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NCAA Basketball: Ranking all 364 D-I head coaches for 2024-25 season

By Joey Loose

Apr 8, 2024; Glendale, AZ, USA; Connecticut Huskies head coach Dan Hurley shakes hands with Purdue Boilermakers head coach Matt Painter before the national championship game of the Final Four of the 2024 NCAA Tournament between the Connecticut Huskies and the Purdue Boilermakers at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-Imagn Images
Apr 8, 2024; Glendale, AZ, USA; Connecticut Huskies head coach Dan Hurley shakes hands with Purdue Boilermakers head coach Matt Painter before the national championship game of the Final Four of the 2024 NCAA Tournament between the Connecticut Huskies and the Purdue Boilermakers at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-Imagn Images / Bob Donnan-Imagn Images
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15. Mick Cronin (UCLA) (Last year: 12)

Overall record: 480-224
Final Four in 2021

In his earlier coaching days, Cronin learned plenty from Bob Huggins and Rick Pitino before beginnings his head coaching career at Murray State. After three solid years there, Cronin would spend the next 13 seasons leading Cincinnati, his alma mater, taking the Bearcats to nine straight NCAA Tournaments. He made quite the change by heading to UCLA in 2019 and led the Bruins to the Final Four just two years later. Fresh off two more trips to the Sweet Sixteen, Cronin is coming off his weakest season in Los Angeles and now must get this program into fighting shape in the Big Ten.

14. Eric Musselman (USC) (Last year: 11)

Overall record: 221-93

With a boatload of experience on his resume, Musselman is heading back to California. He played at San Diego and coached both the Golden State Warriors and Sacramento Kings earlier in his career. Musselman has worked at all levels of basketball and has done marvelous things collegiately for the last decade. After 110 wins across four years at Nevada, he built success at Arkansas with back-to-back Elite Eight’s and a Sweet Sixteen in 2023. After a lame result last season, Musselman has taken his talents to Los Angeles with hopes of making a Big Ten contender out west.

13. Rick Pitino (St. John’s) (Last year: 14)

Overall record: 854-306
Final Four in 1987, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2005, 2012*, 2013*
National championship in 1996, 2013*

Certainly among the sport’s most notable coaches of all time, Pitino enters his second season at St. John’s, the seventh D1 head coaching spot of his career. Pitino won a national title at Kentucky, helmed both the New York Knicks and Boston Celtics, and built phenomenal success with Louisville, including that 2013 title that was vacated. He bounced back after the scandal with a stellar 3-year run at Iona and is just getting started with the Red Storm. Year one saw St. John’s winning 20 games, but what does the future hold for Pitino back in the Big East?

12. Bruce Pearl (Auburn) (Last year: 13)

Overall record: 445-218
Final Four in 2019

Whether you like him or not, Pearl has been a winner at every stop of his coaching career. He won a D2 national title in 1994 at Southern Indiana in his first gig and would take Milwaukee to the Sweet Sixteen just over a decade later. Pearl then had six prosperous seasons at Tennessee before recruiting violations cast him aside. He landed on his feet at Auburn in 2014 and has rewritten the history books over the last decade, taking the program to its first Final Four in 2019. Pearl is also responsible for a slew of Tournament appearances, though the postseason wins have been lacking in recent years.

11. Tony Bennett (Virginia) (Last year: 7)

Overall record: 433-169
Final Four in 2019
National championship in 2019

When he starred under his father at Green Bay thirty years ago, few expected that Bennett would one day with a national title as a head coach. After aiding his father Dick at multiple schools, he succeeded him at Washington State and led the Cougars to the Sweet Sixteen in 2008. A year later, Bennett was hired at Virginia and has been sensational, not only winning that national title in 2019 but claiming six ACC titles. This past year’s team wasn’t on the same level despite 23 wins, with the Cavaliers lacking any NCAA Tournament success since that championship.

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