ACC Basketball: Ranking all 18 head coaches for 2024-25 season

6. Leonard Hamilton (Florida State)

One of the old guard of college coaches, Hamilton’s first coaching staff in 1986 at Oklahoma State actually included Bill Self. He’s built quite the coaching career, with long stints at both Miami and Florida State sandwiching a brief run in the NBA with the Washington Wizards. There’s been a boatload of memorable moments and success for Hamilton, especially with the Seminoles, though the end of his career is on the horizon.

He’s led six teams to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament, including an Elite Eight in 2018 at Florida State, though the glory days might be in the past. While Florida State followed that up with two straight Sweet Sixteens, things haven’t gone well since. The Seminoles have finished in the bottom half of the league standings in each of the last three seasons, missing out on the postseason completely. Hamilton remains one of the great coaches in this league, though it hasn’t shown since NIL and the Transfer Portal changed the game.

5. Jon Scheyer (Duke)

Succeeding a legend is no easy task, though Scheyer has done a decent job two years into his head coaching career. He won a national championship with the Blue Devils as a senior back in 2010 and joined the coaching staff of Mike Krzyzewski a few years later. Scheyer added another title in his first year as a full-time assistant and would succeed Coach K in 2022.

He hasn’t missed a beat as a high-level recruiter and has won plenty of games already, with 27-9 records in each of his first two seasons. The Blue Devils were upended in the second round of last season’s NCAA Tournament but advanced to the Elite Eight this season before falling to NC State. Scheyer continues to shine as a recruiter and has significant promise in the years ahead; don’t be shocked if he tops this list someday soon.