NCAA Basketball: Ranking all 68 head coaches in 2024 NCAA Tournament

16. Dana Altman (Oregon)

15 NCAA Tournaments (16-15)

Certainly a veteran of this sport, Altman played college ball back in the 70’s, was an assistant and junior college at a few schools, and has been a D1 head coach since 1989. He had brief stints at Marshall and Kansas State before 16 years of success at Creighton. Altman made several postseason trips with those schools but has been awesome at Oregon since 2010. The biggest success was a trip to the Final Four in 2017, one of five trips to the second weekend or further in the Big Dance. He’s back again this year after the Ducks won the Pac-12 Tournament.

15. Greg McDermott (Creighton)

11 NCAA Tournaments (9-11)

A collegiate head coach for the last thirty years, McDermott has had some of his finest success recently at Creighton. He formerly led Wayne State and North Dakota State before D1 experience at Northern Iowa and Iowa State. After flaming out with the Cyclones, he landed at Creighton in 2010 and has built a great program now in the Big East, including eight trips to the NCAA Tournament. The highlight was last season’s march to the Elite Eight while this year’s Bluejays finished Top 4 in the Big East for an eighth straight season.

14. Shaka Smart (Marquette)

10 NCAA Tournaments (8-10)

A feisty point guard from Milwaukee, Smart coached at several different schools before getting his head coaching start at VCU. His 2011 run to the Final Four with those Rams remains his highest highlight, though he made five straight trips to the Big Dance with that program. He stalled as the head coach at Texas but has been great these last three years since arriving at Marquette, with the Golden Eagles doing great work in the Big East this season. The only issue that he hasn’t led a team to the second weekend of the Tournament since that run with the Rams thirteen years ago.

13. Jamie Dixon (TCU)

14 NCAA Tournaments (14-14)

Dixon starred at TCU back in the 1980’s and briefly played professional ball before beginning a prosperous coaching career. He was an assistant several schools, working with and under Ben Howland several times. He would succeed Howland as head coach at Pittsburgh and take the Panthers to eleven NCAA Tournaments in thirteen years, including an Elite Eight. Dixon returned to his alma mater as head coach eight years, winning an NIT title in year one. This is now trip number four to the Big Dance with the Horned Frogs, and their first ever time making three Tournaments in a row.