This is March!
That means it’s time for some end of season awards.
Check out below for an in-depth list of the top coaches in college basketball during the 2024-25 season:
College Hoops Today National Coach of the Year
Rick Pitino, St. John’s: How does a program that hasn’t won an NCAA Tournament game since 2000 own a 26-4 record and outright Big East regular season title for the first time since 1985? Pitino’s brilliance has a lot to do with it. The 72-year old head coach has done many elite coaching jobs during his Hall-of-Fame career, but revitalizing the Red Storm after a quarter century of irrelevance may be his best. St. John’s needed a messiah to save its basketball program. It got one in Pitino.
Other Finalists
Bruce Pearl, Auburn: Pearl has led the Tigers an outright SEC regular season title in the best power conference that we’ve seen in the modern era of college basketball. Auburn will be the top overall seed in the NCAA Tournament on Selection Sunday and is aiming to return to the Final Four for the second time in program history. Pearl led the Tigers to the Final Four in 2019, where it lost a heartbreaker to Virginia.
Kelvin Sampson, Houston: America is running out of adjectives to describe the job that Sampson has done with the Cougars. In the two years that Houston has played in the Big 12, Sampson has led this program to back-to-back outright regular season titles and an overall record of 33-4 in Big 12 regular season league games. That’s utterly ridiculous. The Cougars are also in position to be a number one seed in the NCAA Tournament for the third straight year. It’s time for Houston’s administration to put Sampson’s name on the court at the Fertitta Center — he’s more than earned it.
Todd Golden, Florida: The Gators were expected to return to the NCAA Tournament this season under Golden, but competing for a number one seed in March Madness has usurped everyone’s expectations. The 39-year old head coach made a name for himself when he was at San Francisco, but his elite ability to evaluate talent effectively both out of the transfer portal and at the high school level has allowed his upside to blossom in Gainesville. Florida is currently 26-4 and has its best team since Billy Donovan took this program to the Final Four in 2014. The Gators aren’t going anywhere with Golden as their head coach.
Jon Scheyer, Duke: Not many programs in college basketball have seamlessly transitioned to the new era of college basketball better than the Blue Devils. That’s a credit to Scheyer, who has impressively taken the baton from Mike Krzyzewski in Durham and kept Duke among the nation’s elite. Scheyer is working with the sport’s most talented roster, but he’s also managed it brilliantly thus far. The Blue Devils will take a 27-3 record into Saturday’s regular season finale against North Carolina in Chapel Hill and are in position to be a number one seed in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019 with Zion Williamson.
Honorable Mention
- Grant McCasland, Texas Tech
- Greg Gard, Wisconsin
- Pat Kelsey, Louisville
- Randy Bennett, Saint Mary’s
- Eric Olen, UC San Diego
Leftovers
- Iowa State’s Curtis Jones is College Hoops Today’s National Sixth Man of the Year
- Auburn’s Johni Broome is College Hoops Today’s National Player of the Year
- BRACKET BREAKDOWN: March 7th
- St. John’s Rick Pitino is College Hoops Today’s National Coach of the Year
- The Top 12 Glue Guys in College Basketball
