Over the last several weeks, we at Hoops HQ have come up with a variety of top 10 lists for men’s and women’s players. We’ve been ranking transfers from every league, top freshmen, breakout sophomores, and men’s and women’s transfer classes by various skills. Over the next few weeks, we are going to add rankings of incoming international players as well.
So I figured this was a good time to weigh in on the true leading men in college basketball — the coaches. This season is going to be particularly intriguing with, not just because of the adjusting they have to do to all the rules changes, but also because so many of them are entering pivotal seasons. Yet, only one will hold the big trophy at the end. Who will it be?
Of course, winning and losing is only part of what makes a storyling compelling. Herewith, then, are my top 10 most intriguing coaches entering the 2025-26 season, ranked from the bottom up:
10. Todd Golden, Florida
Golden turned 40 this summer, but he looks much younger. Yet, not only did he lead the Gators to their first NCAA title since 2007, but he has a legitimate chance to do the same thing that team did — repeat as champs. The Gators will return most of their frontcourt, and while they did bid farewell to the trio of senior guards who led them to the title, Golden did a great job replacing them through the transfer portal. Florida will begin the season as a consensus top-10 team, perhaps a top-five team, but the Gators will be wearing a much heavier crown as reigning champs. Should they have the kind of season they appear poised to have, Golden will not only become an even hotter name in the sport, but I expect he will start to be considered as a potential NBA coach in the same vein as the man who engineered those previous back-to-back titles in Gainesville, Billy Donovan.
9. Kevin Willard, Villanova
Willard was in an impossible situation when Villanova started courting him just as he was bringing Maryland to its first Sweet Sixteen in nine years, and he handled it poorly. That makes it even more imperative that he start winning right away at Villanova, a proud program that is reeling after Kyle Neptune’s disastrous three-year tenure. Willard has a decent team for next season, but given that the new revenue sharing model could give an advantage to Big East teams because they don’t have to share that money with football, Willard could be as well-positioned as any coach in America to build competitive rosters moving forward.
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8. Bruce Pearl, Auburn
Normally, when the NCAA hits a coach with a three-year show-cause penalty, as it did to Pearl in 2011 for violations he committed while at Tennessee, it marks the end of that coach’s career. Pearl, however, has enginnered a masterful resurrection, not for himself but at Auburn, which only made it past the Sweet Sixteen once before Pearl got there but has now played in two Final Fours in the last six years. Pearl lost a lot of talent from last year’s squad but his team will still remain plenty competitive in the SEC. The larger question will be whether Pearl runs for the U.S. Senate currently held by former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville, who is stepping down to run for governor. I don’t know how likely it is that Pearl will run, but I believe he is serious about considering it. Running for office requires a lot of time and effort, so if Pearl is going to make the jump, he’ll have to do it soon.
7. Matt Painter, Purdue
Purdue fans had to wait 44 long years between Final Fours until Painter took the Zach Edey-led Boilermakers there in 2024. Now Purdue will enter the season as one of the favorites to win its first NCAA championship. While most coaches are rebuilding rosters via the transfer portal and traditional recruting, Painter invested his payroll in retaining All-Americans Braden Smith and Trey Kaufmann-Renn, and he’ll have one of the nation’s top international imports in Israeli guard Omar Meyer. Painter is already building a Hall of Fame resume, and a national championship would potentially put him over the top.
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6. Will Wade, N.C. State
Wade is another prominent coach who was hit with a show-cause penalty, this one for two years stemming from violations he committed while at LSU. McNeese hired him anyway, and after serving a 10-game suspension Wade led the Cowboys to a pair of Southland Conference regular season titles and a first-round NCAA Tournament win over Clemson last March. That vaulted Wade to N.C. State, whose fan base is desperate for relevance alongside those other titans on Tobacco Road. Early indications are that Wade is amassing considerable talent in Raleigh, and he is already talking smack to the bluebloods. Whether that translates to actual wins remains to be seen, but it will be a storyline well worth watching.
5. Kelvin Sampson, Houston
When we last saw Sampson, he was standing on the sidelines at the Alamodome, shocked and crestfallen as he watched the Florida Gators celebrate their 65-63 win over his Cougars. Sampson, who will turn 70 on Oct. 5, will return most of the roster from that squad and he has brought in enough additions to put this team once again in position to win the whole thing. Should that happen, or should the Cougars get back to the Final Four, it will strengthen Sampson’s case to be in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, but first he has some work to do.
4. John Calipari, Arkansas
Calipari was the recipient of a lot of schandenfreudian shots while the Razorbacks struggled last season, but he had the last laugh in March when he spurred a surprising run to the Sweet Sixteen that included a second-round upset over his longtime nemesis, Rick Pitino. That was a stark reminder that while Calipari will always be a lightning rod for criticism, the man can still coach. Arkansas should be better this season at the start, but the SEC is going to be a rough-and-tumble ride once again. Whatever happens, you can expect Calipari to be a major topic of conversation throughout the winter.
3. Dan Hurley, UConn
When Dan Hurley was in the midst of deciding whether to take the Lakers job last summer, he was spotted at a Billy Joel concert in Madison Square Garden. Which was fitting, because this is a man who goes to extremes. Just months after pulling off college basketball’s first repeat championship in 17 years, Hurley was in full meltdown as his Huskies went 0-3 at the Maui Invitational. He eventually established a modicum of equanimity and salvaged a decent season, but he enters the new campaign with something to prove. Hurley has a top-10 team at UConn, so if the Huskies stay healthy they could end up back in the Final Four. Passion and intensity are valuable, but it will also be important for Hurley to prove that he can keep his cool.
2. Hubert Davis, North Carolina
Davis’ first season in Chapel Hill could hardly have gone better. Not only did he take the Tar Heels to the Final Four in 2022, but he also ended Mike Krzyzewski’s legendary career with a painful loss. That, however, obscured the fact that for most of that season North Carolina was looking like a bubble team. The following year, the Tar Heels became the first preseason No. 1 team in the AP Top 25 to miss out on the NCAA Tournament altogether. They made the Sweet Sixteen in 2023 but last year they were a First Four team (and a controversial one at that). So Davis is under considerable pressure to put this program on a stronger footing, not least because all reports indicate that he has a hefty payroll and a new General Manager who is earning close to a million dollars annually.
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1. Rick Pitino, St. John’s
Pitino’s career has been by various turns triumphant and tragic, Shakespearean and operatic. He has won national championships at two different schools (the NCAA vacated his 2013 title at Louisville from the record books, but I was there so I’m pretty sure it happened) and taken a third, Providence, to the Final Four. Now, Pitino’s Red Storm will enter the season a consensus top-five team and put him in great position not only to win a third championship, but one that would light up his native New York City. It would be a crowning moment of an incredible career.
