NCAA Basketball: Ranking all 68 head coaches in 2024 NCAA Tournament
By Joey Loose
48. Lamont Paris (South Carolina)
1 NCAA Tournament (0-1)
Under the radar early in his career, Paris played college ball in Ohio at Wooster and didn’t have a D1 coaching job until joining the Akron staff in 2005. He helped Bo Ryan lead Wisconsin to consecutive Final Fours as an assistant before beginning his head coaching career at Chattanooga. Paris led the Mocs to the Big Dance in his fifth and final season before being lured away by South Carolina in 2022. Just in year two in Columbia, Paris engineered a great turnaround and has the Gamecocks dancing for the first time in seven seasons.
47. Danny Sprinkle (Utah State)
2 NCAA Tournaments (0-2)
One of the breakout names in the coaching world this season, Sprinkle starred at Montana State in the late 90’s before beginning his coaching career. It’s a career split between his alma mater and the state of California, including his head coaching start back at Montana State. Sprinkle led the Bobcats to consecutive Big Sky titles and is now back in the Big Dance for a third straight year. His first season at Utah State has gone about as great as possible, leading a new-look Aggies squad into the field.
46. John Groce (Akron)
4 NCAA Tournaments (4-4)
After playing and coaching at Taylor, an NAIA school in Indiana, Groce gained coaching experience working for Herb Sendek at NC State and Thad Matta at Butler, Xavier, and Ohio State. His head coaching career began at Ohio and included a Sweet Sixteen run before taking over at Illinois. Five years later he was fired and has bounced back nicely at Akron. Groce has taken three teams to the Big Dance but his best success has come in this conference, winning another MAC Tournament this season.
45. Todd Golden (Florida)
1 NCAA Tournament (0-1)
Born in Phoenix, Golden played his college ball for Randy Bennett at Saint Mary’s and got his coaching career started under Kyle Smith over at Columbia. He was briefly on Bruce Pearl’s staff at Auburn nearly a decade ago before a successful run in San Francisco. He was head coach of the Dons for three years, leading them to the NCAA Tournament in 2022. Shortly thereafter he was brought to Gainesville as Florida’s new head coach and has them in the Big Dance for the first time.