50. Steve Forbes (Wake Forest) (Last year: 55)
Overall record: 222-108
The path to this point has been very indirect for Forbes, who has coaching experience all over the board. He’s been a junior college head coach several times and worked on all sorts of staffs, even aiding Texas A&M, Tennessee, and Wichita State. The first D1 head coaching shot came with East Tennessee State and resulted in 130 wins across half a decade, leading Wake Forest to lure him to Winston-Salem in 2020. While Forbes hasn’t matched that breakthrough with the Demon Deacons, he has averaged 21 wins in his last four seasons and tied for 4th place in the ACC last year.
49. Fran McCaffery (Penn) (Last year: 35)
Overall record: 548-384
McCaffery played at Penn and was briefly on staff in the early 80’s and is now back at his alma mater more than four decades later. In between then he had success leading four different D1 programs and was also a notable assistant with Notre Dame. McCaffery did solid work at Lehigh and UNC Greensboro before winning a pair of NCAA Tournament games at Siena, earning him what would become a 15-year stint with Iowa. The Hawkeyes never had the breakthrough moment, but McCaffery won nearly 300 games and made seven trips to the NCAA Tournament before he was fired this offseason. He now begins that new challenge with the Quakers.
48. Steve Alford (Nevada) (Last year: 39)
Overall record: 622-344
Back in the mid-80’s, Alford did great work as a guard at Indiana and spent a few years playing in the NBA afterwards. He’s now spent more than thirty years coaching collegiate ball, starting with Manchester before taking Missouri State to a Sweet Sixteen back in 1999. Alford has bounced between Iowa, New Mexico, and UCLA, with varying levels of success with those programs, including three Sweet Sixteen’s with the Bruins. Alford’s been leading Nevada since 2019 and made a couple of trips to the Big Dance, though the Wolf Pack are coming off a more mediocre 7th place finish in the MWC.
47. Bryce Drew (Grand Canyon) (Last year: 48)
Overall record: 284-148
Drew has spent the last decade plus proving that his legacy is more than just hitting that buzzer beater during the 1998 NCAA Tournament. He starred at Valparaiso and spent several years playing in the NBA before joining his father’s coaching staff at his alma mater. Drew won 124 games in five years as head coach at Valparaiso before flaming out at Vanderbilt during a 3-year stint. Since 2020 he’s been entrenched at Grand Canyon and has been marvelous, taking the Antelopes to four Tourneys, including an upset win in 2024; though his focus is now on life in the Mountain West.
46. Ben McCollum (Iowa) (Last year: 244)
Overall record: 31-4
This has been a meteoric rise for McCollum in recent years and he’s proved his value in this sport. He played and coached at Northwest Missouri State, later taking that program to immense success, winning four D2 titles in a six year span. Already considered a top coach, he took his talents to D1 with Drake and his lone season with the Bulldogs resulted in 31 wins and a trip to the second round of the Big Dance. McCollum now heads to his hometown to take over at Iowa, hoping to create a powerful program with the Hawkeyes.
45. Kevin Young (BYU) (Last year: 207)
Overall record: 26-10
While he does have previous experience as a head coach in the G-League, Young found a similar meteoric rise thanks to his first collegiate season with BYU. He had only brief college experience before last offseason, spending much of his time on NBA staffs, including four years with the Phoenix Suns. Not only has Young proven a great recruiter already but he led the Cougars to the Sweet Sixteen in his first season and has this program trending towards more success to come.
44. Mike White (Georgia) (Last year: 60)
Overall record: 299-174
A former point guard at Ole Miss, White has a ton of experience playing and working in the SEC under his belt. He spent many years as an assistant with the Rebels before getting his first taste of head coaching at Louisiana Tech. The last decade for White has been split between Florida and Georiga, including an Elite Eight run with the Gators back in 2017. While progress slowed in Gainesville, White just took Georgia to the Big Dance for the first time, capping off a second straight 20-win campaign in the rigorous SEC.
43. Andy Enfield (SMU) (Last year: 51)
Overall record: 285-186
The early work for Enfield after his playing career at Johns Hopkins was as a shooting coach in the NBA. He got collegiate experience with Leonard Hamilton at Florida State before jumping into a prominence as head coach at Florida Gulf Coast. There he led the Eagles to the Sweet Sixteen in his second season before jumping to USC a few weeks later. Over the next 11 years Enfield led the Trojans through many notable moments, including an Elite Eight in 2021. Enfield took over at SMU this past offseason, leading the Mustangs to a tie for 4th place in their first season in the ACC.
42. Anthony Grant (Dayton) (Last year: 45)
Overall record: 365-193
Grant played collegiately at Dayton but his earliest coaching experience came in his hometown of Miami. He caught on in a major way with Billy Donovan, spending more than a decade on his staffs at Marshall and Florida before VCU handed him his first head coaching gig. Grant averaged more than 25 wins a year with the Rams before mixed results leading Alabama, but bounced back when his alma mater handed him the keys in 2017. Grant has been a winner in Dayton, even if he’s made just one trip to the Big Dance and has certainly kept the Flyers relevant in the A-10 over the years.
41. Andy Kennedy (UAB) (Last year: 43)
Overall record: 391-219
Another head coach thriving at their alma mater, Kennedy played for UAB in the early 90’s and was later an assistant with the Blazers. He got a taste of head coaching succeeding Bob Huggins as Cincinnati’s interim head coach twenty years ago, but his real first shot came during a 12-year stint helming Ole Miss. Solid play and several postseason bids later, Kennedy’s time in Oxford ran its course, but he’s been back at UAB since 2020. Kennedy has already led the Blazers to a pair of NCAA Tournaments and is averaging 25 wins per season through half a decade.