Amidst all the sound and fury surrounding Portal Madness, there is much wreckage to sift through regarding the 2025 coaching carousel. More than 50 schools experienced a change at the top, and the urgency to find replacements was enhanced by the opening of the transfer portal during the second week of the NCAA Tournament.
Everything happened so quickly, it was hard to keep up. Now that the dust has settled, it’s time to rank the top 10 coaching hires in men’s college basketball. Here’s my list, from the bottom up:
10. Kevin Willard, Villanova
Willard might have been higher on this list but for the sloppy way he handled his exit from Maryland. That left a lot of hurt feelings in College Park and some bad karma to take to the Main Line. That said, Willard had a career 57.4 percent win percentage at Iona, Seton Hall and Maryland. This year was the first time he coached a team on the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament, so he still has something to prove. Between his experience, his Big East roots and Villanova’s healthy financial support, Willard should be able to move things in a positive direction following Kyle Neptune’s disappointing three-year tenure.
9. Jai Lucas, Miami
Lucas has never been a head coach, but he was an elite recruiter during his previous stops as an assistant at Texas, Kentucky and Duke. He has already carried that over to Coral Gables, signing quality players both out of the transfer portal as well as the high school ranks. The haul includes former Duke commit Shelton Henderson, a five-star wing from Texas. Clearly, Lucas will have a healthy NIL budget to work with at Miami, which should provide a ripe opportnunity to lift the Hurricanes out of the basement of a weakened ACC.
8. Eric Olen, New Mexico
Olen came to this job the hard way. He spent 21 years (nine as an assistant, 12 as the head coach) at his alma mater, UC San Diego. Over the last four years, Olen managed the Tritons’ transition into Division I, and this past season he led a team full of Division II transfers to a 30-5 record and a No. 12 seed in the NCAA Tournament, where they nearly upset Michigan in the first round. If Olen can do that at UCSD, imagine what he can do one of the Mountain West’s top programs. New Mexico has a healthy NIL budget and one of the best homecourts in the country, assets which helped springboard former coach Richard Pitino into a better gig at Xavier. Don’t be surprised if Olen forges the same path over the next few years.
7. Darian DeVries, Indiana
DeVries took Drake to the NCAA Tournament in three of his last four years there, and last season he took on a total rebuild at West Virginia and nearly got the Mountaineers into the NCAA Tournament. (They were robbed, as we all know.) He’s proably not the “big name” that many Hoosier fans were hoping for, but he is quite capable of bringing Indiana back to something approaching its former greatness. It helps that DeVries’ son Tucker, who was a great player at Drake but missed most of last season with an injury, will join his pops in Bloomington. Tucker is one of eight players whom DeVries has signed out of the portal so far.
6. Fran McCaffrey, Penn
This was one of the feel-good hires of the cycle, as well as one of the smartest. It’s also an example of a change can be the best thing for both schools as well as the coach who moved. McCaffrey is a hard driving, extremely capable coach whose tenure at Iowa had run its course after 15 seasons. It was fate that just when he happened to get fired at a time when his alma mater had a vacancy. That will give McCaffrey, 65, a meaningful fresh start.
5. Niko Medved, Minnesota
Minnesota is one of the toughest power conference jobs in the country, but if anyone can get the Golden Gophers going, it’s Medved. He’s a Minneapolis native who served as a student manager for the Gophers. He also worked as an assistant there for one season in 2006-07. Medved, 51, has been a head coach for 12 seasons at three different schools, most recently Colorado State, where he took the Rams to the NCAA Tournament three of the last four years. Two years ago, Medved had Colorado State as high as No. 13 in the AP Top 25. It remains to be seen whether Minnesota is ready to invest enough to allow this program to be more competitive in the Big Ten, but if it is, it’s hard to imagine a better replacement for Ben Johnson.
4. Buzz Williams, Maryland
Culturally, this seems like an odd fit. Williams is a Texas native who has spent most of his coaching career in the south. He did spend six years in the midwest at Marquette, which he led to three Sweet Sixteens and an Elite Eight, and took Texas A&M to the NCAA Tournament the last three years. Maryland’s roster emptied out after Willard left for Villanova, and though Williams has signed eight transfers, including two of his best players from Texas A&M, it will take him some time to develop the continuity required to establish his defense-first, power-the-boards identity that has fueled his best teams.
3. Sean Miller, Texas
Texas has been through a tough couple of years, first with the mid-season firing of Chris Beard in 2023 following a domestic abuse arrest and capped by the 13th place finish last season during the Longhorns’ inaugural year in the SEC. Rodney Terry left the program with a proper foundation, and Miller should be well-positioned to build upon it. He has proven himself to be an excellent recruiter and coach at Xavier (where he was on his second stint) and Arizona. Miller has been to four Elite Eights and was brought to Austin because UT athletic director Chris Del Conte wanted someone with “pelts on the wall.” Armed with a healthy NIL budget and now coaching in the sport’s strongest conference, Miller should add a few more.
2. Ben McCollum, Iowa
McCollum led Drake to an upset of Missouri in the NCAA Tournament, but the real evidence of his potential comes from his 15 years at his alma mater Northwest Missouri State, where he won four Division II national championships. Normally, having only one season as a Division I head coach would be a red flag, but McCollum’s resume, combined with the fact that he is an Iowa native, makes him the perfect hire to rejuvenate this program. If McCollum can win a Missouri Valley Conference title with a bunch of Division II transfers, he has a great chance to make the Hawkeyes be competitive again in the Big Ten.
1. Will Wade, N.C. State
Wade has written one of the more remarkable comeback stories in college basketball history. It looked like he was toast in 2023 when the NCAA hit him with a two-year show cause penalty for violations he committed at LSU. Instead, he was given another shot at McNeese, where he lost just two conference games in two seasons, went to a pair of NCAA Tournaments, and pulled off a first-round upset of Clemson this March. Wade is an elite motivator and tactician whose teams play an entertaining style. And his reputation as an establishment-bucking renegade will be lovingly embraced by a long-suffering fan base that is sick and tired of having dirt kicked in their faces by the blue-clad behemoths down the road.
