44. Ryan Odom (VCU)
2 NCAA Tournaments (1-2)
In the early days of his career, Odom bounced between several schools, including long stints on staff at Virginia Tech and Charlotte. After briefly serving as Charlotte’s interim coach, he took Lenoir-Rhyne to the D2 Sweet Sixteen and then did the unthinkable, winning a Tourney game at UMBC in 2018 in the first 16-seed upset. Since then Odom has bounced to Utah State and VCU and has now taken three different schools to the Big Dance with the Rams claiming this year’s A-10 Tournament title.
43. Mark Byington (Vanderbilt)
1 NCAA Tournament (1-1)
After playing collegiately at UNC Wilmington, Byington got into coaching with a long stint on staff at the College of Charleston, including as interim head coach. He gained experience on a few other staffs before his first real head coaching gig began in 2013 at Georgia Southern. He had seven solid years before jumping to James Madison, where he took last year’s Dukes to an NCAA Tournament upset win over Wisconsin in the opening round. His work in year one at Vanderbilt has been fantastic and could be the start of something special in Nashville.
42. Penny Hardaway (Memphis)
2 NCAA Tournaments (1-2)
Hardaway starred at Memphis in the early 90’s before spending over a decade in the NBA. The former lottery pick became renowned as a player, but settled into coaching after retirement. He was initially a high school coach in Memphis before becoming the Tigers’ head coach back in 2018. Hardaway’s tenure has featured a few disappointing seasons short of expectations, but this year’s team hasn’t faltered, winning the AAC Tournament and getting back to the Big Dance after missing out last year.
41. John Groce (Akron)
5 NCAA Tournaments (4-5)
Quite successful days have come for Groce in the MAC and his success just keeps building. A former NAIA player at Taylor, Groce aided Thad Matta for several years before getting his head coaching career started at Ohio. Shortly after a surprising Sweet Sixteen run with the Bobcats he was hired at Illinois, but fizzled out after five years in the Big Ten. Groce has certainly found his mojo again at Akron and is back in the Big Dance with another MAC Tournament title, the fifth in his coaching career and third with the Zips.