Hiring the Right Coach: Part 1

With the mess at Marquette, I decided to do some research and see how a program should go about hiring a coach. Is there a right way? What works best or seems to work best. I’ve compiled the coaching changes of the last decade for this study. I think this is a good baseline for where the sport is today and I believe it’s in a much different spot than 20 years ago.

I’ve broken it down into 4 categories. The first is what I categorized as retreads/NBA hires. This category will include hires from the NBA or fired coaches. I put them together instead of separating them. These hires sometimes tend to be desperate, risky or a call back to another time.

The second is lateral hires, coaches moving from one of the Power 5 leagues or Big East and American to a job in one of these leagues. For the sake of this look, I’m including Archie Miller moving from Dayton to Indiana as Miller had established Dayton as something more than a mid-major. Some jobs are better and clear step-ups but I think they fit here. 

The third category will include assistants being promoted from within or pulled from another staff. This is a pretty simple category.

The final category is the largest and has some mini categories within worth exploring. This category will be the move from a mid-major to high major (Power 5, Big East and American).

I did not include any mid-major hires. Many mid-majors are stronger programs than many majors but for the sake of this look, I limited it to the leagues outlined. This means I excluded the Mountain West and A-10 amongst others. 

In this introduction, we should note the programs who have not made any changes this last decade. You’ll notice a theme and a few surprises. Four of the programs are Utah, Providence, Maryland and Oklahoma who hired their current coaches prior to the 2011 season.

The other schools in this category include Colorado, Arizona, Oregon, Duke, UNC, Syracuse, Virginia, Florida State, Clemson, Kansas, Baylor, West Virginia, Michigan State, Purdue, Iowa, Kentucky, Creighton, Villanova and Seton Hall.

Of the past 9 years (2020 cancelled), 6 national champions are on the list above and half the Final Four participants of the last 9 tournaments are listed above. Make of that what you will.

Part 2 will be posted in the next day or two.