240. Marty Simmons (Eastern Illinois) (Last year: 245)
Overall record: 224-260
Simmons has more than two decades of head coaching under his belt. A native of southeastern Illinois, much of his coaching career has come in that area of the country, including with his alma mater Evansville. He led SIU Edwardsville when that program was still D2 before an 11-year run with the Purple Aces, taking Evansville to a CIT title and numerous postseason appearances. Simmons recently returned to the head coach’s chair at Eastern Illinois, though four seasons below .500 haven’t been the best showing in the OVC.
239. Chris Markwood (Maine) (Last year: 287)
Overall record: 48-48
Once a fantastic athlete from the state of Maine, Markwood played collegiately at Notre Dame and Maine and has returned to the Black Bears several times in his coaching career. That journey included several stops as an assistant coach, including a prosperous stint at Northeastern and brief work in the ACC at Boston College. Named his alma mater’s head coach in 2022, Markwood has led a demonstrated step forward for this program and is coming off a 20-win season, the program’s first since he was on the team 21 years ago.
238. Jim Ferry (UMBC) (Last year: 237)
Overall record: 281-328
An extensive head coaching career has led Ferry to UMBC after five other head coaching stops, now his fourth at the D1 level. Ferry helmed Plymouth State, took Adelphi to a few D2 Tourneys, and then produced back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances at Long Island before stalling out at Duquesne. He infamously spent a full season as Penn State’s interim head coach after Pat Chambers’ firing before joining the Retrievers in 2021. The native New Yorker won 18 games apiece in his first two seasons but his team was just 8th in last year’s America East race.
237. Geno Ford (Stony Brook) (Last year: 226)
Overall record: 200-224
A former Ohio guard in the mid-90’s, Ford is another coach who has bounced around at several schools, including early head coaching gigs at Shawnee State and Muskingum. He most notably took Kent State to a pair of MAC regular season titles and NIT trips before failing at Bradley a decade ago. Ford bounced back as a staffer at Stony Brook and has now been the program’s head coach since 2019. He has produced a few 20-win seasons but is coming off a tough 13th place finish in the CAA.
236. John Shulman (Central Arkansas) (Last year: 238)
Overall record: 154-170
After graduating from East Tennessee State in 1989, Shulman spent more than a decade bouncing around on D1 coaching staffs, including time at his alma mater. After aiding Jeff Lebo, he was promoted to the top job at Chattanooga and led the Mocs to the NCAA Tournament in his first year as head coach. Another postseason run came with the Mocs before extended D2 success leading Alabama-Huntsville, though Shulman landed at Central Arkansas last offseason. It’s hard to get super excited over a 9-24 record but it’s a start in year one.
235. Chris Mudge (Sam Houston State) (Last year: 180)
Overall record: 34-31
Mudge graduated from Texas in 2006 and was both a student manager and graduate assistant for Rick Barnes. Just a few years later, he found a spot on staff at Sam Houston State and has been there for the last 15 years. After extensive time as an assistant and later associate head coach, Mudge was promoted to head coach in 2023 and promptly won the CUSA regular season crown in his first season. However, this past season was perhaps a reality check, as the Bearkats won just 13 games.
234. Dedrique Taylor (Cal State Fullerton) (Last year: 211)
Overall record: 161-205
The work has largely been optimal for Taylor throughout his coaching career, with early stops at schools like UC Davis, Portland State, and Nevada. A major step in his career came when Herb Sendek hired him on his staff at Arizona State, where he’d spend seven seasons. Taylor’s first head coaching job has been with Cal State Fullerton, who hired him in 2013. Taylor has taken the Titans to NCAA Tournament trips in 2018 and 2022 but is coming off his worst season to date, with a 6-26 and last place finish in the Big West.
233. John Dunne (Marist) (Last year: 236)
Overall record: 249-335
The footprint of Dunne’s coaching career is quite clearly, as the Queens native has work in New York and New Jersey for most of his career. After early stops at schools like Adelphi and Manhattan, he aided Louis Orr at Siena and Seton Hall before starting his head coaching journey at Saint Peter’s. Dunne spent 12 years molding the Peacocks, including a trip to the Big Dance and a CIT title, before jumping to Marist back in 2018. He hasn’t been quite as successful but just had his best season with the Red Foxes, winning 20 games
232. Billy Taylor (Elon) (Last year: 251)
Overall record: 203-227
The work hasn’t been half bad throughout Taylor’s coaching career, with the former Notre Dame player a notable piece of Fran McCaffery’s coaching tree. He worked with him at three schools, including recent work at Iowa, but Taylor has also led four programs on his own. Taylor took Lehigh to the NCAA Tournament in 2004 before mixed results leading Ball State and Belmont Abbey. He’s been in charge at Elon since 2022 and has the Phoenix trending in the right direction, coming off a 17-win season that included a CBI appearance.
231. Steven Pearl (Auburn) (Last year: N/A)
Overall record: 0-0
The surprising offseason move at Auburn thrust Pearl into the head coaching chair after his father’s retirement. It’s his first chance as a head coach at any level after playing under his father with Tennessee before joining the Auburn staff over a decade ago. Pearl worked his way up from a staffer to assistant to associate head coach and was a valuable part of Auburn’s growth over the last decade. How does the 38-year old handle running the program himself?
230. Darrell Walker (Little Rock) (Last year: 252)
Overall record: 101-113
Following great performance in the Arkansas backcourt in the 80’s, Walker became a first round NBA draft pick and spent a decade playing in the pros. He later became an NBA head coach with the Toronto Raptors and briefly the Washington Wizards. Walker changed direction in 2016, taking over as head coach at Clark Atlanta, leading that program to a pair of D2 Tournaments. Since 2018 he’s led Little Rock and has a pair of league titles under his belt while he’s coming off a 19-win campaign.
229. Donald Copeland (Wagner) (Last year: 222)
Overall record: 46-45
After solid work as a point guard at Seton Hall in the early 2000’s, Copeland spent nearly a decade playing overseas in multiple countries before coming back home to begin his coaching career. He was on staff at Wagner for a few years and even spent a season under Kevin Willard at his alma mater, though his time with the Pirates was brief. In 2022, he was called back to Wagner as head coach and the results have been more than adequate in Staten Island, with a trip to the Big Dance in 2024 before a slight struggle this past year.
228. Antoine Pettway (Kennesaw State) (Last year: 292)
Overall record: 34-30
Back in the early 2000’s, Pettway was a player at Alabama and was part of an Elite Eight run before a brief pro playing career. He was quickly back in Tuscaloosa as a graduate assistant and would later spend most of his coaching career with the Crimson Tide. That included time as an assistant under four different coaches before taking Kennesaw State’s job in 2023. Year one was decent work in the ASUN, though last season Pettway took the Owls to 19 wins and 4th place in their debut in the CUSA.
227. Pat Duquette (UMass Lowell) (Last year: 213)
Overall record: 175-188
Duquette worked his way through the coaching ranks as an assistant at a number of schools, but was notable for more than a decade’s work under Al Skinner at Boston College. After aiding former coworker Bill Coen at Northeastern, Duquette’s own head coaching career started with UMass Lowell back in 2013. The River Hawks have been steady throughout his decade plus in town, including a recent pair of 2nd place finishes in the America East, though this past year’s 17-15 campaign was actually underwhelming.
226. Jim Shaw (Texas A&M-Corpus Christi) (Last year: 249)
Overall record: 41-26
A former college guard at high-scoring Grinnell, Shaw’s coaching career has taken him on many stops, including several years with Doc Sadler and a lot of work in his home state of Texas. After several years with Texas State, he later joined Steve Lutz at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in 2021 and ascended to the top job two years later. While Shaw certainly hasn’t matched the Islanders’ success during his time as an assistant, he has a pair of 20-win seasons and has kept this program very relevant in the Southland.
225. Adam Fisher (Temple) (Last year: 267)
Overall record: 33-35
Fisher worked his way up through the coaching ranks, starting his career as a graduate assistant under Jay Wright at Villanova nearly two decades ago. Along the way he had multiple stops at Penn State and a long stint with Jim Larranaga down at Miami before getting this opportunity with Temple. The Owls have given Fisher his head coaching start and he’s trying to make this program relevant again. Last year was a step in the right direction with a 17-win campaign, though there’s plenty of work still ahead in the AAC.
224. Cornelius Jackson (Marshall) (Last year: 353)
Overall record: 20-13
A native of West Virginia, Jackson played guard at Marshall right around the turn of the century and has been back at his alma mater for several years. After previous coaching stops at UT Martin and Cleveland State, Jackson joined Dan D’Antoni’s staff with the Thundering Herd in 2017. Following seven years on the bench, Jackson was promoted to head coach this past offseason and a 20-win campaign in his debut was unquestionably a great start on his journey.
223. Brette Tanner (Abilene Christian) (Last year: 246)
Overall record: 70-62
The earliest parts of Tanner’s coaching career had him working at the junior college level, but he’s done solid work in recent years coaching D1 ball in the state of Texas. He spent seven years on staff at Stephen F. Austin and has been entrenched at Abilene Christian since 2013. He joined the Wildcats under Joe Golding and was soon promoted to associate head coach, but Tanner took over as head coach back in 2021. He hasn’t gotten this program back to the Big Dance, but has a pair of postseason appearances and a 4th place finish in last year’s WAC.
222. Grant Leonard (Queens) (Last year: 272)
Overall record: 52-49
While Leonard is originally from Milwaukee, he’s made his mark in the coaching world in various other states, mostly at the D2 level or lower. Various assistant coaching stints lured him around the country with stops at Flagler and Paine before joining the Queens staff under Bart Lundy in 2013. Nine years later, Leonard took over as head coach and has since helped lead the Royals on their transition to D1 athletics. After two steady seasons to start, Leonard’s third year just saw 20 wins and a trip to the quarterfinals of the CBI.
221. Brooks Savage (East Tennessee State) (Last year: 255)
Overall record: 38-29
Savage was a student manager at Tennessee, mostly serving under Bruce Pearl in the mid-2000’s, but that’s also where he met Steve Forbes. Savage would serve in Forbes’ employ at three future schools, including successful stints with East Tennessee State and Wake Forest in recent years. In 2023, Savage returned to ETSU as the Buccaneers’ next head coach, with the program not in the great shape they had left it three seasons earlier. He was promptly delivered a pair of 19-win seasons and recaptured some of the program’s momentum.