NCAA Basketball: Ranking all 68 head coaches in 2024 NCAA Tournament
By Joey Loose
60. Griff Aldrich (Longwood)
1 NCAA Tournament (0-1)
Previously an AAU coach for over a decade, Aldrich’s first real jump into the collegiate game came as UMBC’s director of recruiting when they pulled that historic upset in 2018. His head coaching career began here at Longwood soon after and he’s now taken the Lancers to their first two trips to the NCAA Tournament. In all he’s turned this program into a consistent winner and just won the Big South Tournament for the second time in three years.
59. Mark Byington (James Madison)
0 NCAA Tournaments
A former starting guard at UNC Wilmington in the mid-90’s, Byington has created quite the coaching career for himself across the last two decades. A previous assistant to the great Bobby Cremins, Byington’s head coaching career included a seven-year stint at Georgia Southern before jumping to James Madison in 2020. He’s averaging more than 20 wins a season with the Dukes thanks to this season, as James Madison sits 31-3 after a CAA Tournament title, their first in eleven years.
58. Dan Monson (Long Beach State)
3 NCAA Tournaments (3-3)
A veteran head coach with nearly three decades of experience, Monson spent over a decade at Gonzaga back in the 90’s, leading the Bulldogs to their first Elite Eight run in 1999. After that Cinderella run, he’d spent seven and a half seasons in the Big Ten at Minnesota before his dismissal. He’d lead a third team to the NCAA Tournament in Long Beach State, who hired him in 2007. Despite the school announcing they were making a head coaching change, Monson has led the Beach to another Big West Tournament title.
57. Greg Kampe (Oakland)
3 NCAA Tournaments (1-3)
It was a long time coming, but Kampe has Oakland back into the Big Dance. Boasting the longest current tenure in the nation, Kampe has been entrenched as the head coach of the Golden Grizzlies since 1984, helping usher Oakland to the D1 level some fifteen years later. Previous highlights include three Summit League titles and a win in the First Four, but Kampe got the job done this year with the program’s first Horizon League Tournament title.