There’s plenty to be excited about in this upcoming college basketball season and that applies to everyone from the Blue Blood teams to the mid-majors. In preparation, we’re still running through our rankings of all 365 D1 head coaches, albeit with a much different process this year. We’ve been flipping through each conference and including just their coaches and that’s the same today with the Ivy League.
Regarded for academics, the Ivy League has produced notable basketball over the years and that shouldn’t be different moving forward. It’s a league with a few very established head coaches and also some younger faces looking to make their mark in one of the nation’s oldest conferences.
363. Brett MacConnell (Dartmouth) (Last year: N/A)
Overall record: 0-0
After several years of coaching experience, including over a decade in the Ivy League, MacConnell begins his head coaching career by taking over at Dartmouth. A Rutgers alum with various levels of coaching experience, he most notably spent 13 years on the Princeton staff, including as associated head coach during their Sweet Sixteen run. MacConnell spent last year on the Stanford bench and now takes over his own program.
268. Kevin Hovde (Columbia) (Last year: 345)
Overall record: 16-12
After playing collegiately at Richmond, much of Hovde’s coaching career has seen him working under Kyle Smith and Todd Golden, notably winning a national championship on Florida’s bench in 2025. Soon after that success, he got his head coaching start at Columbia, the same place where he began his coaching career with those two coaches. Hovde’s first season with the Lions wasn’t bad at all with those 16 wins, though we’ll see what the future holds.
252. Jon Jaques (Cornell) (Last year: 245)
Overall record: 33-24
During his playing career, Jaques was a captain on the Cornell team that shocked the nation with a Sweet Sixteen run in 2010. A few years later he was back with the Big Red, spending 11 years on staff before getting promoted to the top job in 2024. While that same postseason success hasn’t been replicated during his time as a coach, he does have a pair of Top 4 Ivy League finishes under his belt.
243. Eric Reveno (Brown) (Last year: N/A)
Overall record: 140-178
A new face in the Ivy League, Reveno takes over at Brown but has plenty of experience. He played at Stanford in the 80’s and was on staff for nearly a decade in their glory years before spending 10 years as Portland’s head coach. He produced four CIT trips and a few decent seasons before becoming an assistant again. Reveno split time between Georgia Tech and Oregon State and was back at Stanford the last two years, though we’ll see just what he brings to the Bears.
93. Mitch Henderson (Princeton) (Last year: 78)
Overall record: 260-153
Albeit a solid player at Princeton, Henderson has further made his mark on the program as a coach. Two of those seasons he played under Bill Carmody and then spent 11 years on his staff at Northwestern. Henderson then took over as Princeton’s head coach in 2011 and has produced some truly memorable moments with the Tigers. What stands out are those two trips to the Big Dance, especially the Sweet Sixteen run in 2023, though Princeton ended just 9-20 in by far his worst season last year.
87. Tommy Amaker (Harvard) (Last year: 94)
Overall record: 497-345
Time sure flies and Amaker now has nearly three decades of D1 head coaching experience under his belt. A former Duke star in the mid-80’s, he won a pair of national titles on Coach K’s bench before getting that head coach start at Seton Hall in 1997. He made a Sweet Sixteen with the Pirates before a 6-year run at Michigan, leading him to take the Harvard job way back in 2007. Owning seven Ivy League regular season titles, Amaker helped end a long Tourney drought and even won a pair of Tourney games, though last year’s 2nd place finish was Harvard’s best since the pandemic.
76. James Jones (Yale) (Last year: 82)
Overall record: 442-326
Jones played at Albany in the 80’s and was an assistant there in the 90’s, but most of his basketball experience has come at Yale. He spent a couple seasons on staff before coming back as head coach in 1999. What’s followed has been constant success, with Yale finishing Top 4 in the conference in all but his first season, with five trips to the NCAA Tournament as well. Jones has won a pair of Tourney games and led the Bulldogs to either regular season or conference tournament titles in each of the last seven seasons.
45. Fran McCaffery (Penn) (Last year: 49)
Overall record: 566-396
An experienced name in coaching, McCaffery’s head coaching journey started more than 4 decades ago in a brief stint at Lehigh. He took those Mountain Hawks to the NCAA Tournament and did the same with UNC Greensboro and Siena before his 15-year stint at Iowa. McCaffery had success with the Hawkeyes, even though he never had a deep Tourney run. In what’s likely the final stop of his career, he landed at Penn last season and promptly led the Quakers back to the Big Dance, the fifth team he’s taken to the NCAA Tournament.
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