12. Nate Oats (Alabama)
7 NCAA Tournaments (10-7)
Early on, Oats was an assistant at small Wisconsin schools and later a successful high school coach in Detroit. He caught on with Buffalo on Bobby Hurley’s staff and really caught national attention as the Bulls’ head coach, winning a pair of NCAA Tournament games. Alabama brought him to town in 2019 and don’t regret that decision at all. Alabama has danced for five straight seasons, punctuated by last year’s Final Four trip alongside a pair of SEC titles.
11. Rick Barnes (Tennessee)
28 NCAA Tournaments (30-28)
One of the sport’s most experienced coaches just keeps trucking on, as Barnes has been a D1 head coach ever since 1987. He had varying success early on at George Mason, Providence, and Clemson before a 17-year stretch leading Texas that included a Final Four and plenty of postseason appearances. Tennessee brought Barnes into the fold in 2015 and don’t regret that decision, heading to a seventh consecutive trip to the Big Dance. Barnes has taken this team to the second weekend each of the last two seasons, including last year’s Elite Eight run.
10. Bruce Pearl (Auburn)
13 NCAA Tournaments (17-13)
Pearl has put together one heck of a college basketball coaching career. The native Bostonian led Southern Indiana to a D2 championship in the mid-90’s, had Milwaukee of the Horizon League in a surprise Sweet Sixteen a decade later, and built prominence at Tennessee before he was fired in 2011. Since he’s been at Auburn these last eleven years, things have gone pretty great for the Tigers, notably making the Final Four in 2019 and really standing out as one of the nation’s best teams this season.
9. Scott Drew (Baylor)
12 NCAA Tournaments (20-11)
While his formative years were under his father Homer on staff at Valparaiso, Drew’s legacy has been built on his incredible turnaround of this Baylor program. He inherited absolute ruin in 2003 and has turned the Bears into a national staple, fresh with that national championship run just four seasons ago. The Bears have made a few postseason runs and have been in the last six NCAA Tournaments, though Drew is hoping to get out of the opening weekend for the first time since that title in 2021.