| 1 | Shaheen Holloway | Seton Hall | His alma mater, but it appears he needs more NIL support and might be poachable. |
| 2 | Will Wade | McNeese State | Has paid his dues, and paying players is now in the open. |
| 3 | Mike Rhoades | Penn State | Penn State already lost one coach to a mid-level ACC school. Seems poachable. |
| 4 | Bryce Drew | Grand Canyon | GC has more resources and upside than most realize. It will likely take a good P5 situation after a bad taste at Vandy. |
| 5 | MWC Returners | Nev, BS, CS, NM | I’d call Alford, Rice, Medved, and Pitino. They didn’t leave last year, less pressure, and a 6-bid league. Unlikely. |
| 6 | Chris Mack | Charleston | Seems like he’s in no rush to get back to the P5, but I would still reach out. |
| 7 | Josh Schertz | St. Louis | Only one year here, but worth a call. Unlikely to move this soon after. |
| 8 | Ben McCollum | Drake | D2 superstar already winning big. I think you make the call. |
| 9 | David Riley | Washington St | It’s only been a year, but does he really want to be in the new Pac-12 long term? |
| 10 | Dave Smart | Pacific | Canadian legend, has already improved Pacific by 100+ spots. |
| 11 | Gregg Marshall | | It’s been 5 years, if he has made the behavioral changes he should get another chance. At this point however you wonder as much as CBB has changed and the time off if he still is the same level of coach. |
| 12 | Ryan Odom | VCU | Solid. P5 is the next step. Went to Utah State, so he seems to be ladder-climbing. |
| 13 | Bob Richey | Furman | Has been at Furman for 8 years, so he must be selective. Doesn’t recruit transfers heavily, which is a red flag to me in this era. |
| 14 | Ritchie McKay | Liberty | Makes the most sense to be Tony Bennett’s successor. |
| 15 | Jerrod Calhoun | Utah State | First year at Utah State, but the last coach made the jump after one year. |
| 16 | John Becker | Vermont | Not going so well this year, but the job he’s done in a state like Vermont with no NIL is amazing. How it translates is the question, but deserves a call. |
| 17 | Russell Turner | UC Irvine | Hasn’t had a sub-150 KenPom rating in 13 years, at a school with a 155th budget. Very underrated coach with East Coast ties. |
| 18 | Chris Gerlufsen | San Francisco | Very solid. Top 85 team in three years. |
| 19 | Brian Wardle | Bradley | Winner at GB with two top-75 teams, now 4 straight top-100 teams at Bradley. |
| 20 | Eric Henderson | S. Dakota St | Winning and producing quality transfers in a state like S. Dakota is impressive. |
| 21 | Preston Spradlin | JMU | Good eye for talent, landing players like Broome and others to Morehead, results have followed. |
| 22 | Ross Hodge | North Texas | Great JUCO coach before a solid first year with a top-80 UNT team. People will start noticing soon. |
| 23 | Mitch Henderson | Princeton | Princeton alum, would take the right job. |
| 24 | Nevada Smith | Marquette | Current Marquette assistant, Smith is a former D3 and GLeague head coach in Daryl Morey’s experimental lab, and worked under Nick Nurse prior. |
| 25 | Joe Pasternack | UCSB | Had a top-50 NET team in 2021 and has made two of the last four NCAA tournaments. |
| 26 | Austin Claunch | UTSA | First year at UTSA, but has 5 years of D1 coaching experience at only 35 years old. Was an assistant at Alabama last year as well. |
| 27 | Bucky McMillan | Samford | I like the results, but I don’t like his style of play. His leading scorer and rebounder averages 15 ppg in 19 minutes and plays 6th man minutes. Play him. |
| 28 | Dustin Kerns | App State | A top-85 team in Boone is no small feat. |
| 29 | Scott Cross | Troy | Recovered nicely since his firing at UTA. Winning at Troy is very solid. |
| 30 | Johnny Tauer | St. Thomas | D3 legend who took his D3 program to D1 and is already top-125 in year three. Does this translate everywhere? Coaching yes, recruiting not sure. |
| 31 | Kevin Ollie | – | Yes it flamed out at UConn and had some violations, but he did win a National Title and I don’t know of any coaches that pulled that off that couldn’t coach. People think he was handed a ready made champion but in reality he was handed a program on probation that was 20-14 the previous season and lost in the 1st round of the NCAA’s. He was most recently the interim coach for the Nets in 2024. |
| 32 | Allan Huss | High Point | High Point paid Tubby 1 million dollars and built a new facility. Would take the right job to jump, and he hasn’t really done much yet. |
| 33 | Casey Alexander | Belmont | Has gone a little sideways of late; would have been higher a few years ago. |
| 34 | Takayo Siddle | UNCW | Not a fan of the 10-deep style, but he has won enough to get a job up the ladder. |
| 35 | Bart Lundy | Milwaukee | Great in D2, but Milwaukee is a tough place to win. |
| 36 | Mike DeGeorge | Cal Poly | Great in D2. Started off with a bang, with a projected 350th-ranked team, and has a top-150 NET. |
| 37 | Steve DeMeo | NWFS | Great in JUCO, 1 national title, assistant at Providence, St. John’s, UCF, Hofstra. |
| 38 | Jim Crutchfield | Nova Southeastern | 1 D2 national title. Probably too old at this point but deserving. |
| 39 | Chris Bridges | Georgetown College | 2 NAIA titles, GA and student manager at Kentucky, currently 13-0. |
| 40 | Jared Grasso | High school | A hit and run cost him the job at Bryant, but prior to that he had taken them to the NCAA and recruited one of the best low major transfer classes with the likes of Earl Timberlake and Doug Edert. |
| 41 | Andy Brokema | Ferris State | 1 D2 national title, and the highest-ranked Massey D2 ever. Elite 8 last year. |
| 42 | Kris Korver | Northeastern | 2 NAIA titles, 11-0 currently in NAIA. |
| 43 | Tom Brown | West Texas A&M | 2 D2 Final 4s, 8-0 this year. |
| 44 | Larry Cordaro | LSU Alexandria | Troy assistant, founded a NAIA program, and took them to 2 NAIA Final 4s. |
| 45 | Matt Logie | Point Loma Nazarene | Highly successful in D2, took Montana State to the NCAA with a losing record last year in his first year. |
| 46 | Hank Plona | WKU | Great JUCO, with solid results in his first 10 games at WKU. |
| 47 | Stacy Hollowell | New Orleans | Great NAIA with a national title. Coach just hired. |
| 48 | Luke Barnwell | TTU Assistant | The resume is very reminiscent of Kevin Keats when he got the UNCW job with incredible prep success. 224-39 at Sunrise Academy prior to Texas Tech. |
| 49 | Shane Heirman | Incarnate Word | 82-7 with 2 HS basketball national championship games. The results aren’t there, but I like the makeup of his UIW team. |
| 50 | Ben Howlette | West Liberty | Has made the national finals in D2. 195–32. |
| 51 | Craig Dotty | Houston Christian | 2 JUCO D3 National titles, 1 NAIA national title, 1st year in D1. |
| 52 | Todd Franklin | Vincennes | 1 NJCAA title. |
| 53 | Jay Herkelman | Coffeyville | 1 NJCAA title. |
| 54 | Mark Vanderslice | USC Aiken | Solid record in JUCO and D2, was at Toledo and Furman prior. |
| 55 | Josh Gamblin | MidAmerica Christian | 1 NAIA national title. |
