over the last decade, serving as associate head coach with the Blue Devils in recent years. How does he handle running his own program?
192. Terrence Johnson (Texas State) (Last year: 191)
Overall record: 88-68
During the earliest days of his coaching career, Johnson made a name for himself at the high school and AAU levels. That’s where almost all of his experience came from before he joined the Texas State coaching staff back in 2015. When Danny Kaspar was dismissed in 2020, Johnson was named head coach and proceeded to win a pair of Sun Belt regular season titles. The Bobcats have come back down to earth the last few seasons and are coming off a mediocre .500 finish, grabbing 7th place in the league.
191. Jordan Mincy (Jacksonville) (Last year: 225)
Overall record: 69-57
Following impressive work as a player at Kent State, Mincy took several coaching jobs, including a brief reunion with his alma mater. After other stops, he’d spent seven years with Mike White, most of that in the SEC at Florida. He didn’t have to go far to find his first head coaching job when Jacksonville brought him aboard in 2021. The Memphis native won 21 games in his first year helming the Dolphins and after two more mediocre seasons bounced back nicely this year, taking Jacksonville to 19 wins and a tie for 4th in the ASUN.
190. Steve Smiley (Northern Colorado) (Last year: 230)
Overall record: 89-71
Not many people know much about Smiley, but he’s quietly done a pretty solid job in his coaching career. His head coaching career started over a decade ago by winning a ton of games at Sheridan College at the junior college level before becoming a D1 assistant. Fast forward to 2010 and Northern Colorado promoted him to head coach after a few years on Jeff Linder’s staff. Since then, the Bears have had a few nice seasons, capping that off with last year’s 25-win campaign and NIT bid after tying for the Big Sky regular season title.
189. Bashir Mason (Saint Peter’s) (Last year: 177)
Overall record: 210-178
Collegiately a Drexel point guard, Mason played high school ball under Bob Hurley Sr. in New Jersey and one of his first coaching stops was with Dan Hurley at Wagner. After a few seasons on staff, the Seahawks named him head coach back in 2012. Over the next decade, Mason won three NEC regular season crowns and a bunch of games before taking the Saint Peter’s job. Year two saw him lead the Peacocks to the Big Dance, though last year’s 12-16 mark was clearly a setback.
188. Martin Ingelsby (Delaware) (Last year: 185)
Overall record: 147-137
Ingelsby spent part of his playing career under Mike Brey while as a point guard at Notre Dame and would certainly get this coaching career going at his alma mater. After a season on Wagner’s staff, Ingelsby would spend 13 years with Brey and the Fighting Irish before getting the call to take over at Delaware. There have been some mixed results, though Ingelsby took the Fightin’ Blue Hens to the Big Dance in 2022. He leads Delaware into CUSA coming off a 12th place finish and rough farewell in the CAA.
187. Johnny Tauer (St. Thomas) (Last year: 232)
Overall record: 73-57
The entirety of Tauer’s basketball career has come at St. Thomas, where he played in the early 90’s before joining the faculty and coaching staff. Tauer spent more than a decade as an assistant before getting the top job in 2011. Tauer took the Tommies to immense success at the D3 level, including the D3 title in his fifth season, and led the recent transition to D1 athletics. Each season in D1 has been better than the last, including 24 wins and a 2nd place finish in the Summit League this past year.
186. Dave Paulsen (Holy Cross) (Last year: 184)
Overall record: 252-227
Previously an assistant at Michigan and a few other schools, Paulsen has made his living as collegiate head coach and is now at his sixth school. He did well in D3 with St. Lawrence, struggled at Le Moyne, and bounced back with a D3 national title at Williams. At the D1 level, Paulsen took Bucknell to a few Tournaments before flaming out with George Mason. He enters year three leading the Crusaders but is just 23-42 to this point.
185. Rob Jeter (Southern Utah) (Last year: 187)
Overall record: 245-255
The son of a former Green Bay Packer, Jeter found his footing in the state of Wisconsin and found a great mentor in Bo Ryan. Jeter played under him at Wisconsin-Platteville and assisted him there and at Milwaukee, and Wisconsin. Later as Milwaukee’s head coach, Jeter took the Panthers to an NCAA Tournament win back in 2006 to kick start his 11-year stint. More recently, Jeter did decent work building Western Illinois before jumping to Southern Utah in 2023 but is fresh off a tough start in the WAC.
184. Duane Simpkins (American) (Last year: 271)
Overall record: 38-29
The earliest coaching work for this former Terrapin came at the high school level, but Simpkins caught on in college ball just over a decade ago. He’s had a few stops, notably spending 8 years on George Mason’s coaching staff. He took the head coaching job at American in 2023, bringing him back to Washington DC where he went to high school, and he’s been great with the Eagles. After a solid debut, Simpkins just took the Eagles to the NCAA Tournament, winning both regular season and conference titles in the Patriot League.
183. Talvin Hester (Louisiana Tech) (Last year: 195)
Overall record: 57-40
Hester’s playing career was very brief but he’s made quite the name for himself as a collegiate coach. He hopped around nearly a dozen schools as a collegiate assistant, with notable work at places like Prairie View A&M, Houston, Louisiana Tech, and Texas Tech. After a single season in Lubbock, Hester was brought back to Louisiana Tech to begin his head coaching career. After a tough first year in Reston, Hester has won 20 games each of the last two seasons and has this program trending upwards again.
182. Todd Simon (Bowling Green) (Last year: 176)
Overall record: 161-146
Though a native of Michigan and alum of Central Michigan, much of Simon’s coaching career has come on the west coast. After several years coaching high school ball in Las Vegas, he had time on staff at UNLV, including a brief stint as interim head coach in 2016. Weeks later he began what would be a seven-year run at Southern Utah, with 20-win campaigns in each of his final three seasons. Simon returned to his roots by accepting Bowling Green’s opening in 2023, though just 14 wins this past season was an underachievement.
181. Michael Schwartz (East Carolina) (Last year: 223)
Overall record: 50-49
These are still the early days for Schwartz in his head coaching career, though he certainly gained plenty of experience beforehand. He was a staffer at Texas and Miami and has worked under coaches like Frank Haith, Rick Barnes, and Rodney Terry. After a six-year run on Tennessee’s staff under Barnes, Schwartz took East Carolina’s opening in 2022. The Pirates’ job isn’t an easy one in the AAC, though year three was definitely a step in the right direction with a 19-win campaign.