56. Eric Henderson (South Dakota State)
1 NCAA Tournament (0-1)
After playing college ball at Wayne State under Greg McDermott, Henderson got into coaching mostly at the high school level. His collegiate head coaching career started five seasons ago when he was promoted to the top job for the Jackrabbits after T. J. Otzelberger left the program. He’s proceeded to average more than 20 wins a season, has led South Dakota State to four regular season titles, and just won a second Summit League Tournament.
55. James Jones (Yale)
3 NCAA Tournaments (1-3)
Born on Long Island, Jones played ball at Albany and began his career as an assistant with the Great Danes back in the early 90’s. He had a few short stints at other schools before starting his head coaching career at Yale way back in 1999. A quarter century later and Jones remains at Yale and continues to lead the Bulldogs to great standing in the Ivy League. He led Yale to an NCAA Tournament win over Baylor back in 2016 and won another Ivy League Tournament this season.
54. Richard Pitino (New Mexico)
2 NCAA Tournaments (1-2)
The son of a famous collegiate coach, Pitino has carved his own route in coaching, though he was an assistant under his father briefly at Louisville. He had great success in a single season at FIU, leading to being hired at Minnesota. Across eight seasons, Pitino won an NIT and took the Golden Gophers dancing a couple times but didn’t do enough. He was hired by New Mexico in 2021 and has the Lobos dancing just three years later, winning the MWC Tournament title after an incredible week in Las Vegas.
53. Keith Dambrot (Duquesne)
3 NCAA Tournaments (0-3)
This Akron native has been a collegiate head coach for several decades, with Dambrot putting in work at five different colleges. He gained early D1 experience leading Central Michigan over thirty years ago before coaching high school ball in Akron, even coach LeBron James. Akron employed him for thirteen years and he made three trips to the Big Dance before departing for Duquesne in 2017. Dambrot’s dream came true this season as his Dukes won the A-10 Tournament and broke an extensive Tourney drought.