Big 12 Basketball: Ranking all 16 head coaches for 2024-25 season
By Joey Loose
12. Bobby Hurley (Arizona State)
Revered for his point guard play at Duke back in the early 90’s, Hurley won a pair of national championships before a brief playing career, spending five seasons in the NBA. He got into collegiate coaching on his brother Dan’s staffs before taking over as head coach at Buffalo in 2013. He won a pair of MAC division titles, leading the Bulls to the Big Dance in his second season before departing for Arizona State.
Hurley did a fantastic job rebuilding success at Buffalo and has been entrenched at Arizona State for the last nine years. Successful hasn’t been consistent for the Sun Devils, though Hurley has led them to three NCAA Tournaments. Life doesn’t get any easier as the Sun Devils transition into the Big 12 and Hurley’s squads have disappointed more times than not. Can he finally turn things around at Arizona State?
11. Johnny Dawkins (UCF)
A Duke point guard during Coach K’s earliest days, Dawkins spent nearly a decade in the NBA before beginning his own coaching career back on the Blue Devils’ staff. After more than a decade back in Durham, Dawkins began his head coaching career with decent success across eight years at Stanford. Dawkins won two NIT championships and took Stanford to the Sweet Sixteen in 2014, but left for UCF back in 2016.
By far his greatest success came in his third season, leading UCF to the Big Dance for the only time in 2019, coming just short of a big upset over Duke. The Knights have been somewhat mediocre over the last half decade, though they played decently in their first season in the Big 12. UCF certainly isn’t seen as any kind of basketball power; though another NIT trip showed that year one in the conference didn’t go too poorly.