The NCAA men’s basketball tournament has been so much fun to watch thus far. Since the start of the tournament we have seen multiple head coaches on the move, including three of them that coached in the NCAA tournament this season. We have four former head coaches making their way to new teams, and a first time head coach getting another chance to coach at the collegiate level. With that being said, here are my rankings of the five hires for the 2023-2024 season.
Honorable Mention: Adrian Audtry
It is going to be hard to replace the great Jim Boeheim, who retired after the ACC tournament. Audtry however, is keeping the majority of the same staff and there is some confidence surrounding Syracuse’s future.
5.) Damon Stoudamire – Georgia Tech
Damon Stoudamire was the Pacific head coach from 2016-2021. Since 2021, he has been an assistant for the Boston Celtics. Stoudamire gets a power five head coaching opportunity coaching at Georiga Tech. The Yellow Jackets have been to the NCAA tournament three times since 2007. Damon Stoudamire looks to bring that program back to where it was in the early 2000’s with Paul Hewitt. Nothing to take away from Josh Pastner, but he struggled to get this team back into the national title conversation even though he had an ACC tournament title under his belt.
The Yellow Jackets rebuild project will be a hand full for their new head coach, however they are getting back their leading scorer sophomore guard Miles Kelly. This is a good hire for Georiga Tech, but they need to be patient as it will take some time.
4.) Tobin Anderson – Iona
The darling of the NCAA tournament has found a new home for the foreseeable future. Tobin Anderson was the head coach of Fairleigh Dickinson this past season. They earned a bid to the tournament, due to the ineligibility of Merrimack being able to make the tournament this season. However, Fairleigh Dickinson made it to the First Four where they dominated Texas Southern. They then went on to take it to Purdue, becoming the second 16 seed to beat a top seed. However, their cinderella run stopped in the round of 32 with their loss to Florida Atlantic.
Anderson spent one season as the head coach of Fairleigh Dickinson and turned a program that had four wins the season before, to a 21 win team. It was a remarkable feature and now he heads to the MAAC conference to be the next head coach of the Iona Gaels. Iona’s head coach left for another job (will discuss below), and Anderson gets the job as the Gaels next head men’s basketball coach. Anderson was a finalist for the job a few years ago before they went and hired Rick Pitino. It will be interesting to see what Anderson has in store for the Gaels this upcoming season.
3.) Chris Beard – Ole Miss
Chris Beard has had an interesting few months. Beard was the head coach for the Texas Longhorns, but he was being charged for domestic violence. The University of Texas didn’t want this looming over their team so they led Beard go. Since then, the charges have been dropped and Beard has a new gig. He became the new head coach for Ole Miss. Beard has had success everywhere that he has gone. He was the head coach one season for Arkansas Little Rock when they won in double overtime as a 12 seed against Purdue.
He then got the Texas Tech head coaching job and led them to a National title appearance and made the tournament in four out of his five seasons there. Beard then left Texas Tech to go to Texas, where he had success in a limited amount of time. Now he goes from the Big 12 to the SEC, which is having a very good year basketball wise. Beard has the potential to turn this Ole Miss rebels team around and help them become a contender in the SEC again.
2.) Ed Cooley – Georgetown
This was surprising to say the least. We see Ed Cooley leave his dream job in Providence for a conference rival in Georgetown. Cooley revitalized the Providence men’s basketball team and it is a shame to see him leave. He has had so much success in the Big East, as he had seven 20+ win seasons and won both the Big East tournament and regular season title while at Providence. Since 2015, Georgetown has been to the NCAA tournament twice. This isn’t the Georgetown team that we were used to seeing from the mid 2000’s to the early 2010’s.
Ed Cooley has a real chance here to bring Georgetown back to revelancy. Georgetown has lost 50 games in the last two seasons. They can only go up from here and lucky for them, they have a coach that is used to winning in the Big East.
1.) Rick Pitino – St. John’s
We thought a long time ago that Rick Pitino was done coaching a power five conference team. However, he gets a great opportunity to return back to the Big East as the new head coach of St. John’s. Pitino has never had a losing season in all of his years coaching various schools such as Providence, Kentucky, Louisville, and Iona. The Johnnies are seriously in contention of being back for good. Rick Pitino coaching at Madison Square Garden is going to create a lot of buzz for this St. John’s program.
This was the best hire that they could have gotten. The Red Storm gets two of their best players back next season in Posh Alexander and Andre Cureblo, as well as David Jones. The big piece they need to replace is senior forward Joel Soriano who averaged a double-double this season. Rick Pitino and this St. John’s program has a bright future ahead of them.
